Joe Incandela, leader of one of the teams, told scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, that the data has reached the level of certainty needed for a discovery.

But he has not yet confirmed that the new particle is indeed the tiny and elusive Higgs Boson, popularly referred to as the “God particle.”

Physicists at CERN are presenting their evidence to applause before a packed auditorium, where scientists waited overnight to attend. AFP