The linchpin of the model is the underlying unity of two of the three forces: electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force.

ECONOMIST: Particle physics makes sense, but it assumes too much

Instead, they interact through its feebler cousin, the weak nuclear force.

ECONOMIST: Particle physics makes sense, but it assumes too much

The Standard Model (see table) includes familiar particles such as electrons and photons, and esoteric ones like the W and Z bosons, which carry something called the weak nuclear force.

ECONOMIST: The Higgs boson

Sterile neutrinos differ from ordinary neutrinos (electrically neutral particles produced in abundance by the nuclear reactions that power the sun) because ordinary neutrinos feel the weak nuclear force, while sterile ones do not.

ECONOMIST: Research from the beginning of time

The electroweak force is a synthesis of two previously identified forces of nature, electromagnetism (itself a synthesis, carried out in the 19th century, of the electric and magnetic forces), and the weak nuclear force, which governs radioactive decay.

ECONOMIST: The 1999 Nobel prizes

Equally importantly, the Higgs allows two of the four forces in nature -- the electromagnetic force and the weak force, which is responsible for most nuclear reactions -- to be unified and described by mathematics of the same type that describe the other two known forces, the so-called strong force and gravity.

CNN: Higgs and the holy grail of physics