Higgs boson up for spoof sale as retailer opens subatomic shop

With the Higgs boson – or something that looks a whole lot like it – now identified, retailers have wasted no time in throwing the elusive subatomic particle up for sale. UK online retailer Ebuyer has led the charge, with a spoof listing for the banging boson promising delivery on May 29 20129.

The boson up for grabs is the standard model, Ebuyer says, with an approximate mass of 126 GeV. However, you'll have to buy your own 27 kilometer long particle accelerator, since that's sold separately. Even the "Frequently bought together" suggestions are slyly comical, being a 200x USB microscope and a pair of pink craft tweezers – perfect for getting your Higgs boson out of the packaging.

Of course, you can save your £7,297.35 if you're short on cash at the moment, since the Higgs boson is actually all around us: you just can't see it. The particle is the last significant hold-out of the standard model, requiring vast quantities of energy in order to reveal it; that's why its taken the mighty colliding power of the LHC to tease it out.

More on today's Higgs boson announcement here.

[via Andrew Jones-McGuire]