For people you’re trying to impress:

The Higgs boson is an elementary scalar particle first posited in 1962, as a potential byproduct of the mechanism by which a hypothetical, ubiquitous quantum field – the so-called Higgs field – gives mass to elementary particles. More specifically, in the standard model of particle physics, the existence of the Higgs boson explains how spontaneous breaking of electroweak symmetry takes place in nature.

For harassed, sleep-deprived parents:

If the constituent parts of matter were sticky-faced toddlers, then the Higgs field would be like one of those ball pits they have in the children’s play area at IKEA. Each coloured plastic ball represents a Higgs boson: collectively they provide the essential drag that stops your toddler/electron falling to the bottom of the universe, where all the snakes and hypodermic needles are.

For English undergraduates:

The Higgs boson (pronounced “boatswain”) is a type of subatomic punctuation with a weight somewhere between a tiny semicolon and an invisible comma. Without it the universe would be a meaningless cloud of gibberish – a bit like The Da Vinci Code, if you read that.

For teenagers studying A-level physics:

No, I know it’s not an atom. I didn’t say it was. Well, I meant a particle. Yes, I do know what electromagnetism is, thank you very much – unified forces, Einstein, blah blah blah, mass unaccounted for, yadda yadda, quarks, Higgs boson, the end. It was a long time ago, and I’m tired. Change the channel – we’re missing Come Dine With Me.

For a child in the back seat of a car:

It’s a particle that some scientists have been looking for.

Because they knew that without it the universe would be impossible.

Because without it, the other particles in the universe wouldn’t have mass.

Because they would all continue to travel at the speed of light, just like photons do.

Because I just said they would, and if you ask ‘Why?’ one more time we’re not stopping at Burger King.

For religious fundamentalists:

There is no Higgs boson.

A good video explanation.

A cartoon explanation and with an accompanying text ‘NASA approved’ cart0on (video).

Imperator Fish on How the (NZ) politicians reacted.

An explanation in a Stuff article!

Picture George Clooney (the particle) walking down a street with a gaggle of photographers (the Higgs field) clustered around him. An average guy on the same street (a photon) gets no attention from the paparazzi and gets on with his day. The Higgs particle is the signature of the field _ an eyelash of one of the photographers.

(Hat tip to Kiwiblog and tarant at Trademe)