Ο Guido Tonelli, a physicist at CERN Geneva, professor at the University of Geneva Pisa and one of the fathers of the discovery of Higgs' boson, narrated with disarming directness in «Genesis. The great story of the origin of the world» (ed. Maria Economidou, published by Diptra). That he chose a biblical term as the title of a popular scientific work is explained at the end of this wonderful book and testifies to the intellectual flexibility of the scientist to include a poetic and philosophical dimension in his approach.

Here are his responses to some questions on key issues and concepts in reading the book.

- A beautiful story. Genesis includes the story of our origins as described by modern science. I wrote the book in simple, familiar language to give everyone a chance to understand it. First and foremost, because it is a beautiful story. The concepts developed by scientists to explain the origin of the universe are breathtaking. Secondly, I think humanity has always had a need to know its deepest roots. First, it developed the founding myths of classical Greece, then added the philosophical implications and the great religions. Today, modern science allows us to understand in detail the wondrous transformations brought about by an infinitesimal fluctuation in the primordial vacuum, to become a vast material universe, which includes countless galaxies and an indefinite number of solar systems, including our own, where life was born.

- A wonderful void. We call «anomaly» or «singularity» a point or special region whose conditions are so extreme that the laws of physics cease to apply. At the beginning of space-time, 13.8 billion years ago, we believe that our universe came from such a singularity. However, many details are missing, but we could describe this critical moment as the result of a mechanism of matter expanding wildly through a tiny bubble, an inconceivably minimal vacuum fluctuation. I think it's extremely fascinating that our universe was born out of the vacuum, or, to be more precise, that our universe is a wonderful type of vacuum that has gone through a series of incredible transformations.

- Particles like ghosts. With CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, we produce high-energy proton collisions. These microparticles come to speeds very close to that of light and are then driven into a head-on collision with each other. In the microcosm in which these collisions take place, the energy concentration is so high that it pulls new particles out of the vacuum. We use huge amounts of energy from colliding protons to bring to life the ancient, highly compact particles that made up the universe-precipitates that have been extinct for billions of years. They live for a tiny fraction of a second and then transform into lighter particles. But it's enough for us to study their properties. So we were able to create and identify the Higgs boson.

- The theory of everything. I respect other colleagues, but I do not believe that we will soon be able to arrive at the so-called «theory of everything». I do not particularly like the name either, it reflects a certain arrogance. I do not believe that there will be some magical moment through which every unknown aspect of nature will be revealed. Sooner or later, we will have a quantum description of gravity and this will be a major milestone in the quest to understand the universe. However, I am quite sure that this new vision of the world will give way to a whole new set of questions. The path to a deeper understanding of nature will take much longer than that.

- The Big Bang and the Vatican. Pope Pius VII, in the 1950s, made the statement. But it was a great Roman Catholic scientist, Georges Lemetre, one of the fathers of the Big Bang theory, who sought an audience with the Pope, convincing him that ’he had committed a huge error: interpreting the Big Bang as proof of divine creation would give the Church, at least temporarily, a certain advantage in propaganda, but this will be lost when science takes a step further.« Since then, the Church has chosen to completely separate the two fields, a wise choice, I think. The modern idea of Genesis has nothing to do with the biblical narrative. It is a material process that obeys the laws of physics without the slightest supernatural intervention.

- The end of physics. There's a famous joke about young Max Planck. When the student who was to revolutionise the world by laying the foundations of quantum mechanics finished school, he was advised to become a doctor, as there was nothing else to be discovered in physics. The rest is history. Something similar happens quite often. I remember discussions when I was a student at the University of Pisa. Many people said that «particle physics is finished», but the discovery of quarks in November 1974 opened up new avenues of research with miraculous results for the next fifty years. Something similar is happening today. There are many open questions in physics: the origin of dark energy and dark matter, the particle responsible for cosmic inflation, the real reason behind the asymmetry of matter and antimatter, etc. We still need many answers. New particles or new fields that explain these mysteries may be discovered in the Large Accelerator or, perhaps, we may need to build a new generation of giant accelerators to continue this exploration. CERN's mission will continue. New generations of scientists, through the development of new scientific infrastructures, will be able to provide us with answers to some of the mysteries that science is currently investigating.