Homer Simpson Discovered The Higgs Boson

Homer Simpson almost predicted the mass of the elementary particle, the Higgs boson "god particle," more than a decade before it was discovered, according to Dr. Simon Singh, author of The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets (via The Independent).

In the 1998 episode "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace," Homer becomes an inventor and is shown in front of a blackboard with a complicated equation.

"That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson" Singh said of the episode. "If you work it out, you get the mass of a Higgs boson that's only a bit larger than the nano-mass of a Higgs boson actually is. It's kind of amazing as Homer makes this prediction 14 years before it was discovered."

Calling it "the most mathematical TV show on prime-time television in history," Singh said, that a lot of the writers on The Simpsons are mathematicians and that the first full episode had a joke about calculus.

This is one of those scenarios where "almost' is certainly a key word...