A selection of resources for understanding a little more about the discovery of the Higgs boson and what it means:
The web sites of ATLAS, CMS and CERN all have an extensive set of materials concerning the discovery, the technology used, and the next steps
The IPPOG collection of multi-lingual education & outreach materials includes, for example, a movie showing how the Universe would be different if particle masses were different
Two papers were published in Physics Letters B, by ATLAS and CMS, on the observation of a new boson at a mass of about 125 GeV, and a more accessible version was published in Science Magazine at the end of 2012
Some of the history around the development of the Higgs field can be found in a public seminar at CERN by Prof. Frank Close and in his book “The Infinity Puzzle”
An animation from PhD Comics: “The Higgs Boson Explained,” by Jorge Cham
A video from Sixty Symbols: “Talking About The Higgs Boson”
An animated video: “The ATLAS Boogie” humorously describes the process of finding the Higgs using music
A New York Times selection of books about the Higgs Boson:
o “Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science,” by Ian Sample (Basic Books)
o “Higgs: The Invention and Discovery of the ‘God Particle,’ ” by Jim Baggott (Oxford University Press)
o “Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space,” by Lisa Randall (Bodley Head)
o “The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World,” by Sean Carroll (Dutton)
o “The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?” by Leon Lederman with Dick Teresi (Delta)
o “The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality,” by Brian Greene (Vintage)
Visit the TED-Ed Blog for more information about the collaboration between TED-Ed and CERN.