Eric Laenen, Head, Nikhef Theory Group, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
on The Standard Model, the Cosmos and the Large Hadron Collider

The hunt is on for the last, and most important piece of the otherwise very succesful Standard Model of elementary matter and force: the Higgs particle. I will sketch the Standard Model and the idea behind the Higgs mechicanism, and why finding the Higgs boson is important. The hunt takes place at CERN, in Geneva with the Large Hadron Collider, now near completion. I will also describe how information about the Standard Model is extracted from LHC data. There are also clear signs that there is more to Nature than the Standard Model, coming from the rapidly developing field of astroparticle physics. Some of these signs will be reviewed, as will some telescopes involved.
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