In the early 1960s, three groups of physicists, working independently in different countries, stumbled upon an idea that would change physics and fuel one of the greatest races science has ever seen. That idea was the 'God particle', or Higgs boson - to find it would be to finally understand the origins of mass, the last building block of life itself. This is the gripping story of the quest to discover it. Massive weaves together the personal stories and intense rivalries of the teams of scientists searching for the Higgs boson in a tale of grand ambition, trans-Atlantic competition, clashing egos and occasionally spectacular failures. From the giant particle colliders built to further the hunt to the political fallout of budget blowouts and debates over whether the search might destroy the universe - and whether the Higgs particle even exists at all - it is an epic story of imagination, personal ambition, sub-atomic exploration and global significance.