On Tuesday, Peter Higgs of Britian and Francois Englert of Belgium won the Nobel Prize in physics bfforory discovering one of the most important keys to the nature of the universe.

The two scientists were among the six physicists who published papers in 1964 proposing the mechanism to explain why the most basic building blocks of the Universe have mass. Half a century later, the new building block of nature was discovered in 2012, and Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) was finally able to confirm its existence.

The Higgs boson, nicknamed the "God particle" for turning the Big Bang into an ordered cosmos, is the last piece of the Standard Model of Physics that describes the fundamental composition of the universe. The work by the two physicists shows how elementary particles inside atoms gain mass by interacting with an invisible field pervading all of space; the more they interact, the heavier they become. The particle associated with the field is the Higgs boson.

Now, Higgs, 84, and Englert, 80, are the ones to take the prestigious 8 million-krona ($1.25 million) prize for their hard work over many years, predicting the existence of the Higgs boson particle, which explains how elementary matter attained the mass to form stars and planets.

"I am overwhelmed to receive this award. I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research," Higgs says in a statement issued by the University of Edinburgh, the place he has worked for years.

"You many imagine that this is not very unpleasant, of course. I am very, very happy to have the recognition of this extraordinary award," Englert also expresses his excitement at receiving the prize.