Higgs Mechanism and Boson

So, what is Higgs boson? There is the long answer but it is harder to come up with a short answer. A 1993 challenge to physicists to find an A4 sheet answer yielded 5 answers.

Professor Roger John Cashmore, CMG (Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George), Principal of Brasenose College and Professor of Experimental Physics at Oxford University (UK) provided a very elegant summary and I quote, ".....Peter Higgs.....proposed that the whole of space is permeated by a field, similar in some ways to the electromagnetic field. As particles move through space they travel through this field, and if they interact with it they acquire what appears to be mass. This is similar to the action of viscous forces felt by particles moving through any thick liquid. the larger the interaction of the particles with the field, the more mass they appear to have. Thus the existence of this field is essential in Higg's hypothesis for the production of the mass of particles."

Professor David J Miller, Department of Physics, University College London, explains as to how Higgs mechanism can exist with or without a Higgs boson actually present (using an interesting example of a certain lady ex-Prime Minister in the room).