... of the five different Higgs bosons:
This is a nice, simple, non-technical overview. The problem with modern physics is that it is not only getting more mathematical (therefore inscrutible to the average person), it continues to get more Byzantine in its complications and more distant for any reality that humans can touch or feel. Modern physics makes Alice in Wonderland look boringly normal. Where will it all end?
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Maybe it will end when the Higg's boson is found not to exist? Because why does one need another particle to impart mass to other particles? Simply because some particles like the photon have no mass while traveling at the speed of light? And others, while approaching the speed of light have increased mass? So that, the treacle is either entirely absent or it's getting thicker?
The answer requires a level of mathematical sophistication and deep knowledge of physics which I don't have. But if you look at this bit in Wikipedia you get a sense of what the real answer may be.
It is a tragedy that the edges of knowledge are now so far from normal human skills and aptitudes. But that is a fact. To pretend otherwise is to fool ourselves. You are attempting to understand something using tools and intuitions which are simply not up to the task. If you seriously want an answer you need to spend a decade or more doing the math and physics. And even that will not guarantee that your skill level would then be up to the task of answering your question.
Like medieval peasants, we can stand and admire the cathedrals that the technical experts have erected. They are wondrous. But we shouldn't pretend that we can criticize the architecting and placement of stones when we have not apprenticed to the masons and spent the years working on cathedrals to understand why they place them the way they do.
I choose to admire the soaring constructs of the physicsts. I hope their work spins off useful techniques and knowledge for our day-to-day life, but even if it doesn't, these are worthy edifices to celebrate our special place in the universe.
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