The Higgs Boson particle - that so-called 'God Particle' (sigh) which gives other particles mass - was predicted by Professor Peter Higgs in 1964 et al, and its existence first confirmed in 2013 by the team at CERN.
And 14 years earlier, Homer Simpson got there first.
According to Dr Simon Singh, author of ‘The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets’, the mass of the Higgs Boson particle was almost exactly predicted in 1998 episode of the cartoon sitcom.
Singh told the Independent that in the episode “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace”, Homer writes an equation on a blackboard which — if extrapolated — corresponds almost exactly to the mass of the particle.
And it’s not an accident. Maths jokes are a regular feature of the Simpsons, referencing theories both in the public eye and obscure.
“That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson” Singh told the paper. “If you work it out, you get the mass of a Higgs boson that’s only a bit larger than the nano-mass of a Higgs boson actually is. It’s kind of amazing as Homer makes this prediction 14 years before it was discovered.”