This young man predicated the possible existence of a particle which gives other particles their mass. His only apparatus was mathematics. The year was 1964, and his name was Peter Ware Higgs.

The elusive particle has been conclusively confirmed experimentally.
 
This week, this 84-year-old man is collecting a Nobel Physics Prize for the work of the young Higgs. All very good for Higgs has lived so long as to see his life's work come to a happy conclusion.