the result of all this effort was the standard model -- a virtual zoo of ninety-six particles and anti-particles that , along with the ( hopefully ) soon-to-be-discovered higgs boson ( the aforementioned god particle ) , should explain how the universe that we see today originally started as a fluctuation in a quantum vacuum a long , long time ago ( more or less , 13.7 billion years , give or take a few lost weekends ) .