(Photo: FOX)

Author and particle physics expert Simon Singh recently claimed that the "God particle" was discovered by cartoon character Homer Simpson over a decade ago. 

Singh, who wrote "The Simpsons and their Mathematic Secrets," told literary festival attendees that Homer accurately predicted the mass of the Higgs boson in 1998.

The "God particle" is the nickname for the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle that gives other particles mass.

The Higgs boson is not largely understood, even by experts in the fields of cosmology and physics. The particle's existence remained theoretical for over 40 years, and was just confirmed in July 2012.

During one particular episode of "The Simpsons," Homer is seen solving an equation on a chalkboard. 

"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," Singh said, according to The UK Daily Telegraph.

"It's kind of amazing as Homer makes this prediction 14 years before it was discovered."

While the likelihood of FOX animators holding doctorates in physics may seem low, Singh said that the staff is surprisingly competent in the area of mathematics. 

"The Simpsons is the most mathematical TV show on prime-time television in history," he insisted. "A lot of the writers on The Simpsons are mathematicians."

The Higgs boson drew attention six months ago when famed physicist Stephen Hawking claimed that the particle could destroy the universe in the foreword of his book, "Starmus: 50 Years of Man in Space."

"The Higgs potential has the worrisome feature that it might become megastable at energies above 100bn giga-electron-volts (GeV)," he wrote.

"This could happen at any time and we wouldn't see it coming."