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ELI5: The Higgs Boson, Quarks and the Standard Model

I recently saw that the Higgs Boson has been discovered and I always thought it had something to do with string theory however Wikipedia said something about Quarks and the Standard model, could someone ELI5?
gpt
The Standard Model is the theory used to explain the other things.

Quarks are fundamental particles which make up subatomic particles.

There are 6 flavours of Quarks; Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top and Bottom.

These are divided into 3 families. The first family is Up and Down. The second family is Charm and Strange, which are heavier versions of Up and Down. The third family is Top and Bottom, which are even heavier versions of Up and Down quarks. Families 2 and 3 decay incredibly rapidly into Up and Down quarks; so everything we see around us which is made of quarks is made up of only these two quarks.

Inside an atom, the nucleus consists of protons and neutrons. A proton is made up of 2 Up quarks and 1 Down quark. A neutron is made up of 1 Up quark and 2 Down quarks.

This means that in order to make an atom, you need Up quarks, Down quarks; these are part of a group called Hadrons. You also need electrons, which are part of a group called Leptons.

Hadrons can be thought of as having volume associated with them; Hadrons cannot be smashed down and must occupy distinct spaces. Leptons, on the other hand, don't have a limit on how many can occupy any given space.

You also need Gauge Bosons, which are force-carrying particles. They mediate the fundamental forces; electromagnetic, strong nuclear, weak nuclear. Photons carry the electromagnetic force. W and Z Bosons carry the Weak Nuclear force, and Gluons carry the Strong Nuclear force.

The Higgs Boson is a different beast entirely. Normally, in empty, uncharged space, you'd expect any given field to be zero. This is how it works for most forces. The Higgs field, however, is non-zero in empty space.

This is important, because the maths for how particles interact has all the particles as massless - mass terms foul up the maths, and make it not work. However, since the Higgs field is non-zero in free space, that means that things moving through space are having to push through it, and this is what gives them mass.

Photons don't interact with the Higgs field, and remain massless, but anything which has mass interacts with the Higgs field.