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In praise of … Higgs boson
Guardian (UK) ^
| Thursday 14 March 2013
| Editorial
Posted on 03/15/2013 1:00:02 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The vanishingly small speck whose spin has been confirmed as being Higgs-like ought to be regarded with awe
Image removed,...see article website
Traces of proton collisions at Cern during the search for the Higgs boson. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
It is a subatomic point where hard science meets myth and mystery, so much about the Higgs boson gets mangled in the telling. It is not, as is sometimes claimed, the sole source of matter's heft Einstein taught us that mass and energy are two sides of the same coin, so there is (ahem) no such massive hole for a tiny particle to fill. But the vanishingly small speck identified in the Large Hadron Collider last year, whose "spin" is this week confirmed as being Higgs-like, ought to be regarded with awe.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: higgsboson; peterhiggs; physics; stringtheory
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To: All
2
posted on
03/15/2013 1:04:16 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
*********************************EXCERPT******************************************
Shoshana Davis / CBS News/ March 15, 2013, 2:16 PM
"God particle": Why the Higgs boson matters
Scientists said they've confirmed the discovery of a sub-atomic building block of the universe, the so-called "God Particle." / CERN/ATLAS Experiment
With all the information surrounding the official discovery of the Higgs boson, it can be difficult to appreciate how this innovation can impact the average person. However, to understand why the so-called "God particle" is so crucial, and why so many scientists are celebrating, you must understand where it came from.
The Higgs boson is often called "the God particle" because it's said to be what caused the "Big Bang" that created our universe many years ago. The nickname caught on so quickly (even though scientists and clergy alike do not care for it) partly because it's a great explanation of what it's supposed to do -- the Higgs boson is what joins everything and gives it matter.
3
posted on
03/15/2013 1:09:02 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Why must we regard this with awe, any more than any other subatomic particle? Or atom, for that matter, or molecule, ir organism, or planet, or freaking galaxy? No reason, in particular. Except that it has been part of a problems that’ve mystified us. Answers make us feel good, at least for a split-second before we move onto the next problem.
But then that’s ascribing qualities to particles—mystery, wonder, awe—which really only have to do with our perception of them. Or, more accurately, their situation within the currently contentious and fund-attracting portion of experimental physics. If not anthropomorphizing, this is dramatizing the particle, or pulling the particle into the drama of human science, in my opinion, so as to rip it from any true or objective meaning.
4
posted on
03/15/2013 1:11:09 PM PDT
by
Tublecane
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Given that someone will probably get a Nobel prize out of this, and continued unlimited funding for research is assured, I’m not convinced that I’m buying what they’re selling.
5
posted on
03/15/2013 1:13:04 PM PDT
by
The Sons of Liberty
(It's not "GUN CONTROL"! It's "PEOPLE CONTROL"!)
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
I know...but, where did it COME from??
6
posted on
03/15/2013 1:17:56 PM PDT
by
redhead
(NO GROUND TO THE DEVIL! America needs our prayers.)
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Timing is EVERYTHING, i think they release all this info about the “God” particle to try to take the wind out of the sails of all the Pope stuff going on ...
7
posted on
03/15/2013 1:22:31 PM PDT
by
GraceG
To: All
Cern Press release
New results indicate that particle discovered at CERN is a Higgs boson
Geneva, 14 March 2013. At the Moriond Conference today, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN1s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) presented preliminary new results that further elucidate the particle discovered last year. Having analysed two and a half times more data than was available for the discovery announcement in July, they find that the new particle is looking more and more like a Higgs boson, the particle linked to the mechanism that gives mass to elementary particles. It remains an open question, however, whether this is the Higgs boson of the Standard Model of particle physics, or possibly the lightest of several bosons predicted in some theories that go beyond the Standard Model. Finding the answer to this question will take time.
Whether or not it is a Higgs boson is demonstrated by how it interacts with other particles, and its quantum properties. For example, a Higgs boson is postulated to have no spin, and in the Standard Model its parity a measure of how its mirror image behaves should be positive. CMS and ATLAS have compared a number of options for the spin-parity of this particle, and these all prefer no spin and positive parity. This, coupled with the measured interactions of the new particle with other particles, strongly indicates that it is a Higgs boson.
The preliminary results with the full 2012 data set are magnificent and to me it is clear that we are dealing with a Higgs boson though we still have a long way to go to know what kind of Higgs boson it is. said CMS spokesperson Joe Incandela.
"The beautiful new results represent a huge effort by many dedicated people. They point to the new particle having the spin-parity of a Higgs boson as in the Standard Model. We are now well started on the measurement programme in the Higgs sector," said ATLAS spokesperson Dave Charlton.
To determine if this is the Standard Model Higgs boson, the collaborations have, for example, to measure precisely the rate at which the boson decays into other particles and compare the results to the predictions. The detection of the boson is a very rare event - it takes around 1 trillion (1012) proton-proton collisions for each observed event. To characterize all of the decay modes will require much more data from the LHC.
8
posted on
03/15/2013 1:25:07 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
To: Tublecane
9
posted on
03/15/2013 1:25:51 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
To: Tublecane
We don't even know how the cell processes of we jomo sapiens work....now that is being slowly understood....but rather slowly.
Then there is cancer......a real mystery.
11
posted on
03/15/2013 1:30:22 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
So you can fling a proton at another proton and understand the makeup of the universe! Truly amazing!
To: Larry Lucido
I would have been perfect on your chart but I got mixed up when I came to the part about confusing particle theory and candy. They’re both so sweet that sometimes I can’t tell the difference. In my confusion I got that question wrong.
Darn. But I would have probably missed the kickball question as well. I love kickball.
IP (AKA Peter W. Higgs)
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Wait for it...Obama takes credit for discovery.
14
posted on
03/15/2013 1:49:23 PM PDT
by
Huskrrrr
To: All
Video's:
Best of Higgs Field Theory physicists
Includes Prof Higgs himself.
Soundbytes from the interviews to Peter Higgs, Francois Englert, Carl Hagen and Gerald Guralnik, recorded at CERN on the announcement of the latest results from ATLAS and CMS on the Higgs boson searches.
15
posted on
03/15/2013 1:52:14 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
To: Larry Lucido
16
posted on
03/15/2013 1:53:38 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
To: redhead
Same place the Earth came from.
17
posted on
03/15/2013 1:54:33 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
To: SunkenCiv; Marine_Uncle; NormsRevenge; blam
18
posted on
03/15/2013 1:56:54 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
To: Larry Lucido
19
posted on
03/15/2013 2:04:28 PM PDT
by
BenLurkin
(This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
To: redhead
Exactly. Who lit the Higgs Boson Fuse to cause it to BANG?
20
posted on
03/15/2013 2:29:52 PM PDT
by
Shady
(Libya shows us how Americans rate...)
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