Posted on 04/07/2008 8:05:12 PM PDT by rpage3
GENEVA (Reuters) - British physicist Peter Higgs said on Monday it should soon be possible to prove the existence of a force which gives mass to the universe and makes life possible -- as he first argued 40 years ago.
Higgs said he believes a particle named the "Higgs boson," which originates from the force, will be found when a vast particle collider at the CERN research centre on the Franco-Swiss border begins operating fully early next year.
"The likelihood is that the particle will show up pretty quickly ... I'm more than 90 percent certain that it will," Higgs told journalists.
The 78-year-old's original efforts in the early 1960s to explain why the force, dubbed the Higgs field, must exist were dismissed at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Today, the existence of the invisible field is widely accepted by scientists, who believe it came into being milliseconds after the Big Bang created the universe some 15 billion years ago.
Finding the Higgs boson would prove this theory right.
CERN's new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) aims to simulate conditions at the time of that primeval inferno by smashing particles together at near light-speed and so unlock many secrets of the universe.
Higgs was in Geneva to visit CERN for the first time in 13 years in advance of the launch.
Scientists at the centre hope the process will produce clear signs of the boson, dubbed the "God particle" by some, to the displeasure of Higgs, an atheist.
He came up with his theory to explain why mass disappears as matter is broken down to its smallest constituent parts -- molecules, atoms and quarks.
BIG BANG
The normally media-shy physicist, who has spent most of his career at Scotland's Edinburgh University, postulated that matter was weightless at the exact moment of the Big Bang and then much of it promptly gained mass.
This, he argued, must be due to a field which stuck to particles as they passed through it and made them heavy. If this had not happened, matter would have floated free in space and stars and planets would never have formed.
Higgs said he hoped the elusive boson -- which an earlier but less powerful collider at CERN and another at the U.S. Fermilab had failed to detect -- would be identified before his 80th birthday in 2009.
"If it doesn't," he said, "I shall be very, very puzzled."
But there may be no immediate visible proof -- despite some fanciful portrayals of what it might look like -- of the boson's appearance on the ultra-sophisticated computers used by CERN scientists to track the billions of collisions in the LHC.
"It all happens so fast that the appearance of the boson may be hidden in the data collected, and it could take a long time for the analysis to find it," said Higgs.
"I may have to keep the champagne on ice for a while yet."
If they found the Higgs particle, it would be a really, really big deal!
I believe this field is called "gravity". Now, where's my Nobel prize?
bump
But the main thing that needs to be pointed out is that this new accelerator has cost a bazillion Euros to build, so of COURSE they’ll be suggesting that it may find God.
(In a particle, no less)
Otherwise they blow their cover.
A big deal that would just lead to more questions.
The larger the land of known, the greater the coastline of unknown.
And if they don’t find the Higgs particle, it will be an even bigger deal.
Very much agreed. I think they will find it from what I know. Hopefully, they'll find more.
May the Force be with you?
Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Force is an energy field. It surrounds us, penetrates us, it binds the Galaxy together.”
Or something to that effect. :)
Look out the window Mr. Higgs, do you see creation, every creation has a creator, and our Heavenly Creator is the one Who gives mass to the universe and makes live possible. I rest my case.
Most physicists dislike the term “God Particle” and don’t use it. However the MSM is infatuated with it and never miss an opportunity to us it.
So should we shut down all science and stare aimlessly out the window regarding every unanswered question?
The Higgs field and gravity are two different things though related in some way.
10 out of 10 rabbits say yes :P
Col 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Col 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
There’s your “boson” Mr. Higgs! Right there in verse 17. The Lord Jesus Christ created it all and He is holding it all together.
shucks, you beat me to it :-)
Lest there be any doubt I am not suggesting we are not the result of creation, I believe we are. But there are still many unanswered questions.
bkmark for later. Thanks
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