Posted on 07/05/2012 8:30:21 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
I can't come anywhere near grokking all the esoteric stuff in this, but it sounds like they're saying the universe is full of this "Higgs field" and I can't tell if it in turn is supposed to be composed of Higgs bosons. If those bosons are all over the place why isn't it possible to get a handle on one directly -- why does it have to be forged in a multi-GeV fire?
I know. Like I said, an accidental reference to the particle's creator.
Sounds like an apocryphal anecdote to me.
It seems as likely that the name “God” would have been attributed to the particle due to its hypothesized omnipresence.
Definitely, if this Higgs Boson is real, it was a creation of God. But it only tells humans more about how God built the universe. It doesn’t tell humans why God built the universe, or what God wants humans to do in the universe.
Beats me. My degree is in philosophyso at least I am familiar with the word "grok". But that is as far as it goes. Sounds like the Higgs boson mechanism is what gives other things their mass. So we can "see" (perhaps better to say measure?) the mass of the other things, but at that point, Higgs is no longer Higgs or has moved on. I guess the little fellows are sticky and slippery at the same time.
These scientists are brilliant people, but generally, their ultimate objective is to disprove God. This is impossible, of course, but they are being driven mad by the fact that what they see before themselves on a microscopic level seems miraculous, like a “blind watchmaker” built it. If they all circle the wagons, they may convince *themselves* that they have discovered a secular Alpha and Omega. No independent thinker will buy it, but this just proves that a mathematical genius can be an ordinary rube on the common sense plane. Bob
Not sure if I understand any more than I did before, but at least it was fun to watch:
Higgs on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/minutephysics
That is true of some, but I would not categorize all scientists that way. Especially in the area of physics. Most, with a few notable (and noisy) exceptions, understand that science neither proves nor disproves God. That is not what science is for.
I love Hugh Ross. His intellect is awesome! Bob
Now I remember why the only C I got in college was in Chemistry. I started to think I was a liberal and needed to change my major. Did not matter, I had to drop out the next year.
No, many fields are OMNIPRESENT in particle/theorhetical physics if I am not mistaken, The concept that particles as we understand them interact with various omnipresent fields is not new or unique to Higgs.
What is unique with HIGGS is that particles interacting with this field is what creates what we perceive as MASS. All fields in PARTICLE PHYSICS to my understanding are treated the same way.. nothing unique about HIGGS, other than its the one that gives you mass.
I don’t think there is any hidden meaning to it, just a nice name that sells well and gets clamped onto.
Hugh is very, very smart chap, that I once met in person. I don’t buy all his theories (I think he isn’t skeptical enough about catastrophic anthropogenic global warming — he’s too quick to run with that ball), but he’s admirably relentless in ferreting out the universe’s witness of the glory and grace of God — the quantitative side of the qualitative picture.
Higgs would be arguably the most practically important omnipresent “field” of them all. Without it, the other particles can’t really do anything interesting.
The creation of the Higgs field would be part of Genesis 1:1, where in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. “Let there be light” would come later, as a consequence.
...a PHOTON has no mass, so it flows through the ever present higgs bosson field with no resistance.
Is that like saying "it has no mass because it has no resistance and it has no resistance because it has no mass". Circular reasoning or tautology? Maybe I'm missing something but if a photon has no mass because it does not interact with the Bosson field can we truly know that the Bosson field exists? What makes a photon different from other particles which do interact w/ the Boson field? Does the Bosson field occupy all of space/time? If not would that mean such field free space would contain no matter of any kind? Could the Bosson field be manipulated to alter a particle's mass? Since all masses interact to give us the illusion of gravity would fiddling with the Bosson field allow us to manipulate gravity (move ordinary matter at photonic speeds?)...
Regards,
GtG
“...WHAT AND HOW MASS exists.”
Thanks for the simple explanation! I eagerly await the new Higgs Boson miracle weight-loss plan that will surely be advertised on late-night TV.
I’ve lost touch with Hugh’s writings in recent years. His AGW belief just proves my point that even geniuses can have blind spots, or simple naivete. Bob
Hugh’s take is that it’s happening and it’s fortuitous as it is staving off an ice age. Interesting take, but in all other debate about CAGW, nothing is said about expected ice ages.
Sort of like playing with colored blocks.
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