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To: edcoil

The Higgs is no more a God particle than any other particle. The name was a marketing gimmick for a book title and the press has run with it ever since.


32 posted on 03/14/2013 6:46:21 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Moonman62

Also, Higgs actually objects to people calling it the “God particle”


35 posted on 03/14/2013 6:49:18 AM PDT by Graing ("The power of wind, fire... all that kind of thing")
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To: Moonman62
The Higgs is no more a God particle than any other particle. The name was a marketing gimmick for a book title and the press has run with it ever since.

I don't exactly disagree, but physicists referred to it as the God damned particle because it was so elusive. The author originally wanted to name his book "The God Damned Particle", but there was some squeamishness about the name, on whatever grounds. The publisher liked the name "The God Particle" as an alternative, since it would give the book more shelf appeal than something more accurate and descriptive, like "The Intermediate Gravitational Boson". I agree, the name was devised as a way to sell books, but journalists grabbed on to it. The headline in your local paper declaring "Scientists Find God Particle" will attract more readers than "Physicist Claim Measurements Consistent With Observation of Intermediate Graviational Boson at the 95 Percent Confidence Level." For some odd reason.

49 posted on 03/14/2013 7:12:32 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (What word begins with "O" and ends in economic collapse?)
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