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Key scientist sure "God particle" will be found soon
Reuters via Yahoo ^ | 04/07/2008 | Robert Evans

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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blackholes; god; higgsboson; particle; physics; science; stringtheory
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To: Stayfree
It is silly, logically, to think that anything will detect a particle of God..

Nobody's looking for a "particle of God." They're looking for the Higgs Boson. Try reading the article. "God particle" is a nickname that some journalists use to refer to the Higgs Boson. That's all. In the future, try reading articles before you go around calling people "morons."

The fact that God created a member of mankind who could build such a complicated machine is proof that He is there.

Huh?

41 posted on 04/07/2008 11:14:48 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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To: hosepipe

“Into the Looking Glass” by John RIngo has a different take on the particle.

Part of the book is free to read on Baen Books.

Interesting man, John RIngo.


42 posted on 04/07/2008 11:21:08 PM PDT by ASOC (I know I don't look like much, but I raised a US Marine!)
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To: garylmoore
"You want the answers to questions? Look to the Word, it will answer all your questions.

Oh Mighty Word, what is the cure for cancer? What is the speed of light? What is DNA?

43 posted on 04/07/2008 11:35:52 PM PDT by Hound of the Baskervilles ("Nonsense in the intellect draws evil after it." C.S. Lewis)
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To: garylmoore
"You want the answers to questions? Look to the Word, it will answer all your questions."

Oh Mighty Word, what is the cure for cancer? What is the speed of light? What is DNA?

44 posted on 04/07/2008 11:38:16 PM PDT by Hound of the Baskervilles ("Nonsense in the intellect draws evil after it." C.S. Lewis)
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To: rpage3
"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."

Oh, so now it's "something" collided with "something else" and exploded, turning into everything?

Where did those somethings come from in the middle of nothing? Even more fascinating, is how could TWO somethings be moving at incredible speeds in this endless nothingness?

What put them in motion, and more fascinating still,how did they manage against all infinity odds, to be on the exact same path and collide with each other, expoding and turning into everything?

""By the word of God the heavens were made, their whole array by the breath of his mouth...He spoke and it was created. He commanded and there it stood." (Ps.33:6-9).

Still seems to be the best explanation.

"Creation is maintained by God's rulings" (Ps.119:91)

The God particle.

45 posted on 04/07/2008 11:53:12 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: rpage3


Super Strings” “Quantum Physics” “Zero Point Field” etc etc - this guy should get out more


46 posted on 04/07/2008 11:54:34 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("...but you can't fool all of the people all of the time" LINCOLN)
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To: Hound of the Baskervilles
"Oh Mighty Word, what is the cure for cancer?"

Faith in the Lord and following his word.

"Whatever you ask for in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (Jn.14:13).

"I tell you most solemnly, anything you ask for from the Father he will grant in my name...Ask and you will receive..." (Jn.16:23-24)

"He who obeys the command will come to no harm, and the wise man knows there will be a time of Judgment." (Ec.8:5)

"He who despises the word will destroy himself, he who respects the commandment will be safe." (Pr.13:11).

"Happy the man who cares for the poor and the weak: if disaster strikes, God will come to his help." (Ps.41:l).

Here's your cure for cancer:

"If one of you is ill, he should send for the elders of the church, and they must anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over him. The prayer of faith will save the sick man and the Lord will raise him up again; and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, and this will cure you; the heartfelt prayer of a good man works very powerfully." (James 5:13).

47 posted on 04/08/2008 12:04:44 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: CJ Wolf
"the first 20 minutes of operations should pump out enough data for a single man to read non-stop for the next 200 years"

Ah, what the hell, just send all that data to ME -- I'll promise to power through it in just 50 years or so with some extra speed-reading effort......
48 posted on 04/08/2008 12:06:57 AM PDT by Enchante (Hillary: I brought peace to Northern Ireland, I dodged sniper bullets in Bosnia....... HUH???)
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To: UCANSEE2

"I don’t know about the Higgs Boson, ..."

hmmm - not sure about the Higgs Boson, either, but you might find the boson if you ask the Bosun's Mate.

;^D

49 posted on 04/08/2008 12:10:20 AM PDT by RebelTex (MOLON LABE!)
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To: Strategerist
"The Higgs field and gravity are two different things though related in some way."

I have family like that.

(but we keep trying to prove otherwise)

50 posted on 04/08/2008 12:12:16 AM PDT by norton
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To: maine-iac7
Zero point fields/energy and all that other stuff is all speculative theories at this point.

The kook Tom Bearden and his energy from the vaccum is along the same lines.

Amazingly, he stuck a couple wires into some flour dough colored with food coloring and managed to sucker a few million dollars from people.

51 posted on 04/08/2008 12:13:21 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Enchante
"Ah, what the hell, just send all that data to ME -- I'll promise to power through it in just 50 years or so with some extra speed-reading effort......

Why wait, just get data from the cyclotron in northern Saskatchewan already in operation.

52 posted on 04/08/2008 12:18:13 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: libh8er
"That begs the question about the creator of the Heavenly Creator. A spontaneous creation theory as to the origin of the Heavely Creator does not answer the question"

He always was, He exists outside of time, and outside of this plain of existance. That should be easy enough for you to figure out, since time is only relevant to his creation and everything inside of it. He's the alpha and omega, and can be in both places at the same time.

So, according to Scripture this existence has already come to an end and our new world in the new heaven has already replaced this world and entire universe.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea.

I saw the holy city, and the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all dressed for her husband.

Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, 'You see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he, himself will be their God...There will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.'

Then the One sitting on the throne spoke: 'Now I am making the whole of creation new' he said. 'Write this: that what I am saying is sure and will come true.' And then he said, 'It is already done." (Rv.21:4-5).

53 posted on 04/08/2008 12:36:27 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Erasmus

LoL :-)


54 posted on 04/08/2008 12:45:03 AM PDT by Bobalu (What do I know, I'm a Typical White Guy)
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To: maine-iac7
Amazingly, he stuck a couple wires into some flour dough colored with food coloring and managed to sucker a few million dollars from people.

Even funnier; he managed to have some of his "work" published in a journal of science. LMAO!! It's still there, those nonsensical equations of a nut bar! How embarrassing to "science" that is.

55 posted on 04/08/2008 12:45:34 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: onewhowatches
"The question is, how, within physical terms, does God do it?"

I don't know for sure, but I think that's why he created scientists, philosophers, and little kids who ask questions.

I'm only a poly sci major, but it is interesting to watch.

56 posted on 04/08/2008 12:51:35 AM PDT by norton
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To: Nachoman

“I believe this field is called “gravity”. Now, where’s my Nobel prize?”

No. this field should be Ionized Quarks.


57 posted on 04/08/2008 1:31:00 AM PDT by shaft29 (Just your typical white woman.)
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To: rpage3

I can’t help but think of the old Isaac Asimov short story about the guy who travels from inhabited planet to inhabited planet in hopes of catching up with Jesus. Upon arrival at each planet he discovers that Jesus was there but has already left, and he just missed him....


58 posted on 04/08/2008 1:34:20 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: garylmoore
You want the answers to questions? Look to the Word, it will answer all your questions.

Great! What book, chapter, and verse contains the firing order for a 1963 Mercury 260 V8?

59 posted on 04/08/2008 3:08:05 AM PDT by PugetSoundSoldier (Indignation over the sting of truth is the defense of the indefensible)
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To: Nathan Zachary
Here's your cure for cancer:

If I’m ever diagnosed with cancer, the first person I’m going to call is not some church elder; it is going to be the very best oncologist I can find.
60 posted on 04/08/2008 4:45:50 AM PDT by Caramelgal (Rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not on the words or superficial interpretations)
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