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Higgs boson: What's it for? I have no idea, says Prof
The Telegraph ^ | 7/6/2012 | Simon Johnson

Posted on 07/06/2012 5:29:33 PM PDT by bruinbirdman

Professor Peter Higgs admits he has "no idea" what the discovery of the Higgs boson will mean in practical terms.

The British physicist whose theories led to the discovery of the Higgs boson has admitted he has “no idea” what practical applications it could have.

Prof Peter Higgs said the so-called ‘God particle’, which is the building block of the universe, only has a lifespan of a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second.

He refused to be drawn on whether the discovery proved there was no God, stating the name ‘God particle’ was a joke by another academic who originally called it the ‘goddamn particle’ because it was so hard to find.

The 83-year-old was giving his first detailed press interview since the discovery earlier this week of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

The Higgs boson helps to explain how fundamental particles gain their mass - a property which allows them to bind together and form stars and planets rather than whizzing around the universe at the speed of light.

Speaking at Edinburgh University, where he published his theory about the boson’s existence in 1964, he said: “It’s around for a very short time.

"It’s probably about a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second. I don’t know how you apply that to anything useful.

“It’s hard enough with particles which have longer life times for decay to make them useful. Some of the ones which have life times of only maybe a millionth of a second or so are used in medical applications.

“How you could have an application of this thing which is very short lived, I have no idea.”

But Alan Walker, a colleague from

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: higgsboson; peterhiggs
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To: Moonman62

... but the Higgs boson itself probably won’t be anything that modern technology ever uses. It pops back out of existence so quickly that there could not be things like beams of Higgs bosons.


61 posted on 07/06/2012 10:05:52 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (let me ABOs run loose, lew)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
If there are “soulons” that can interact with ordinary matter, they probably will be something that can never be found in supercolliders. “Soulons” would be possessed of a will and thus be able to defy the physical sciences.

I like your brand of physics, brother. It's basic truth, as far as I'm concerned.

"Soulon". I like that.

62 posted on 07/06/2012 10:56:46 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: SES1066; HiTech RedNeck
". . . I am quite the stolid thinker and that does not mean others will never use it."

Get hold of one Higgs Boson and repeat the mantra, "LET THERE BE LIGHT"

yitbos

63 posted on 07/06/2012 11:44:03 PM PDT by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds." -- Ayn Rand)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Asimov knew nothing about Higgs fields or Higgs bosons, but if the Higgs field could be canceled in a region, maybe something like that WOULD result.

He may have, although probably after that story was written. Remember Azimov was a PhD scientist, Chemistry IIRC. The standard model was formalized in the mid '70s, and Higgs first paper on the particle that bears his name was written in '64. Azimov didn't pass on until April of 1992. (AIDS, he got HIV from a blood transfusion in '83 after heart surgery) So he had quite a while to become familiar with the Standard Model, which includes the Higgs. He probably wrote articles about it. I have his "Understanding Physics" in 3 separate hardcover volumes. He wrote an article "What's the Universe Made Of", for science digest published in 1980. It was about fields and particles, and he likely (I haven't read it that I recall) talked about the Higgs Boson, and/or Higgs field in that article.

64 posted on 07/07/2012 10:36:11 PM PDT by El Gato ("The second amendment is the reset button of the US constitution"-Doug McKay)
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To: heye2monn

Was that a backyard pina collider?


65 posted on 07/07/2012 10:43:57 PM PDT by Domestic Church (AMDG ...)
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To: Boogieman

Your wave theory sounds very much like String Theory.


66 posted on 07/07/2012 10:45:08 PM PDT by El Gato ("The second amendment is the reset button of the US constitution"-Doug McKay)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
It pops back out of existence so quickly that there could not be things like beams of Higgs bosons.

Yes there could be, if they are traveling fast enough, relativistic time dilation would let their lifetimes appear quite long to non moving observers, like us.

Something that heavy moving that fast is going pack quite a wallop, nuclear effects aside.

67 posted on 07/07/2012 10:49:04 PM PDT by El Gato ("The second amendment is the reset button of the US constitution"-Doug McKay)
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To: El Gato

I mean as of the story’s writing of course.


68 posted on 07/08/2012 12:17:55 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (let me ABOs run loose, lew)
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To: El Gato

Due to decay, a beam of Higgs bosons would eventually turn into something else, even if it was in their own time frame. I wonder if the Higgs mass impartation mechanism applies to Higgs bosons too? That these bosons also drag on the Higgs field?


69 posted on 07/08/2012 12:26:45 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (let me ABOs run loose, lew)
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To: Domestic Church

Ha! :-)


70 posted on 07/08/2012 10:50:20 AM PDT by heye2monn
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To: Mr Ramsbotham
"that there is only one substance in the universe, everything arises from it"

...or there might not be any substance at all, just bundles of properties...

Substance

71 posted on 07/09/2012 6:49:24 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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