Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dr. Terence Meaden on July 4, 2012 at 6:08am

Why don't they call it the god-damned particle as originally intended?

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 4, 2012 at 10:06am

Good question.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on July 5, 2012 at 5:41am

For one thing, Peter Higgs, who did the original theoretical work (which must have been a BITCH!), is still alive and from where I sit, damned well deserves credit for that work!

Permalink Reply by Lillie on July 4, 2012 at 12:29pm

So, where do we go from here?

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 4, 2012 at 12:55pm

We take the Standard Model of Physics all the more seriously and continue attempting to answer the question of why we exist.

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 4, 2012 at 1:03pm

The awaited announcement was that a new subatomic particle has in fact been discovered that, upon thus far shallow investigation, appears to be consistent with the theorized Higgs Boson.

 

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/higgs-boson-discovery/

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on July 5, 2012 at 5:45am

BTW, if they are hedging on whether or not to come out and say, "We got the Higgs!", there's the matter of a discrepancy between Atlas and SMS detectors on the LHC.  One had the mass of the Higgs at around 125 GeV, the other at 126 GeV.  Sounds like calibration or correlation issues to me, along with the kind of reticence which you'll hear from religion only on days that don't end in "Y!"

Personally, I think this is thrilling news and can't wait to hear what else they've learned!

Permalink Reply by Pat on July 5, 2012 at 6:47am

And the gods are, yet again, pushed one more step towards irrelevance.

Permalink Reply by Edward Teach on July 5, 2012 at 10:23am

;-)

Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on July 8, 2012 at 12:20pm

The Higgs should be labeled the "no god particle". If the Higgs particle or Higgs field imparts substance to the universe or, in other words, dictates that there is something rather than nothing then there is need of a god(s) to explain the existence of anything. The likely conformation of the Higgs existence will be one of the most significant events in science.

This is an exciting event.

Permalink Reply by Madhukar Kulkarni on July 15, 2012 at 1:53am

Pat,

You are wong, you do not know their, by this I mean tthe god-believer's, tenacity. They are very likely to describe this and any future discovery by saying  "goddoneit!? They will tell you that the particles would never have accelerated to such high speeds without god's helping hand, or, that the particles would never split like they did without god's hand.

Permalink Reply by Lillie on July 6, 2012 at 8:31pm

Interesting article from Discovery.com:

 

 

What If the New Particle Isn't the Higgs Boson?

http://news.discovery.com/space/what-if-particle-is-not-higgs-120706.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1

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