But there we are. The particle search characterized as "one of the longest, most expensive searches in the history of science.. Has finally been confirmed Wednesday, by the scientists at the Large Hadron Collider.
This is heady stuff. It almost has to be particle physic's version of Apollo 11. This seemingly iniquitous Higgs boson is the particle predicted by the standard model to imbue elementary particles with mass. Think about that for a second....no Higgs no universe...
Of course there are those still hedging their bet with "the new particle may not be the particle that has been described by the Standard model and has been the focus of every Physicist for the last fifty years.
LHC physicist Dr. Rolf-Dieter Heuer called the discovery “a historic milestone.” but It may be an impostor as yet unknown to physics, perhaps the first of many particles yet to be discovered.
Well I am a glass half full kind of person. I think that the hemming and hawing that has taken place since December needs to be over with. I am not a physicist and don't pretend to fully understand the full implications of the discovery, but the addage of "if it quacks like a duck....certainly should be in play now.
Read the complete article in the NYT Science
8 comments:
Wow. I'm gone a few days and look what happens. This should be fun catching up now, thanks for posting this.
This is what happens when you run off on a metaphysical dark matter concept.
And I agree. Lets hope that this is it, and see what happens. I'm more careful than skeptical, but I want to see them bring out more proof. Which I am betting will happen within a few years at least.
Not sure about the true impact myself in the practical terms at the moment, but in theoretical concepts I'm betting things will get more interesting real fast.
Now I'm off to catch up and see if anyone invented a time machine while I've been gone.
Metaphysical dark matter is where I ran off to I mean, not anything to do with this. Lost the editing tool, again.
in any event Kallamis it is good to see you back! Yes, very exciting indeed. I will honestly say that I do not even come close to understanding all the implications, but just to be around when something of this magnitude comes to light. It did bother me that they have had this 800 lb gorilla of a problem sitting in the middle of particle physics is always troubling. It should be interesting in what something like this will generate.
800 lb gorilla is about accurate yeah. But if they did truly find it, then the course to take would be learning to manipulate it. Basically, energy to whatever element we want. And that would only be one of the profitable, or destructive forces we use it for.
Either way, if it is found, we are on our way somewhere. Eventually. For good or evil, we'll be going there.
I think that when first blush wears off, they will discover that the tool they have at hand is proof that all the tools work. The Higgs particle isn't so much something to use as some to build upon. Particle Physics is no longer built upon sand.
Oh I agree totally. Particle physics has come a long way, and may have just opened the door to, we don't know a thing yet.
The only bad thing here I can see is the public. I remember the moon. Now it seems like anything big in science is regulated more toward the back burner. I think on my local news channel, there was a whole 14 seconds dedicated to this.
I refuse to count or listen to how much time they spend on silly stuff like; well you all know already.
man, now there is a cold shower...If you listened to the program you can see what I was up against. I foolishly tried to generate a bit of excitement and it just wasn't happening. Saying patently ridiculous things like the universe would not exist without this particle netted me responses like...well duh we are already here! and of course "so where DID they find it?" sigh... I mean, I am not being elitist, I know I am far from the sharpest tool in the draw...but some of this attitude left me breathless! Yep, when they can take going to the moon and become blase..it doesn't leave much for something as fundamental as the Higgs bosun.
I noticed that. I noticed it here first years ago with people I went to school with.
We'll be getting on this soon. Think I'll write up something tonight and see what others think.
See if their old geek groups went the way mine all did.
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