Higgs Bosons! Getch ‘yer Higgs Bosons Here!
Really arcane particle physics are in the news. Scientists report that they have confirmed the existence of the Higgs Boson.
So?
Well, at the very least it means that physics hasn’t been barking at the moon the last 40 years or more, that quantum particle science is right.
The good folks at PHD Comics made an animation featuring American particle physicist Daniel Whiteson back in November 2011 that explains what this is all about.
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Since that little clip was made, the gigantic particle accelerator at CERN has likely confirmed the existence of the Higgs Boson, the little blip of data that Dr. Whiteson describes. It’s a pretty big deal, and not just because we are spared the ugly sight of quantum physics crashing down around our ears.
It’s also a triumph for science as a methodology. Science – specifically, Dr. Robert Higgs and several others – predicted the existence of the subatomic particle. More importantly, in 1966 Higgs said, “This is what it will “look” like, this is how it will decay and this is what the decay products will look like.” Those predictions allowed tests to me made to see if the predictions could be confirmed. To use the precise term, the predictions were falsifiable, they could be proven true or false. This is what science is, and how it differs from superstition.
The honor of discovery could have gone to the United States. The U.S. started to build a superconducting supercollider, the instrument required to generate the energies required to perform these tests. But Congress abandoned the U.S.’s project in 1993, ceding the ground to the international effort at CERN.
But that’s a battle long since lost. This week is a triumph for theoretical quantum chromodynamics. Our understanding of the universe is just a little better. Science has a possible path to understanding other puzzles, including dark matter and dark energy.
Oh, and Stephen Hawking is $100 poorer. He had a bet that the Higgs Boson wouldn’t be found.
Why do they call it the God particle? And why do atheists claim it proves God doesn’t exist? Great video by the way. No sound, right?
WakeUpAmerica
July 6, 2012 at 8:42 am
One of the scientists involved in the Higgs Boson project, Leon Lederman, wrote a book called The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?, about the quest for the Higgs Boson. Other physicists hated the name, but it stuck.
WC was unaware that atheists had weighed in on quantum chromodynamics as proof of the nonexistence of God. Unless you thought God was the mediating force in gravity, the position makes no sense.
The cartoon clip has sound. Check your computer’s settings.
/WC
Wickersham's Conscience
July 6, 2012 at 8:50 am
WC
Surely you’ve heard the Higgs-Boson joke that’s making the internet rounds this week. (No, it doesn’t explain why it’s called the God particle; that’s unrelated.)
It’s a good but corny joke, the type that makes you groan at its corniness:
A Higgs boson walks into a Catholic Church. The priest stops the particle and says, “We don’t allow your kind in here.” Undeterred the particle responds: “But without me, you can’t have mass.”
As for the mention of atheism and the Higgs-Boson news, I’ve no info on that. But from the brief description of that issue above, perhaps that relates to the “Universe from Nothing” notion/lecture/book by Prof. Lawrence Krauss of AZ State. I don’t know that; just a surmise based on the mention of some sort of relationship of atheists and the news of confirmed Higgs-Boson.
Paul Eaglin
Fairbanks
paul2eaglin
July 6, 2012 at 10:05 am
I picked it up, I think, from a recent post at The Immoral Minority. I guess I assumed it was a common belief.
WakeUpAmerica
July 6, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Following Paul’s comment, the origin of the word “mass” for the Christian eucharistic service itself is amusing. At the end of the service, the priest would say to the congregation, “Ite, missa est.” meaning “Go, you are dismissed,” which was (mis)understood as “Go, it’s a ‘missa’,” so the service itself became known as “missa.” The next iteration of the wordplay would be something like this: in a spiritual, non-material world, would mass be missed? And will those who missed Mass exist there? (Don’t ask me, I’m Jewish!)
freshwatersnark
July 7, 2012 at 10:47 pm
WC
The incomparable Oliphant has weighed in on the Higgs Boson:
http://cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/a77c7a60ae87012f2fef00163e41dd5b
Seems that The Almighty is sorely concerned about the same intellectual property issues that have vexed you, as revealed in your postings.
Gee, I didn’t realize until now that your postings were Divinely Revealed!
If you’re considering starting up a church based on your newly acquired status as “prophet,” perhaps consider the best-named church of all time, The Church of What’s Happening Now. I think Flip Wilson has allowed that name to fall into disuse, so it should be available.
Paul Eaglin
Fairbanks
paul2eaglin
July 12, 2012 at 1:39 pm