[(*steve*)]

God has been found. And his name is Mr Higgs...

Just kidding.

I tuned into the broadcast of the announcement about ten minutes prior to the phrase "five sigma" being uttered, followed by sustained applause.

I will admit to understanding little else that was said.

But I know where I was when it was announced.

 

[GreenGiant]

I was sitting at work when I saw an article about the "God Particle" it was very interesting

I like to think that I have some basic understanding of what they are talking about and some of it does make sense but most of the time I just sit there in fascination not fully understanding what they are saying.

I have seen a lot about the Higgs-Boson particle in recent times, I watch a lot of science shows/documentaries

 

[poor mystic]

I'd like to understand it all myself, but I suspect that by the time I'd put in enough effort to see it all clearly there'd be no room left for a life.
God is a pretty girl, whose name probably is not Higgs, and she has a nice boson.

 

[Ian]

I've only got a very basic understanding of what this is, so I can't understand the significance of the discovery - but I look forward to seeing what other things the LHC can unravel.

There's a basic Q&A of the Higgs-Boson on the BBC website which I found pretty useful for an overview:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16116236

 

[poor mystic]

Thanks for the link, Ian. I checked it out, but it's not the kind of thing I want to see changing my life in the near future.
(Of course if all this research leads to cheap spaceships for peregrine knights such as myself, I shall review my attitude.)

 

[GreenGiant]

Thanks for the link, Ian. I checked it out, but it's not the kind of thing I want to see changing my life in the near future.
(Of course if all this research leads to cheap spaceships for peregrine knights such as myself, I shall review my attitude.)

I dont know about life changing in that respect, but with my understanding of it, if they finally say that they have "discovered" it (aka proved its existence) the science community (specifically the physics/astrophysics disciplines) will gain a whole new understanding of how the universe works.

As in why matter has mass (gravity will finally get explained) how the universe was formed, and all sorts of things like that, should be interesting to say the least.

 

[poor mystic]

I do see that for some people the questions of physics seem much more meaningful than they do to me. My own experience leads me to believe that, as far as ultimate questions are concerned, the answers are not to be found in the material world. So I don't value the answers of physics in the same way that the physiciists do.

 

[Merlin3189]

My thought about the finding of the Higgs boson is, does it make any difference?
People have spent billions of dollars (or Euros or whatever) building the LHC to find it and a lot of physicists around the world already base their work on the assumption of it's existence. Would not the big discovery have been that it did not exist? Apart from a few mavericks who were probably struggling to get funding anyway, will anyone NOW change their view of things as a result of the confirmation?
Surely the revolution or great discovery was the description of the Higgs field and the theoretical analysis which implied the particle. It is like celebrating Einstein's theory of relativity more than the experimental confirmations which have followed - as we do.
I don't dismiss the efforts of the experimentalists in designing the detectors and analysing the data, but unless new ideas come from their data, I think the real triumph was the theory.

 

[CocaCola]

will anyone NOW change their view of things as a result of the confirmation?

Sure because 'theory' now becomes 'fact' and a foundation is laid to build upon based on proven facts...

 

[(*steve*)]

Sure because 'theory' now becomes 'fact' and a foundation is laid to build upon based on proven facts...

Well....

It adds significantly to those who believe the Standard Model is a good theory since this finding is predicted by that theory.

It's bad news for people who though the Standard Model was flawed and some interesting physics was just around the corner.

 

[CocaCola]

Well....

It adds significantly to those who believe the Standard Model is a good theory since this finding is predicted by that theory.

It's bad news for people who though the Standard Model was flawed and some interesting physics was just around the corner.

There is still a lot to the "Standard Model" that is still a theory, identifying one particle that is believed to be a building block, obviously does not qualify an entire theory... But, yes it does add credibility tot he theory now there is factual data to use as a stepping stone to substantiate the theory or at least show that the logic is sound or it's on the right track...

There is still plenty of room for those that believe the model is flawed, to explore, find and research alternatives... They just have to now figure out where this new pieces fits into their theories, and (IMO) that is a good thing as it weeds out a bunch of nonsense theories or at lease will push those that believe in the alternative to further explore and try to explain the deviations...

It's always good for science to continually question the authority, and even the laws if and when you believe you have solid proof (or even flimsy proof) they are flawed...

 

[(*steve*)]

yeahbut...

One of the things that people who thought there were alternatives to the Standard Model suggested was that the Higgs Boson either wouldn't be found, or not at the energy level predicted by it.

Sure, it may still be wrong (it's almost certainly wrong) but this bit of evidence says it's not wrong here...

Life would be a little more interesting if it was wrong. I'd like a bit of excitement.

 

[CocaCola]

Yeah, and there were certainly those that were up and arms at those silly people that said the Earth was not flat and wasn't the center of the Universe...

Anytime there is opposing theories someone has to be on the losing side when more facts and evidence are gathered... Sucks to be them, but in the end the advancements made as more evidence and facts flows in to support of one theory certainly rapidly progresses our understanding vs wasting time barking up the empty/wrong tree... Even as exciting as it might be barking up the wrong tree sometimes...