Higgs Boson possibly found

[kannazuki]

Don't worry Aaron, there are people researching that too. They don't need billions though. (At least not over the same period of time anyway.)

[KageNoKensai]

Originally Posted by AaronM1D1

I remember the day Hawking bet $100 that they wouldn't find it. CERN want their money now, Stephen.

I'm still sceptical, however. All this hoohah has come about from preliminary results, 4.9/5 Sigma. Whilst this may seem to be a mere .1 out from an almost guaranteed Higgs, one must remember that we are talking about a 'God Particle' here. This means that even a mere 1% level of uncertainty can mean the difference between a huge discovery and a false alarm.

Furthermore, until CERN show some hard evidence in some form of report, this claim, it can be said, is just that; a claim. I've followed the LHC's progress all the way back from early 2008 when the first scraps of information about it came to light. Since then, billions of Pounds and Euros have been thrown into this project to get results. Imagine all the vested interest in this experiment. It's all about the results and this huge foray of excitement over early results perhaps indicates a degree of desperation for those results.

I might just be thinking too much, but whilst I still hold my own beliefs I feel I have the right to be sceptical of anything labelled the 'God Particle'.

Yeah, I read that. lol. The bet was against a colleague from the same university if I remember correctly.

Well, the CERN fellas do abhor the use of that term. The label God Particle comes from part of a book title published during the advent of the LHC experiments, and the media just snapped it up and ran with it. As usual. While the dissociation of the label doesn't detract from the importance of the discovery, I do agree with your point about excitement over preliminary findings - they make for PR nightmares when they take it back as a mistake. I hope they don't though.

Originally Posted by AaronM1D1

Personally I'm more interested in a cure for Cancer. Seems like a better way to spend billions in gold ingot.

Agreed.

But we never know. Don't quote me, but I heard somewhere that research into black holes somehow led to the technology for mobile phones. So hey, maybe we're onto something with the Higgs.

Originally Posted by kannazuki

Don't worry Aaron, there are people researching that too. They don't need billions though. (At least not over the same period of time anyway.)

They certainly don't need miles and miles of particle accelerator. Now that I think about it, didn't Tony Stark build a prismatic accelerator in his living room? lol

[wicked_liz]

El Psy Congroo!

This is kinda stunning and amazing to me, I don't think I really believed the LHC would find anything this cool, though it may be something just as interesting and not the actual Higgs-Boson.

I'm not a fan of calling it "the god particle" since it carries such a loaded meaning, religious types already think the LHC is going to open a hole for the Hell beasts or bring on some terrible apocalyptic event, it's best to stay away from their terminology.

Superstition and reason don't actually mix well, and I'd rather not see calls for laws banning the investigation and experimentation into particle physics, like there are for other types of research.

They certainly don't need miles and miles of particle accelerator. Now that I think about it, didn't Tony Stark build a prismatic accelerator in his living room? lol

Thinking like that, we never needed to go to the moon either. Understanding the universe is about satisfying our curiousity. Understanding dark matter can lead to creations of new forms of energy and the creation and improvement of technology. The world has yet to become disease-free and poverty-free, or war-free; yet people live longer lives with greater wealth.

And there is no "cure for cancer" - since it is a multitude of different diseases that are characterized by abnormal cell growth, different cancers, different treatment. Rather than bringing down the hard-working physicists, why not question the lobbyists and religious extremists who hinder stem cell research?

[KageNoKensai]

Amen to that.

Luckily physics is a scientific realm largely disconnected from society's morals, unlike areas such as genetics where cloning and even stem cell research threaten the very tenets of what the world sees as morally acceptable.

[AaronM1D1]

Physics is too difficult to generalise into 'average-joe' terms. Try and explain the Standard Model to a bunch of mums who feel it's their duty to stop their kids from eating Dolly the Sheep and they'll start doubting their own existence.

But yeah, I remembered the term's etymology shortly after posting the comment. And I do chuckle at the religious archetypes who think that this discovery counts as a blasphemy against God. Although it's natural for people to defend their belief system when they feel it's endangered, even if it's not at all...

I will say this: If firing condensed Higgs particles at me doesn't decrease my bodily mass, turning me into some hench stud, then it's billions of gold ingot wasted in my books!

[Pad Frank]

Great news for the science, even though i have no clue about what the Higg is. XD

[Freya]

Originally Posted by AaronM1D1

Personally I'm more interested in a cure for Cancer. Seems like a better way to spend billions in gold ingot.

This.

Originally Posted by AaronM1D1

I will say this: If firing condensed Higgs particles at me doesn't decrease my bodily mass, turning me into some hench stud, then it's billions of gold ingot wasted in my books!

And then this.

[wicked_liz]

Originally Posted by AaronM1D1

Physics is too difficult to generalise into 'average-joe' terms. Try and explain the Standard Model to a bunch of mums who feel it's their duty to stop their kids from eating Dolly the Sheep and they'll start doubting their own existence.

I will say this: If firing condensed Higgs particles at me doesn't decrease my bodily mass, turning me into some hench stud, then it's billions of gold ingot wasted in my books!

This happened to me a few years back when the banking crisis was at it's peak, finding out that most of the world's money only existed in intangible numbers freaked me out. It was scary realising how much the global economy depends on faith in bits of paper.

Wouldn't it increase your density though? Though it may have zero effect because we exist alongside dark matter on a daily basis...

It's not really wasted in terms of long term, look at the history of the personal computer and wireless communication. While the money could have alleviated some debt, poverty is a social problem that requires more than injections of cash to fix it.

[AaronM1D1]

Originally Posted by wicked_liz

It was scary realising how much the global economy depends on faith in bits of paper.

If you haven't watched [C]: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, I highly recommend you do so. It nails this point in a truly magnificent manner.

^One of my favourite anime of all time.

[Pad Frank]

Originally Posted by Freya

This.


And then this.

Everything that we discover is a progress for the humanity.
And have you ever considered that they don't find the cure for cancer, AIDS etc etc because the pharmaceutic companies make a lot of money out of them?