Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced Wednesday at the CERN research centre have found a new subatomic particle that could be the Higgs boson, the basic building block of the universe.
“I can confirm that a particle has been discovered that is consistent with the Higgs boson theory,” said John Womersley, chief executive of Britain’s Science & Technology Facilities Council, at an event in London.
Below is a play-by-play of the announcement.
A historic milestone. Congratulations to all the researchers, some of whom have been at it for over 4 decades. :k: Seeing Prof. Higgs tear up made me emotional too.
While having no personal affection to Prof. Higgs, I can only congratulate the scientific community, and the human race in genera, with this tremendous intellectual achievement. Bravo!!!!
according to first video at 3.55, Islamabad-CNP (Pakistan’s Nuclear control) and PAEC (pakistan Atomic Energy commission) was also part of it. :k:
even though its a waste of time and billions of dollars, but since humans dont know where else to spend it except of wars and giving it to corrupt politicians so i guess discovering this at least will get us some meaning to our existence.
I understand you have read and quoted an article. Allow me to put some things in perspective. I’d like to add that a century or two ago, the discovery of the neuron was monumental, but irrelavant to the masses. You would have said then, that we found a neuron, so what. It’s a waste of our king’s golds and riches. We knew these things existed, but didn’t know what to do with it.
The thing with the research at Cern and the collider is that you just cannot see this as a short term expense of any sort. What’s happening there is a constant creation of knowledge for the better of humanity. Our sciences are based on assumptions of how things work. The only way we can proceed is by verifying these assumptions and building upon it.
After all, the X-ray was also “discovered” out of experimentation of this sort. Who knows what we can do in the next 20-50 years with this new knowledge. I for one, am excited, although we must remain patient, and continue to fund science
It might be an important discovery but it is not the revolutionary sort of discovery that it was touted as. It's not the God particle. The guy who first called it "God particle" now says that it should be better called the "Goddamn particle".
No Dr. Lulworth. I already had this opinion. I posted the article as the opinion from someone whose opinion is holds weight.
A neuron and the confirmation of a higgs-boson like particle are worlds away. The higgs-boson was already predicted, this is just a confirmation of a prediction (unlike X-rays). Therefore there would have already been postulations on what we can achieve if we have this confirmation.. but it's just confirming what we was already accepted.
It's like non-physicists who believe that graphene was some big discovery and is going to change materials science.
Stoppit I don't know anything about physics or the topic but isn't it always good to be able to confirm a theory? Although I see what you are saying that the money could've been spent elsewhere.
For a traditional minded scientist confirmation of a theory is like getting satisfaction for aiming an arrow and getting the middle of the target. It is fulfilling to make discovery. Before the confirmation the idea was only a theory ...
The money is better spent on medical research yes ... But even this money was nothing close to what the military are exposed to on a regular basis ...
However, there is still a lot to be learnt ... So hopefully Mr. Wolfram can sleep easy ... The next puzzle to solve is. ...
What enables the Higgs boson to distinguish between different particles ... ??? Do the particles carry something else that determines how the Higgs fields interacts with them? So far we are arguing from the angle that Higgs give mass to particles hence Top quark has this mass and Bottom that mass, etc ... But what was it that made Top quark particular for the Higgs field to interact with it in that way and not the Bottom ... And since the Higgs is a particle everywhere ... Does one Higgs particle have any inherent "knowledge" of what other particles are doing and behaving like in order to behave likewise ...???
Again, does any of that matter? Technology progresses without us always completely understanding why and how things work due to requirements and experimentation.
The budget was 7.5 billion euros. If what you want compare costs, compare within science research not unrelated budgets.
Again, does any of that matter? Technology progresses without us always completely understanding why and how things work due to requirements and experimentation.
The budget was 7.5 billion euros. If what you want compare costs, compare within science research not unrelated budgets.
Does new weapon technology count? Anyway ... I agree does it matter? Compared to matters of living ones life ... No ... But for scientists and science in general ... Yes ... The delight on their faces says it all ... Don't you think?
Erm.. since when have we started funding stuff for the 'delight' on the face of scientists. And from where are you garnering this? The media? Because of course, they don't do biased reporting.
Of course those working on it are going to be happy, they need to have their daily existence justified as worthwhile.
There are plenty of scientists like Wolfram, who are underwhelmed. I know because I work with more of them than you can shake a stick at.
Erm.. since when have we started funding stuff for the 'delight' on the face of scientists. And from where are you garnering this? The media? Because of course, they don't do biased reporting.
Of course those working on it are going to be happy, they need to have their daily existence justified as worthwhile.
There are plenty of scientists like Wolfram, who are underwhelmed. I know because I work with more of them than you can shake a stick at.
Peace stoppit
Conversely the underwhelmed sentiment can be an anticlimax for a journey that has ended.
I don't disagree with you about the funding issue ... But I always thought science is about validating theory ... Not merely accepting it.
The real reason why it is disliked is because it is not very beautiful... And I have always recognised that ... It is a fix ... And the fix has been confirmed ... But my theory is that later on we will find that to be the case ... Science has just proven the "godamn particle" .... Hehehe ... Let it lie ... See what happens.
For a traditional minded scientist confirmation of a theory is like getting satisfaction for aiming an arrow and getting the middle of the target. It is fulfilling to make discovery. Before the confirmation the idea was only a theory ...
The money is better spent on medical research yes ... But even this money was nothing close to what the military are exposed to on a regular basis ...
However, there is still a lot to be learnt ... So hopefully Mr. Wolfram can sleep easy ... The next puzzle to solve is. ...
What enables the Higgs boson to distinguish between different particles ... ??? Do the particles carry something else that determines how the Higgs fields interacts with them? So far we are arguing from the angle that Higgs give mass to particles hence Top quark has this mass and Bottom that mass, etc ... But what was it that made Top quark particular for the Higgs field to interact with it in that way and not the Bottom ... And since the Higgs is a particle everywhere ... Does one Higgs particle have any inherent "knowledge" of what other particles are doing and behaving like in order to behave likewise ...???
Anyway ... About time they found the graviton :D
Very interesting discussion!
The way I understand the Higgs Boson particle, that** it** is what gives matter** mass**
if we were to look at atomic particles the nucleus is surrounded by electrons and there is a very large empty space between the nucleus and the orbiting electrons similar to what we have between the Sun and the planets but on a different scale.
to all this the Higgs Boson imparts the property of mass which makes gravity!
hence it is the God Particle!
am I right?
I know it is not as simple as that, but that is what I gathered is the fact of Matter:)