Saru Posted July 4, 2012 #1 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Hadron Collider scientists have confirmed that they have discovered the elusive Higgs Boson particle. Scientists say it is a 5 sigma result which means they are 99. 999% sure they have found a new particle. Finding the Higgs plugs a gaping hole in the Standard Model, the theory that describes all the particles, forces and interactions that make up the universe. Read more... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZaraKitty Posted July 4, 2012 #2 Share Posted July 4, 2012 I can hear the nerd-gasms happening all around the world as we speak. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillSoMysterious Posted July 4, 2012 #3 Share Posted July 4, 2012 I bet geeks worldwide blew their god-particles in their pants when they read this.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 4, 2012 #4 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Is there any technology that we can gain from this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranrod Posted July 4, 2012 #5 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Is there any technology that we can gain from this? I don't see it in the foreseeable future. Not all discoveries lead to consumer products either. Some lead to greater understanding and help us refine our models, hypotheses, and theories. Some practical device might come, but it's hard to tell when. Quantum Mechanics, for instance, got it's beginnings in the 1920's but a consumer product which used its principles didn't show up until the 1980's (the cell phone). Same goes for General Relativity introduced in 1916 (as far as a practical product in the home). Maybe in 2072 we'll have some product such as an anti-gravity skateboard (waaaay behind the back to the future timeline). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranrod Posted July 4, 2012 #6 Share Posted July 4, 2012 I can hear the nerd-gasms happening all around the world as we speak. I did Though I didn't think they would find it (I know it's not confirmed by enough sources yet but looks pretty solid). I thought they found something similar, but not THE higgs boson. In terms of rejoicing, you can say that followers of the standard model are doing that. You gotta hand it to Higgs and his team, they predicted this 60 years ago and it came to pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted July 4, 2012 #7 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Well, a great find. Looking forward to more news on this as time goes on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Greenman Posted July 4, 2012 #8 Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) OOOh yes....nerd-gasm.... ahhhh. LOL You never know what you might get from pure science like this, maybe we will at last get a the long awaited Star Trek replicator. Edited July 4, 2012 by Darkwind 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junior Chubb Posted July 4, 2012 #9 Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) Well done lads, can we now send the same team off to find Bigfoot? Edited July 4, 2012 by Junior Chubb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawkLord Posted July 4, 2012 #10 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Its a good thing they are not 100% sure as wasn't there some kind of hooey about the world ending if the god particle was found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaygatz Posted July 4, 2012 #11 Share Posted July 4, 2012 You know what I don't buy it. I don't think found it. I think there trying to cover there butts for wasting time and money. Anyone else notice there not 100% sure they found it?? just sayin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rlyeh Posted July 4, 2012 #12 Share Posted July 4, 2012 You know what I don't buy it. I don't think found it. I think there trying to cover there butts for wasting time and money. Anyone else notice there not 100% sure they found it?? just sayin Thats called science. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranrod Posted July 4, 2012 #13 Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) Anyone else notice there not 100% sure they found it?? Science doesn't deal in absolutes. The current number is 99.99994% certain it's not an error. If a scientist was asked what are the chances humans exist, they wouldn't answer 100% Absolutes are a matter of Religion. Now they need more experiments at the energy levels that yielded the boson and figure out more about it (such as the spin). All the data is open for the world to inspect, analyze and see if there are different conclusions based on it. Extremely unlikely though. Edited July 4, 2012 by ranrod 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Render Posted July 4, 2012 #14 Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) Saru, your title is terribly misleading. no one at the conference said they've found the higgs boson what was said bassically is that they've found A boson that is at the same coordinates they expect the higgs boson to be. No absolute conclusions are drawn, only that we are on the right track and that further testing is necessary. Edited July 4, 2012 by Render 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paracelse Posted July 4, 2012 #15 Share Posted July 4, 2012 So god was found and he is in Switzerland??? Where else one could hide his/hers assets? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 4, 2012 #16 Share Posted July 4, 2012 I don't see it in the foreseeable future. Not all discoveries lead to consumer products either. Some lead to greater understanding and help us refine our models, hypotheses, and theories. Some practical device might come, but it's hard to tell when. Quantum Mechanics, for instance, got it's beginnings in the 1920's but a consumer product which used its principles didn't show up until the 1980's (the cell phone). Same goes for General Relativity introduced in 1916 (as far as a practical product in the home). Maybe in 2072 we'll have some product such as an anti-gravity skateboard (waaaay behind the back to the future timeline). Thanks for the explanation, I understand that better now. I did think being more advanced now might help though. Do you think this will change space travel as the particle is faster than light isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranrod Posted July 4, 2012 #17 Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) Saru, your title is terribly misleading. no one at the conference said they've found the higgs boson what was said bassically is that they've found A boson that is at the same coordinates they expect the higgs boson to be. No absolute conclusions are drawn, only that we are on the right track and that further testing is necessary. You are absolutely right about this. I didn't want to nitpick in a layman's site though The boson identity comes from the decay channel and the energy level, not the coordinates. Analyzing the angular distribution of the decay products on further experiments they can determine the spin. This is important since that's the next prediction: its spin will be zero. Edited July 4, 2012 by ranrod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranrod Posted July 4, 2012 #18 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Thanks for the explanation, I understand that better now. I did think being more advanced now might help though. Do you think this will change space travel as the particle is faster than light isn't it? No the higgs boson does not move faster than light. Maybe you're referring to a different experiment? Some scientists at CERN though they measured neutrinos going faster than light a few months back, but it ended up being a loose wire They didn't announce or proclaim they had discovered such. They reached out to the scientific community to help them figure out where the error laid. The "reaching out" message got blown out of proportion by the media organizations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
questionmark Posted July 4, 2012 #19 Share Posted July 4, 2012 The question if we can gain any technology from it at this point is quite irrelevant, more relevant is that it is another piece that we could fit in the puzzle of uncertainties and that this way we can confirm certain assumption that did not get out of the theory status and discard others. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Fluffs Posted July 4, 2012 #20 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Hoorah! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
27vet Posted July 4, 2012 #21 Share Posted July 4, 2012 This will open up a whole lot more questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 4, 2012 #22 Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) No the higgs boson does not move faster than light. Maybe you're referring to a different experiment? Some scientists at CERN though they measured neutrinos going faster than light a few months back, but it ended up being a loose wire They didn't announce or proclaim they had discovered such. They reached out to the scientific community to help them figure out where the error laid. The "reaching out" message got blown out of proportion by the media organizations. A loose wire! LOL How funny. I heard it through someone who read it in an article, so it's the usual media doing a fine job at reportingl. Shame that could have opened up some new possibilities. Edited July 4, 2012 by Coffey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alienated Being Posted July 4, 2012 #23 Share Posted July 4, 2012 I am sure that the creationists will come up with some other such BS explanation to justify their ridiculous beliefs, regardless of what science finds. Great find, anyway. This opens a lot of doors. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzieboo Posted July 4, 2012 #24 Share Posted July 4, 2012 I can hear the nerd-gasms happening all around the world as we speak. Hey! Watch that "nerd-gasms" stuff, my friend. I actually cried when I read the news. I love science, and I am thrilled that this occurred in my lifetime. (Oh, God...I really am a nerd. And probably a dweeb, too. And a dork. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
questionmark Posted July 4, 2012 #25 Share Posted July 4, 2012 in related news: Higgs Boson: Prof Stephen Hawking loses $100 bet When Peter Higgs first proposed that an invisible field strewn across space gave mass to the building blocks of the universe, the theory was ridiculed by some of the most respected minds of the time. read more 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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