The Higgs boson revealed (?)

[Zingari]

When I saw the thread title I thought someone famous had got their tits out

[Bellend Sebastian]

No, IMO, its value is less about the past and more that it maybe changes our future...

credit Dr Karl for this bit....

"The theory is that particles basically don't have any mass until they interact with the Higgs field, and when the Higgs field is excited, you get a Higgs boson."

"Suppose we want to set up a colony on Mars.

"Well, to put a kilogram of anything in a low-earth orbit is about $20,000 - let's go big.

"Let's go for a super-tanker weighing a quarter of a million tonnes, and it has everything that we need to have a colony on Mars."

Work being undertaken at the LHC could eventually pave the way to "switch off" the Higgs field.

"Suddenly the super-tanker has no mass and we can put it into orbit really quickly, really easily, and we can send it to Mars in 20 minutes."

This reminds me of a conversation I had whilst getting hammered in Amsterdam with a physicist mate last year. I said that I didn't really understand what the large hadron collider stuff was all about, and he said he could understand why it looked a bit dry to outsiders but basically it's about drilling down to the fundamentals of the universe and matter and stuff, and the reason it's important is that if someone wanted to invent, for example, a teleporter, this is exactly the sort of shit you need to be able to understand. Obviously they're not doing this with a view to inventing a teleporter, but if, as a result of the research information comes to light that would help some one with that, it's hurrahs all round. It's not the shit itself but what you do with the shit that counts, girlfriend. Or something.

Here endeth the lesson.

I'm glad we've got this one sorted out

[Darkon84]

Did it cross your mind that most people (including myself) have very limited or no knowledge about the topic or what it means in layman's terms?

EDIT: Plus this is your input on the discussion. Well done.

Congratulations to yourself, with your only input being to flag me up....pot, kettle, black.

Anyway, I only took that line of post because of so many other threads where a number of people on here seem to take higher ground and think themselves above and intellectually supeior to others. Because of this, I was just a little shocked and let down, not to find any decent debate or information going back and forth.

I am not, and do not claim to be a physicist, or scientist, in fact I wish I had given more attention to the sciences when at school. In the mean time, I await and look forward to 'Leicsmac's report for a better insight.

Back on topic, am I right in thinking that they havent actually found THE Higgs Boson, but have found a particle which they only believe to be it, as it holds mass in the range that was predicted for Higgs?

A brief explaination of what it actually is, can be found here..........http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1458922

[Captain...]

Congratulations to yourself, with your only input being to flag me up....pot, kettle, black.

Anyway, I only took that line of post because of so many other threads where a number of people on here seem to take higher ground and think themselves above and intellectually supeior to others. Because of this, I was just a little shocked and let down, not to find any decent debate or information going back and forth.

I am not, and do not claim to be a physicist, or scientist, in fact I wish I had given more attention to the sciences when at school. In the mean time, I await and look forward to 'Leicsmac's report for a better insight.

Back on topic, am I right in thinking that they havent actually found THE Higgs Boson, but have found a particle which they only believe to be it, as it holds mass in the range that was predicted for Higgs?

A brief explaination of what it actually is, can be found here..........http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1458922

I think it is more than the mass, and they have enough degree of certainty to claim it scientifically as fact, which is 99.9999% certain (Brian Cox's words not mine) that they have discovered the Higgs Boson. (well a boson that behaved like the standard model Higgs boson).

I'm not really sure what debate you are looking for? such as no they didn't, yes they did.

I suppose you could go down the god vs science route, but I don't think this would change anyone's mind.

The other question is, was it worth all the money and time and effort to discover something that they already kinda knew was out there?

[Darkon84]

I think it is more than the mass, and they have enough degree of certainty to claim it scientifically as fact, which is 99.9999% certain (Brian Cox's words not mine) that they have discovered the Higgs Boson. (well a boson that behaved like the standard model Higgs boson).

I'm not really sure what debate you are looking for? such as no they didn't, yes they did.

I suppose you could go down the god vs science route, but I don't think this would change anyone's mind.

The other question is, was it worth all the money and time and effort to discover something that they already kinda knew was out there?

Yea that was it, they have definately discovered a new particle, and are 99.9999% certain its Higgs.

Ok, Maybe not debate, but perhaps intelligent input in some form, or excitement, or SOMETHING. Perhaps I was aiming too high for FT .

God vs SCience is a route I don't think anyone here wants to go down AGAIN.

ANd in terms of was it worth it? That's something that I don't think we can get too much in to right now. Thats something for 4 or 5 years down the line when all necessary tests and further experiments have been conducted on it. IF it is as big a step as the excitement of the physicists suggests, it could lead on to something a whole lot bigger and be 'put to use' (perhaps).

[Captain...]

Yea that was it, they have definately discovered a new particle, and are 99.9999% certain its Higgs.

Ok, Maybe not debate, but perhaps intelligent input in some form, or excitement, or SOMETHING. Perhaps I was aiming too high for FT .

God vs SCience is a route I don't think anyone here wants to go down AGAIN.

ANd in terms of was it worth it? That's something that I don't think we can get too much in to right now. Thats something for 4 or 5 years down the line when all necessary tests and further experiments have been conducted on it. IF it is as big a step as the excitement of the physicists suggests, it could lead on to something a whole lot bigger and be 'put to use' (perhaps).

Well Leicmac is threatening to put something together as he seems to have a good knowledge on this, I think the problem with discussing something like this is that it really is at the forefront of scientific knowledge that very few people are qualified to really talk about it and understand the implications of this discovery.

As my understanding goes this gives further weight to the big bang theory and explains how particles at the point of the big bang gained mass, well some did and some didn't, neutrons and protons gained mass, but electrons didn't. But as for the practical uses of knowing this, and what it means as anything other than proof of what was the most widely held theory I don't know.

What I am not sure about is whether the higgs field existed before the big bang, it is stated that it exists in a vacuum and is all around us, but for the particles to gain mass they must have passed through it, which implies it wasn't created by the big bang, I don't if anyone can clear that up.

[Daggers]

If someone had bothered to ask, I've been carrying one of these around in my pocket for the last three years.

[Darkon84]

Well Leicmac is threatening to put something together as he seems to have a good knowledge on this, I think the problem with discussing something like this is that it really is at the forefront of scientific knowledge that very few people are qualified to really talk about it and understand the implications of this discovery.

As my understanding goes this gives further weight to the big bang theory and explains how particles at the point of the big bang gained mass, well some did and some didn't, neutrons and protons gained mass, but electrons didn't. But as for the practical uses of knowing this, and what it means as anything other than proof of what was the most widely held theory I don't know.

What I am not sure about is whether the higgs field existed before the big bang, it is stated that it exists in a vacuum and is all around us, but for the particles to gain mass they must have passed through it, which implies it wasn't created by the big bang, I don't if anyone can clear that up.

, 'threatening'.

As for the rest of your post, that's as far as I've got. Things start to get a deeper after that and without a lot more study or someone to hold my hand, it all gets a bit blurry for me haha.

Leicsmac.....the stage is yours!

[Daggers]

I'm not fat, I've just accumulated more than my fair share of Higgs boson particles.