It is the last undiscovered piece of the Standard Model that describes the fundamental make-up of the universe. The model is for physicists what the theory of evolution is for biologists.

CERN wrote:CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson


Geneva, 4 July 2012. At a seminar held at CERN1 today as a curtain raiser to the year’s major particle physics conference, ICHEP2012 in Melbourne, the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented their latest preliminary results in the search for the long sought Higgs particle. Both experiments observe a new particle in the mass region around 125-126 GeV.

“We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV. The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS and the huge efforts of many people have brought us to this exciting stage,” said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, “but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication.”

"The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. “The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks."

“It’s hard not to get excited by these results,” said CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci. “ We stated last year that in 2012 we would either find a new Higgs-like particle or exclude the existence of the Standard Model Higgs. With all the necessary caution, it looks to me that we are at a branching point: the observation of this new particle indicates the path for the future towards a more detailed understanding of what we’re seeing in the data.”

The results presented today are labelled preliminary. They are based on data collected in 2011 and 2012, with the 2012 data still under analysis. Publication of the analyses shown today is expected around the end of July. A more complete picture of today’s observations will emerge later this year after the LHC provides the experiments with more data.

The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle and its significance for our understanding of the universe. Are its properties as expected for the long-sought Higgs boson, the final missing ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics? Or is it something more exotic? The Standard Model describes the fundamental particles from which we, and every visible thing in the universe, are made, and the forces acting between them. All the matter that we can see, however, appears to be no more than about 4% of the total. A more exotic version of the Higgs particle could be a bridge to understanding the 96% of the universe that remains obscure.

“We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle’s properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe.”

Positive identification of the new particle’s characteristics will take considerable time and data. But whatever form the Higgs particle takes, our knowledge of the fundamental structure of matter is about to take a major step forward.

Pax wrote:Is there any way to put this into lay terms? I understand that it's a big thing, but have no idea why or what it means.

gendoikari87 wrote:

Pax wrote:Is there any way to put this into lay terms? I understand that it's a big thing, but have no idea why or what it means.

The higgs boson is the glue that holds matter together.

Pax wrote:

gendoikari87 wrote:

Pax wrote:Is there any way to put this into lay terms? I understand that it's a big thing, but have no idea why or what it means.

The higgs boson is the glue that holds matter together.

I see. Will this have any impact on the daily lives of us non-science folks?

gendoikari87 wrote:
Ever hear of replicators? Anti-gravity?

also let me just take a moment to say this:

SUCK MY BALLS SCIENCE HATERS!

Pax wrote:

gendoikari87 wrote:
Ever hear of replicators? Anti-gravity?

also let me just take a moment to say this:

SUCK MY BALLS SCIENCE HATERS!

I'm not a science hater, I just don't know much about it, that's why I asked. So how about if you fuck off, and take your pathetic balls with you. Douche.

lemur wrote:

Pax wrote:

gendoikari87 wrote:
Ever hear of replicators? Anti-gravity?

also let me just take a moment to say this:

SUCK MY BALLS SCIENCE HATERS!

I'm not a science hater, I just don't know much about it, that's why I asked. So how about if you fuck off, and take your pathetic balls with you. Douche.

I thought the "suck my balls" comment was directed at whitey.

Pax wrote: He didn't quote whitey, so it seemed to be directed at me as well as the other "science haters".

Pax wrote:Is there any way to put this into lay terms? I understand that it's a big thing, but have no idea why or what it means.

JayFromPA wrote: The higgs is what makes things have mass. Mass is different than weight.

Like, when you are in space floating around weightless, it takes less effort to throw a ping pong ball into the sun than it would take to throw someone like rush limbaugh. That's how mass is different than weight, weight is a sort of after effect of a lot of mass. Weight springs from mass sorta like an apple springs from a branch, can't have the apple if you don't have the tree.

So, now that it's been narrowed down, we begin to study it.
After we determine all of the traits of the higgs boson that we can, we try to figure out how to poke it.
If we can poke it, that is the base-level foundation stones for doing things like collecting lots of higgs bosons in one place.
Read that last sentence as "artificial black holes able to be safely created in labs, black holes that dissipate the instant the machine is turned off"

And if we can push them together in a container, then we can expel them from an area.
Read that sentence as "Create a force field around a space ship that allows us to go faster than light."

And if that ability to shove higgs bosons around can be made small enough, then we can create mobile regions without mass.
Read that sentence as "Make the machine small enough to build anti-gravity flying cars."

It comes down to mass, what makes matter into more than just something solid, messing around with the tree before it spawns the apple of 'weight'. We all know E=mc^2, the m is mass. It's said that the reason we can't go faster than light is because of the energy required to push mass that fast - but if you make mass = zero, then you aren't pushing mass any more, so then it does become possible to go superluminal. Warp drive, bitches!

This is the doorstep to some seriously fundamental shit. Finding the higgs is like finally finding the keyhole. Now, to make the key...

whitey wrote:So because I don't share your enthusiasm about this I'm a science hater?

larrymod wrote: Physicists (and probably other science types) need to understand that the REAL challenge in front of them is not discovering stuff, or even putting it to practical use, but rather explaining to lay people why we need to understand and care.

Pax wrote:

gendoikari87 wrote:
Ever hear of replicators? Anti-gravity?

also let me just take a moment to say this:

SUCK MY BALLS SCIENCE HATERS!

I'm not a science hater, I just don't know much about it, that's why I asked. So how about if you fuck off, and take your pathetic balls with you. Douche.

JayFromPA wrote: Like, when you are in space floating around weightless, it takes less effort to throw a ping pong ball into the sun than it would take to throw someone like rush limbaugh.