Cern scientists suspect glimpse of Higgs boson 'God particle'

Scientists may have caught their first glimpse of the elusiveHiggs boson, or "God particle", which is thought to give mass to the basic building blocks of nature. Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, the European particle physics lab near Geneva, announced the findings at a conference on Friday yesterday. The world's most powerful atom smasher hunts for signs of new physics by slamming subatomic particles together at nearly the speed of light in an 18-mile round tunnel beneath the French-Swiss border. Speaking at the meeting, teams working on two of the collider's huge detectors, Atlas and CMS, independently reported unusual bumps in their data that could be the first hints of the particle. Physicists stressed that it was too early to know whether the signals were due to the missing particle. Bumps that look like new discoveries can be caused by statistical fluctuations in data, flaws in computer models and other glitches, they said. "We cannot say anything today, but clearly it's intriguing," Fabiola Gianotti, spokeswoman for the 3,000-strong Atlas team, said. She said the picture would become clearer as the groups gathered more data and combined results in the next few months. The view was shared by Guido Tonelli, spokesman for the CMS group, said more data was needed to understand whether the bumps were due to "statistical fluctuations or possible hints of a signal".

A Cern scientist examine data at the Large Hadron Collider. New experiments showing unusual data bumps prompt suspected sightings of the elusive Higgs boson, or 'God particle'. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Looks like the investment was worth it as we move closer to proving the theory.

i just love how we discover so many things that can skip years of engineering every day.

The amazing question after they find the Higgs boson is, what gave rise to that? =D That will also lead to more experiments, great article!

1) Could we PLEASE stop calling a subatomic particle the "god" particle, for the love of the higgs-boson!!
2) If they indeed find it, cool cool and more cool. The good thing will be that once this "god" nonsense has passed we can focus on finding the NEXT smaller, "elementarier", particle! Yahoo! Bigger Colliders FTW!!
S&F my friend!

Drakus

Brian Cox who is a physasist who is instrumental at C~ERN indcated on his Twitter that this was nothing.

reply to post by spacedonk


I highly doubt this is an indication of the Higgs. In fact, I highly doubt the existence of the Higgs. I think the Standard Theory, as we have it, is right, but I don't think we've gone beyond it in the right direction - that is, I don't think we're right about what constitutes the intrinsic characteristics of the particles in the Standard Theory, that we know exist.

I don't think the Higgs is the answer to the question of where inertia comes from. I really don't. But that's just my self-educated opinion.

Originally posted by CLPrime
reply to post by spacedonk

 

I highly doubt this is an indication of the Higgs. In fact, I highly doubt the existence of the Higgs. I think the Standard Theory, as we have it, is right, but I don't think we've gone beyond it in the right direction - that is, I don't think we're right about what constitutes the intrinsic characteristics of the particles in the Standard Theory, that we know exist.

I don't think the Higgs is the answer to the question of where inertia comes from. I really don't. But that's just my self-educated opinion.

YES!
How refreshing to read someone that gets that freaky "middle-path" stuff...

Originally posted by spacedonk
Looks like the investment was worth it as we move closer to proving the theory.

edit on 22-7-2011 by spacedonk because: (no reason given)

I'd say the investment will be "worth" when we get results, it will NOT be a failure if the H-B isn't found...
ANY result is a WIN, for science. Politics may disagree, but they have their days counted...

You have to admire the beauty of a fractal universe....

Originally posted by Unvarnished
The amazing question after they find the Higgs boson is, what gave rise to that? =D That will also lead to more experiments, great article!

yes, once the higgs boson is found, we will know what gives certain particles mass. but the question still remains, "how does the higgs boson give mass to particles, and what is mass anyways?"

aww you beat me to it!! lol good article and good post..I saw original article a little while ago while browsing online at the library and hoped I could get to it first..S F for ya mate!

Originally posted by drakus

Originally posted by spacedonk
Looks like the investment was worth it as we move closer to proving the theory.

edit on 22-7-2011 by spacedonk because: (no reason given)

I'd say the investment will be "worth" when we get results, it will NOT be a failure if the H-B isn't found...
ANY result is a WIN, for science. Politics may disagree, but they have their days counted...

I totally agree, it was a flippant statement to the sceptics on ATS and the wider community that have bemoaned the research

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz

Originally posted by Unvarnished
The amazing question after they find the Higgs boson is, what gave rise to that? =D That will also lead to more experiments, great article!

yes, once the higgs boson is found, we will know what gives certain particles mass. but the question still remains, "how does the higgs boson give mass to particles, and what is mass anyways?"

religion In our lifetime I hope there is an answer - definitively, however I think it could all be linked to what is at the edge of our universe. IMHO it's just another universe, though hell what do I know! what is mass, the same as what is a soul?

reply to post by spacedonk


They may start to see "sparticles" supersymmetric equivalents of regular particles shortly actually. From what I know -though I could be wrong- the Higgs boson transforms a particle into a sparticle and back again.

Originally posted by Ajax84
reply to post by spacedonk

 

They may start to see "sparticles" supersymmetric equivalents of regular particles shortly actually. From what I know -though I could be wrong- the Higgs boson transforms a particle into a sparticle and back again.

'I am sparticle', 'I'm sparticle', 'I'm sparticle' etc etc

What a cool word I can just see the latest pop sensation 'Sally Strum and the sparticles'

Enough immaturity, thanks for the info - should be some good reading ahead.