They found the Higgs Boson?
Damn. Well. There goes more of the Creationist "theory"'s legs to stand on.
Is that cake frosting?
Uh? There were creationists who talked about the Higgs Boson? That's news to me — what does particle physics have to do with natural evolution? I mean, alright, everything is particle physics if you dig deep enough, but I don't find any natural connection between the existence or non-existence of a subatomic particle and biological evolution...
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
The general idea was that "god" held the atom together, is what I was driving at. Hence the nickname "the god particle"
Is that cake frosting?
Urrgh. That idea was as nonsensical theologically as it was scientifically. Who even comes up with that stuff? "A scientific model predicts that a particle should exist, and we have not found it yet; that clearly implies that God exists."
That's basically a Chewbacca Attack...
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.
Thats generally how it goes with the anti-science nuts. "Science cant currently explain it, therefore God"
Still, if they have found the Higgs Boson, then the basic theory of how atoms are structured has been proven to be correct in general.
edited 1st Jul '12 10:57:18 AM by Midgetsnowman
Is that cake frosting?
Assuming that the Higgs Boson has the characteristics that are predicted by the Standard Model, I suppose. Otherwise, some fine tuning might be necessary.
I think. I am not a physicist.
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.
Impossible Gender Forge
I was going to say something about cliche Sci-Fi plots, but it' probably tempting fate.
So. Yay. Physics.
I'm not certain what a Higgs Bosun is, but I've heard the name a few times.
Is that cake frosting?
It is a particle. A boson, to be precise, that is, a particle that is more similar to photons than to electrons (to be more precise, the thing is that bosons can occupy the same state at the same energy, while fermions — like electrons — cannot.)
The Higgs boson's existence is predicted by the Standard Model, and in that framework it explains why particles can have mass — although don't ask me why, I honestly have no clue.
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.
Impossible Gender Forge
That's interesting.
Physics is awesome at times. Even if Physicists get really excited about very tiny things.
Is that cake frosting?
Or insanely huge things, alternatively. For some reason, physicists seem rather uninterested in anything that is greater than a speck of dust or smaller than a star 
well, the upside is if the higgs boson isnt exactly as predicted, that means theres more to explore.
Impossible Gender Forge
I'll call Micheal Bay.
NOT THE BEES
This
is the Higgs Bosun.
Nope: this is... read the next few pages for the full awesome. 
Seriously, though: that's rather important. Even though from some of the reading I've done around it, the standard theory isn't quite correct on what they've actually seen. Tweaks required! And, I so need to get better at Maths... as I've just, again, been made painfully aware of my lack.
Is that cake frosting?
Do you get the "Higgs bosons generate mass" thing? I tried understanding it from Wikipedia, but I must say that I failed. I get that electroweak symmetry (which I could not define, but is some sort of property of the electroweak force) somehow implies that there is no mass, although I don't really understand why; and that the Higgs boson, for some reason, makes it possible for this symmetry to be broken spontaneously.
But that's the very limit of what I was able to grasp...
edited 1st Jul '12 9:49:00 PM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.
Yes — it has been used in some capacity by pseudo-scientists and a subset of creationists to draw a false parallel between physics and creationism as being equally reliant upon faith. It has also been postulated by Intelligent Design proponents as potential evidence for Michael Behe's irreducible complexity argument*, with the Higgs boson lapse being explained as the "intervention" that allows for complex systems. Behe, despite being a hack, at least had the common sense or reasoning to realize that taking this approach was a terrible idea, since scientists might actually make headway on the Higgs boson. In general, physicists don't particularly like the label "God particle," fwiw.
- * For those unfamiliar, the irreducible complexity argument is essentially that there exist biological systems in nature that are too complex to have evolved from simpler systems, so some other form of construction was required.
edited 1st Jul '12 10:25:53 PM by ForlornDreamer
I thought I had, Carc... then I looked at it again, as you raised it. And, found my brain melting to the floor. I'll have to have another go later. With more caffeine, I might manage... <crosses fingers>
Like this, but brown.
A higgs-boson walks into a Catholic church on Sunday...
The priest says "get out of here, you call yourself the God particle and that is blasphemy!"
The H-B says "But without me, you cannot have mass!"
Much to my BFF's wife's chagrin, No Pants 2013 became No Pants 2010's at his house.
Wow, a religion de-rail in the first response? Glad to know On-topic hasn't changed at all since I stopped posting here regularly.
Stay classy guys.
edited 3rd Jul '12 1:11:11 PM by CDRW
So that's what this does
I want to know whether we affect the higgs when we interact with it. Can we in fact track someone by the trail they leave through the higgs field?
Is that cake frosting?
You could send packets of oscillations through the Higgs field, at least in theory — these are precisely the Higgs bosons, exactly in the same sense in which the oscillations of the electromagnetic field are the photons (I am taking my information from here). But since Higgs bosons are not massless (actually, they are pretty big as far as particles go), they propagate more slowly than light; and since they decay almost immediately, that just does not sound very practical at all as a means of communication. I think.
Also, if I am reading that page right, measuring the Higgs field itself would be rather monotonous:
edited 3rd Jul '12 1:34:18 PM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.
More like giant cherries
The general idea was that "god" held the atom together, is what I was driving at. Hence the nickname "the god particle"
I thought that the nickname came from the fact that it was called the goddamn particle, and it got shortened.
Edit: Apparently that explanation was a joke.
edited 3rd Jul '12 5:00:11 PM by storyyeller
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
Statistical Unlikeliness
We've just got the mail in our lab, the CERN announced that the Higgs (or at least a particle with the expected characteristics) is sure at 5 sigma. It's almost certain we've got it, and right from them.
As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.
So what does that mean in general? Just physicists confirming how stuff works? Physics don't make sense anyway
Linky
I'm not a physics nerd, so bear with me. The physicists at the Large Hadron Collider noted some odd conditions last December. They've been analyzing the results ever since. The scientific community is now buzzing with rumors that the infamously elusive Higgs boson particle has been discovered.
The Higgs boson
is the particle that gives matter its mass, according to the Standard Model
of Quantum Physics.
The recent discovery is apparently a 'looks like a duck, quacks lie a duck' scenario, as the conditions observed are what the particle should resemble.
Exciting year for science, no?
edited 1st Jul '12 10:44:26 AM by BestOf
"Urge to thump... rising." -Fighteer