inkbluesky

‘God Particle’ Expected to Be Found Soon

The new Geneva collider will re-create the rapidly changing conditions in the universe a split second after the Big Bang. It will be the closest that scientists have come to the event that they theorize was the beginning of the universe. They hope the new equipment will enable them to study particles and forces yet unobserved.

But Fermilab still has time to be first if it can show that it has discovered the Higgs boson, Higgs said.

Nobel laureate Leon Lederman has dubbed the theoretical boson “the God particle” because its discovery could unify understanding of particle physics and help humans “know the mind of God.”

When particles pass through the boson field they pick mass. First year chemistry students are introduced to the basic concept when they analyze chemical mixtures in a spectrometer. Each element emits a very specific wavelength of light. Which leads to the curious conundrum of matter consisting of both light and something that has measurable mass; reminding us of Einstein’s E=M(C)squared- I don’t know how to do the proper scientific notation in WordPress. The final confirmation of the boson may not alleviate the seeming contradiction of light and mass being nearly indistinguishable, but it will confirm the mechanism which makes the phenomenon possible. Amazing that we, like the universe are made of light, isn’t enough of a miracle for some people.

umbrellas and rain wall 1800×1200

“It’s been suggested that if the supernaturalists really had the powers they claim, they’d win the lottery every week. I prefer to point out that they could also win a Nobel Prize for discovering fundamental physical forces hitherto unknown to science. Either way, why are they wasting their talents doing party turns on television?”
– Richard Dawkins, in “Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder,” The Richard Dimbleby Lecture, BBC1 Television (12 November 1996)