What stood out to me from watching the presentation was the incredible integrity of the physicists involved. The CMS group had 2 sets of data with > 5 sigma significance, but chose to also show weaker data that actually reduced the significance slightly. Consider the enormous effort spent to show that the result was not some background fluke - two separate detectors, running 2 completely different means of detection, each with their own sets of computer programs verifying the results. Finally both show almost exactly the same result (although the masses are slightly different at this point)!<p>Given that tevatron also sees similar (although weaker) results, the confirmation is beyond doubt. And what an achievement - the first fundamental particle observed since the quarks in the 1980's! An incredible victory for theoretical models developed almost 50 years ago (no wonder Peter Higgs had tears in this eyes)!<p>Combining the brilliance of the theoreticians with the integrity of experimentalists is what makes science the pinnacle of human achievement (IMO), and makes me proud to be human today.
<a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/07/04/higgs/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/07/04/hi...</a><p>This is a great comment:
"Think about it this way. Let’s say you’re at the target range, and the Lone Ranger is shooting at clay pidgins right nearby. Obviously you’ll want to know if he’s shooting silver bullets, right? But you can’t look at them while they’re still tied up in the gun. You can’t look at them after they’ve hit the pidgin. And they’re traveling too fast to study while they’re in flight. The only way you can see if they’re silver bullets is based on how the pidgin gets blown to pieces."<p>"The Higgs boson has a very short lifetime outside of other subatomic particles. The only way for us to study them is to smash those particles together and see the results of the decay. Based on how the Higgs decays (blows itself to pieces), we can infer its existence."
I'm going to summarize this based on my limited understanding, and hopefully someone can confirm or deny.<p>This is important because it confirmed the accuracy of the way we conceptualize the structure of the universe.<p>That means both the people who start and fund projects know that the basis of modern physics is sound. So the time and money won't be wasted by a surprise "nope, Higgs-boson isn't there" in the middle of a project based on the belief that it is.
Can someone please explain to me what would the immediate technological advancement be if this is true?, what applications would this have? (Already watched the video and read the FAQ, still a lot that is not clear to me)
Really interesting article: so we're basically back to studying the Aether, right? Or did I get that wrong? The only cause of mass is the particles moving through a vast pervasive invisible field?
So, will we get more understanding about the shape of the universe?<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_the_universe" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_the_universe</a><p>Can we now conclude what'll happen if we go right to the edge of the universe with speed of light? Without any further debates?
just for the record and to please the prospective downvoting mob, here are my experimental observations consistent with the cern experimental domain in order to warn any non-westerners:<p>"The cost [...] has been evaluated, taking into account realistic labor prices in different countries. The total cost is X (with a western equivalent value of Y) [where Y>X]<p>source: LHCb calorimeters : Technical Design Report<p>ISBN: 9290831693 <a href="http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/494264" rel="nofollow">http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/494264</a><p>about integrity:<p><a href="http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1127343?ln=en" rel="nofollow">http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1127343?ln=en</a><p>FYI: <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Spin_(public_relations)#Techniques" rel="nofollow">https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Spin_(public_...</a>