Higgs boson-like particle discovered.

[MKR&*42]

Sorry if this is already posted somewhere (and if this is in the wrong sub-forum). I heard this on the radio and thought that it's a brilliant discovery:


Cern scientists reporting from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have claimed the discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson.
The particle has been the subject of a 45-year hunt to explain how matter attains its mass.
Both of the Higgs boson-hunting experiments at the LHC see a level of certainty in their data worthy of a "discovery".
More work will be needed to be certain that what they see is a Higgs, however.

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A confirmation that this is the Higgs boson would be one of the biggest scientific discoveries of the century; the hunt for the Higgs has been compared by some physicists to the Apollo programme that reached the Moon in the 1960s.

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All the matter we can see appears to comprise just 4% of the Universe, the rest being made up by mysterious dark matter and dark energy.
A more exotic version of the Higgs could be a bridge to understanding the 96% of the Universe that remains obscure.



It's also known as the "God particle". It'd be truly amazing if this does lead to an explanation of the unknown 96% of the universe. This is probably as impressive as that experiment conducted last year which showed some particles exceeding the speed of light (which was apparently impossible).

[Ardemax]

Nice to see a break-through. It will hopefully make up for all these years of 0% success.

[Munex]

Did some research because I was very sceptical, especially after you mentioned something travelling faster than light.

The apparently "faster-than-light" discovery was due to a loose cable. Nothing travels faster than light.
Source: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/02/22/einstein-was-right-all-along-faster-than-light-neutrino-was-product-of-error/

I also doubt the discovery of the Higgs boson. They "found" it half a year ago but only gave it mass publicity now, probably just to make people think they are doing some good word and finding good results. the LHC was so hyped up and so expensive that it would be disastrous for CERN not to release any groundbreaking results at all. CERN gave this particle a 5 in the likeliness of verity; the faster-than-light neutrino was given a likeliness of 6 - which is more likely, yet that "discovery" was proved to be wrong.

[MKR&*42]

Did some research because I was very sceptical, especially after you mentioned something travelling faster than light.

The apparently "faster-than-light" discovery was due to a loose cable. Nothing travels faster than light.
Source: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/02/22/einstein-was-right-all-along-faster-than-light-neutrino-was-product-of-error/

I also doubt the discovery of the Higgs boson. They "found" it half a year ago but only gave it mass publicity now, probably just to make people think they are doing some good word and finding good results. the LHC was so hyped up and so expensive that it would be disastrous for CERN not to release any groundbreaking results at all. CERN gave this particle a 5 in the likeliness of verity; the faster-than-light neutrino was given a likeliness of 6 - which is more likely, yet that "discovery" was proved to be wrong.

Oh haha, yeah the entire speed of light thing was mentioned in the media an awful lot but I can't remember anything being mentioned about it being a mistake :P And I think the key element in this story is that they've named it a "higgs boson-LIKE" particle. If they'd gone straight in and said it was the Higgs Boson particle, that could have ended badly aha.

LHC has produced so much media attention. I remember the huge scare that it would case a black hole, was laughing so much at school because people were panicking over it :rolleyes:

[Ardemax]

http://i.imgur.com/IMzer.jpg

That's Peter Higgs after the announcement at CERN.

To be honest I think they're on to something...

[MKR&*42]

http://i.imgur.com/IMzer.jpg

That's Peter Higgs after the announcement at CERN.

To be honest I think they're on to something...

Seems weird, but aww. It's brilliant to see him that "happy" after such long research. Cannot wait to see further results of this higgs boson (-like) particle in the next few years :D