Q. How did the scientists come to the conclusion that there should be a Higgs particle?
A. Since the Standard Model says that all particles are massless, which is wrong, one had to extend the Standard Model. This mathematical extension by professor Higgs made it possible to have particles with mass, but it also predicts that it should exist another particle, the Higgs particle.
In short, the Higgs field is the closest thing to the pop term "the fabric of space". The Higgs field supposedly causes a form of "drag" on matter, and thus is the source of the property of mass.
The preferred name for the God particle among physicists is the Higgs boson, or the Higgs particle, or simply the Higgs, in honor of the University of Edinburgh physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed its existence more than 40 years ago. Most physicists believe that there must be a Higgs field that pervades all space; the Higgs particle would be the carrier of the field and would interact with other particles, sort of the way a Jedi knight in Star Wars is the carrier of the "force." The Higgs is a crucial part of the standard model of particle physics—but no one's ever found it.
Theoretical physicist John Ellis is one of the CERN scientists searching for the Higgs. He works amid totemic stacks of scientific papers that seem to defy the normal laws of gravity. He has long, gray hair and a long, white beard and, with all due respect, looks as if he belongs on a mountaintop in Tibet. Ellis explains that the Higgs field, in theory, is what gives fundamental particles mass. He offers an analogy: Different fundamental particles, he says, are like a crowd of people running through mud. Some particles, like quarks, have big boots that get covered with lots of mud; others, like electrons, have little shoes that barely gather any mud at all. Photons don't wear shoes—they just glide over the top of the mud without picking any up. And the Higgs field is the mud.
...The world's biggest and most expensive scientific experiment has been hit by a last minute legal challenge, amid claims that the research could bring about the end of the world.
Opponents of the project had hoped to obtain an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights that would block the collider from being turned on at all, but the court rejected the application on Friday morning. However, the court will rule on allegations that the experiment violates the right to life under the European Convention of Human Rights.
"if you could control the Higgs field, it would discombobulate ... "
I second that OMFG!!!
What I don't understand is how these teeny tiny particles can create gravity, well enough 'G' force to attract/affect other particles. I'm of the understanding you need a massive object, like an asteroid the size of Tassie or something (the gravity created by an object this size would be negligible eh?).
I suppose 'in theory' if one such hole was created, then a cascade effect could take place...Even so I'd assume particles are colliding all around us and creating these micro black holes, every where, every day, but we'll never ever know as 'in theory' there will be no information to tell us that they're there.
Lol
sheesh - I had some problems with statements like the one below .... (maybe I misunderstood ... I challenge you to find a double meaning to this quote ... in fact (as Kenneth Horne said ) "I challenge you to find any meaning to this" lol
Yeah, he got a bit excited there!
Imagine that you could turn off the Higgs fiels in a particular space.
Because the higgs gives the fundamental particles (matter) mass .... with no mass (in a particular space), anything in that space would travel at the speed of light ...or discombobulate
My thoughts exactly.At the scale of atoms though, any gravitational effects would be overwhelmed by the other forces.
Tis a good site, my assumption about possible micro black holes occurring all the time seems to be correct.Here is a Q&A with a CERN physicist and below is his answer to the doomsday scenario....good site.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bigbang/asktheexpert.shtml
Make that electrons and positrons and whatever else they can throw around]In essence, nuclear forces and electromagnetism play a more important role than some seemingly infinitely squished protons and neutrons?
Perhaps this belongs in the "is there a god" thread.
LOL!!!Maybe
Reminds me, I meant to put "discombobulate" on the "word of the day" thread.
ahh it's too nice a day to discombobulate don't you reckon?
Sounds like you may have watched the Horizon program.. which is the best I`ve seen so far on this project.
Heavy on the scientific nature of the LHC and light on the doomsday scenarios ...unlike the nonsense being pumped everyelse.
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