'God particle' a gateway to new vision of universe

Why is the Higgs boson called the "God particle?"

The popular nickname for the elusive particle was created for the title of a book by Nobel Prize winning physicist Leon Lederman -- reportedly against his will, as Lederman has said he wanted to call it the "Goddamn Particle" because "nobody could find the thing."

"'God particle' is a nickname I don't really like," says Archer. "It's nothing to do with religion -- the only (theoretical) similarity is you're seeing something that's a field that's everywhere, in all spaces." @ Probie... Not from new's media......

A great step, no doubt. But what about explaining the 100 years old mystery of the two-slits experiment, much simpler, but as crucial to today's technology as the Higgs one? BTW, while the Higgs boson paraphernalia consumed billions of dollars to be carried out, the two-slits took only one candle and a piece of paper. Nonetheless, not even Einstein couldn't explain it.

Keech2, I read the link, Thanks, but again Micro Black Hole's? If some strange storm, with lighting hit the Collider, and an earthquake, set off a magnetic impulse , and some strange unknown Tesla Tower of energy accidentally electrified the Hadron Collider, we could end life as we know it in a "Micro-Pop". Stranger accidents have happened. They say Fukushima Daiichi was "Man Made". So is the Collider... This is new and unknown. From the article you had me read; As you may have heard by now, some people have voiced concerns that particle collisions from the LHC will create tiny black holes. Black holes have such intense gravity that they consume everything around them, even light. And so, within a fraction of a second, this tiny black hole will consume the collider itself, France, Switzerland, and then the entire Earth, presumably followed shortly thereafter by our whole solar system. Clearly not a fear to be taken lightly.

@ebisen I was being sarcastic......

There are some good Higgs Boson jokes doing the rounds already!

Is there any way to turn off or on other subatomic particles? I would love to be able to turn off my weight.

it'a called "God Particle" for a reason we may not even know yet

It's called a "God Particle" because the media named it that. Scientists hate the name.

I really wish they would stop calling it the "God particle." @Guza! The US was going to build one, but Congress cut the funding in the early 1990's. Google "Superconducting Super Collider." @T-Mack The Large Hadron Collider will not destroy the earth. There's a good explanation at Skeptoid. Here's the link. skeptoid.com/episodes/4109

its basically talking about anti matter right? so this is just theory but i think the US government doesnt want it to be funded in the US because they probably allready have some of that technology but furter advanced than this discovery hidden deep within there ranks. But thats just speculation :/

Furthermore, I hate to think that we not only destroyed our own planet, but our entire universe as we know it...Proceed with Extreme Caution....it'a called "God Particle" for a reason we may not even know yet..... just a thought!.....

It's worse than you might think! We may be able to create a "Black hole"!, Which will suck everything into it, including light, and our own planet, and then our solar system. The scientist's that discover radiation died from it. This discovery is just that, completly unknown, and we are in uncharted water's. Proceed with caution!......

I hope they will not try and use the findings to split this like the atom and create a even bigger weapon than the A or H bomb. Do you think the military would be interested?

Awesome work. Now let's see what they can do with it.

@Jose How? Evolution is definitely a theory ( an explanation supported by vast evidence). Anyways, I would be excited by a scientific breakthrough such as this.

So in decades to come we can build a massive spaceship on Earth, then switch off the Higgs and zhoop! up it goes into orbit?

I can see SF writers salivating over this and devouring science mags.

Yipppeeee.. more unproven theories that will NEVER BE PROVEN that we are supposed to stake our lives on... The Theory of Evolution doesnt even have enough evidence to be called a theory... its a hypothesis at best..

part two lol i didnt even comprehend the first part but thanks for the info ill scratch my head at it when i get more time xD

Guza!

In this article the mass is not given: 125.3 GeV. You can see here:

http://www.hep.fsu.edu/~reina/talks/tasi04_2.pdf

one example of predicting it (with some degrees of accuracy, written in 2004), and how was the research focused in the exact area that allowed a confirmation to the level of 4.9 sigma.

It is not the "god particle", more like the "goddamn particle", considering the amount of intelligence and time spent finding it (nevermind the billions of euro).

Jimizo, THIS tells you (a small part of ) what you'll need to know:

http://www.hep.fsu.edu/~reina/talks/tasi04_1.pdf>

ok so my head exploded a couple times while trying to comprehend this illistration :/ but looks promising

It is not the "god particle", more like the "goddamn particle", considering the amount of intelligence and time spent finding it (nevermind the billions of euro).

Jimizo, THIS tells you (a small part of ) what you'll need to know:

http://www.hep.fsu.edu/~reina/talks/tasi04_1.pdf

BTW - how do you know how to use the internet ? AFAIK it is not described in the book of genesis either...

The 'God particle', eh? I'm still not convinced. The Book of Genesis tells me all I need to know ;)

Amazing. Well done all the scientists and engineers at CERN!