The discovery of the 'God' Particle?

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   Seeker7posted 12 years ago

   The discovery of the 'God' Particle?
   
   It's been announced that scientists at the LHC Geneva have found a new sub-atomic particle "consistent" with the Higgs boson. I'd like to understand this better - is it possible for anyone to give a lay man's explanation of what this means for science? Many thanks!

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2. 68

   topquarkposted 12 years ago

   The uncertainty comes because scientists can't see the Higgs particle directly. They search for it by smashing protons together, which (so the theory goes) produces Higgs particles. The Higgs particles decay into other particles, and the scientists look for signals from those products of decay in the mass of data that the LHC produces. Unfortunately, there are a lot of other particles, besides the Higgs, being produced and decaying, so there is a lot of background noise and it's very difficult for scientists to know what they're seeing.
   
   The results reported today are consistent with what scientists would expect to see if the Higgs boson really exists. In fact, the chance of these results being seen if the Higgs didn't exist is much less than 1%.
   
   As for what it means for science... it confirms the standard model of physics, but there is still plenty that we don't understand.
   
   I just published a hub about this, with links to previous hubs that I've written about the search for the Higgs particle and unsolved problems in physics:
   
   http://topquark.hubpages.com/hub/Higgs-Boson-Discovered

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      Seeker7posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Great answer - and thanks for the link, I'll have a read of your hub. Many thanks!

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      teaches12345posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Good explanation, Topquark.  Seeker7, I was wondering this myself as I heard it this morning. Will read Top's article.

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   nightwork4posted 12 years ago

   basically what it is suppose to be is the particle that causes other particles to combine. they think that without it, particles would be like soup and never come together to form the universe. i hope this helps.

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      Seeker7posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      This has helped a lot! I'm really interested in these subjects but do find it hard to get my brain around some of the jargon etc.

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      nightwork4posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      i know how you feel. simple english and science don't go hand in hand

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