Sensible Erection | CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson

quote [ “We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV.

"The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” ]

After some 50 years they found the bastard. Link goes to CERN press relese.

There's a visual representation here;

http://www.atlas.ch/multimedia/4-muon-event.html

If anyone's clever enough to paste this into the comments I'd appreciate it :)

[sci&tech] [by pleaides@8:43amGMT] [+10 Good]

Comments

cb361 said @ 8:51am GMT on 4th Jul [Score:2 Good]
O! Prometheus of mass
We come to unchain thee
Not with key, nor torch, nor saw
But a circus of relativity.
Hadrons colliding,
A sudden, stable strangelet devours us all.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 9:11am GMT on 4th Jul
Love the graffiti in that animation. I don't know what it means but I appreciate that it's there.

CapnSilver said @ 9:14am GMT on 4th Jul [Score:4]

This is the atlas video

pleaides said @ 9:17am GMT on 4th Jul
Cheers Capn :)

happiest_sadist said @ 10:03am GMT on 4th Jul
It's an important point, but the H1-B is not so much a "genius visa" as it is a "technical person" visa. I've lost jobs to H1-B holders in the past who were considerably less qualified than I was for the job. Sometimes they work cheaper (one person who was new-hired for a basic computer-sales job, over promoting me from an in-house stock position, was paid less than I was), sometimes the company hires them to appear culturally diverse.

pleaides said @ 10:08am GMT on 4th Jul
Eh?

afrasr said @ 6:35pm GMT on 4th Jul [Score:1 Insightful]
You should listen to this wonderful podcast from the IEEE

http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/at-work/tech-careers/why-bad-jobsor-no-jobshappen-to-good-workers

H1-B visa's are pretty much a way to keep wages down for tech sector. I am not saying you shouldn't import skilled labour, but the bar is set WAY too low.

radioelectric said @ 10:14am GMT on 4th Jul [Score:1 Hot Pr0n]
I think this is probably the more disappointing result we could get. I mean, I'm sure the scientists involved are thrilled for having done it, but it would have been much cooler to find something that threw the whole thing into disarray than just proving what we already expected.

If it were happening to me I would be happier to get the result I was looking for, but as a third person I'd rather they found something crazy. Then cut to ten years in the future and hoverboards.

pleaides said @ 10:26am GMT on 4th Jul
I was hoping for worm holes :(

cb361 said @ 10:49am GMT on 4th Jul
Life in general would be a lot easier if we could cut past the boring bits. But a lot shorter.

RedRiverRat said @ 4:20pm GMT on 4th Jul [Score:1 Informative]

How the Discovery of the Higgs Boson Could Break Physics

Some are saying that this might be the end of supersymmetry and just more of the Standard Model. It is a disappointment. But they will ramp the Large Hard-On Super Collider to full power over the next few years and hopefully find some of the lighter particles that could validate the supersymetric clan.

spite48 said @ 4:56pm GMT on 4th Jul
Or discover that the Higgs field is remarkably easy to turn off.

RedRiverRat said @ 5:55pm GMT on 4th Jul
Don't I know it. That Higgs is a fickle bitch.
From 'me love you long time' to 'not in the mood' in a fraction of a nano.

Jeez, you fart just once, by accident, in bed and... goddamn it Higgs... I thought we had something...

Moleculor said @ 10:03pm GMT on 4th Jul
Might that lead to an inertialess drive?

Ankylosaur said @ 10:09pm GMT on 4th Jul
Hg doesn't stand for Higgs.

RedRiverRat said @ 11:54pm GMT on 4th Jul
Science: It's funny!

Seneki69 said @ 10:17am GMT on 4th Jul
About time. :)

Ankylosaur said @ 11:10am GMT on 4th Jul [Score:3 Funny]
No, those are chronitons.

blibblob said @ 10:22am GMT on 4th Jul [Score:3 Informative]
Scientists gear up to confirm new particle fits right in with our Standard Model of Physics, Higgs Boson finally detected. Wired calls it Higss Boson Breaks Physics.
Can we just fire all science reporters? Nerds will figure out where to get the new information anyways and in a little while if it's interesting enough Neil Degrasse Tyson will let the greater public know.

RedRiverRat said @ 4:25pm GMT on 4th Jul
whoops, reposted your comment above. Remember, scroll down before commenting. Props to you blibblob

tickaz said @ 11:13am GMT on 5th Jul [Score:1 Good]
I come here for my information. All the major science news gets posted here with a critical view on science journalism (hell this place is critical of journalism in general) so why go anywhere else?

Ankylosaur said @ 11:10am GMT on 4th Jul [Score:1 Funny]
This is some heavy news.

pleaides said @ 12:10pm GMT on 4th Jul
I thought we might celebrate en masse.

tickaz said @ 11:04am GMT on 5th Jul
The gravity of the situation is not lost on me.

pleaides said @ 11:39am GMT on 5th Jul
Don't let it get you down dude :)

antares said @ 12:19pm GMT on 4th Jul
Just mail me the details of where to pick up my Jet-Pak please.

sanepride said @ 5:41pm GMT on 4th Jul
Seriously, where's my flying car?
And practical nuclear fusion? Yeah, I know...only 20 years away.

hellboy said @ 7:16pm GMT on 4th Jul
All we need is a time machine that can jump 20 years into the future and we'll have fusion and AI. Time travel is a 3-for-one deal, so clearly that's where all our research time and money should be going!

-_- said @ 8:46pm GMT on 4th Jul
Because I believe that time machine technology is closely related to parallel-reality travel technology, which would allow for the resource exploitation of infinite (no matter how you divide it) uninhabited Earths ... I second the motion.

Though I would like to posit that what we need is a time machine which can go backwards in time since anything we build, and store properly, will get to the future on it's own.
Then we just keep the Roman empire from collapsing and everything will be okay :)

azazel said @ 3:06pm GMT on 5th Jul [Score:1 Insightful]
You... don't really know much about the Roman empire, do you?

happiest_sadist said @ 4:39am GMT on 6th Jul
Well, no, 'cause it collapsed. That means it's a singularity and no information gets out.

ithaqua10 said @ 3:27pm GMT on 4th Jul [Score:2 Underrated]
Event Horizon? Where is sam neil with creepy bleeding eyes.

RedRiverRat said @ 6:00pm GMT on 4th Jul

ckfahrenheit said @ 5:46pm GMT on 4th Jul

KERPOW

afrasr said @ 6:40pm GMT on 4th Jul [Score:3]

Happy 4th of July !

graham said @ 9:34pm GMT on 4th Jul [Score:3 Funny]
Meanwhile, the Riggs Boson particle is right there -->

ckfahrenheit said @ 12:36am GMT on 5th Jul

themanwhoeatslettus said @ 2:39am GMT on 5th Jul
I think Biggs is not amused.