Are you having a hard time dealing with the Large Hadron Collider’s two-year maintenance shutdown? Do you miss waking up every morning to the potential of another big particle discovery in the news? Then strap this awesomely animated Higgs Boson watch to your wrist as a reminder that in no time the LHC will be back in business. More »
As a prominent musician once noted: all that hype doesn’t feel the same next year, boy. And that’s sadly proving true for our old friend Higgs Boson, who shot to fame last Summer but is now waking up to find only a handful of fans camped outside his collider. Part of the problem is simply that things have become procedural and academic — CERN scientists met in Italy this week to share their latest findings, but the updates were mostly either inconclusive or suggestive of a rather mundane-seeming subatomic entity.
At the time of Higgs’ discovery, observers were especially interested in the possibility that this mysterious particle didn’t decay in exactly the way science had predicted. It seemed to break down into an excess of photons, such that it might potentially reveal something unexpected about dark matter and the structure of space-time. But as data continues to be gathered, it appears more likely that the extra photons may have been a statistical anomaly, leading one researcher to admit on Twitter that his ATLAS team is “not too excited” about it anymore. Nothing is confirmed at this point, however, and other scientists have since tweeted to caution against jumping to conclusions. At least we can say for sure that Higgs still exists. And if the poor thing can’t hold the universe together and mess with the laws of physics at the same time, then so be it.
Source: New Scientist, @Resonaances (Twitter)
At the start of July, scientists announced that they’d discovered what they strongly believed to be the Higgs Boson, a particle that’s believed to be the key to unifying the standard and quantum models of physics. Now, after a handful more experiments, they’re even more certain that they’ve finally got it. More »
Last Wednesday everyone went crazy when CERN scientists announced proof of the existence of the Higgs boson, which theoretically gives us mass and holds the Universe together. Now, other physicists say that CERN may have found an impostor and not the popularly called God Particle. More »
The discovery of the Higgs boson is kind of a big deal. Stephen Hawking certainly thinks so: he says it should net Peter Higgs, the scientist after which the particle is named, a Nobel prize. But it’s not all good news, because the result has lost him $100. More »
At a meeting held at CERN this morning, scientists presented the latest results from the search for the long-sought Higgs particle. After 30 years of research and $9 billion of investment, they’ve changed the face of physics forever: they’ve found the Higgs boson. More »
The cat would appear to be out of the bag, but if you must find out about the status of the Higgs boson search ASAP, check the video stream (embedded after the break) as CERN scientists reveal whatever it is they’ve found. The webcast is scheduled to kick off at 2:55AM ET, as a prelude to this year’s ICHEP particle physics conference in Melbourne. Whenever the announcement comes we’ll be sure to let you know, check the links below for more information.
Update: So yeah, they’ve found a new particle “consistent with Higgs boson,” check out all the details here.
Continue reading CERN update on its search for Higgs boson starts at 3AM ET (video)
CERN update on its search for Higgs boson starts at 3AM ET (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We had a false alarm over the possible discovery of the theory-unifying Higgs boson last year, but a bit of poking and prodding in subsequent months may well have given us much more definitive evidence of the elusive particle. According to some rare rumors emerging from Nature, both CERN’s ATLAS and CMS detectors have seen particle decay signals suggesting the existence of Higgs to within a 4.5 to 5 sigma level of proof — in other words, very nearly concrete evidence. That’s not quite the 5-plus needed to settle the matter, but it’s to a much higher level of certainty than before. As if to add fuel to the fire, ScienceNews even located a briefly posted, CERN-made video (sadly, since pulled) saying bluntly that the CMS team had “observed a new particle.”
Whether or not there’s any substance is another matter. Nature hears that scientists are supposedly still working out what to say at an event on Wednesday, while CERN has made the slightly odd claim to ScienceNews that the yanked video is just one of several pre-recorded segments made to cover possible outcomes — you know, in that “Dewey defeats Truman” sort of way. Unless the scientists have to go back to the drawing board, though, the focus from now on may be more on learning how Higgs behaves than its very existence. Any significant truth could see researchers proving the validity of the standard model of physics just as we’re firing up our Independence Day barbecues.
Higgs boson just may, possibly, more or less be proven to exist by ATLAS and CMS teams originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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