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They call it the "God particle." It's a subatomic particle known in the scientific community as the Higgs Boson, which could be the key to understanding how the universe was formed.
Just a few hours ago in Geneva, scientists from the European Center for Particle Physics made a stunning announcement that this tiny particle, whose existence has been nothing more than a theory, could in fact be real.
This morning on "Early Start," Bill Nye "The Science Guy" explains what the Higgs Boson particle is, and why its discovery is so important.
"It may mean we would be able to unlock limitless energy, let me just put it that way," Nye says of the monumental discovery. "It may be we would understand the next secret of the universe. That we would know - we would be another step closer to knowing where we came from. We'd be another step closer to understanding the universe itself, which is ultimately quite a mystery to us."
Read more about the Higgs Boson discovery.
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"They call it the "God particle."" The media seems to be only ones calling it the God particle. If you are referring to "they" as in scientist or even anyone with an understanding of the Higgs Boson discovery, they do not call it a "God" particle.
Please, people....stop calling it the god particle. Physicists hate it. And the religious nuts hate it. It's not a god particle.
1.21 gigawatts. Are we close to the flux capacitor? Hooray for science.
So if we could start over right now and you could pick any candidate right now (must be alive, be wilnlig to put up with a vigorous, thorough, and public colonoscopy, etc.), who might that be?I hear lots of muling and puking, kvetching, wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I never hear of any actual suggestions.The very first thing that should have happened was for somebody to say: No Mitt, no this time, not ever. Had that happened things would have gone one Hell of a lot smoother.And I think you kow that.Instead what happened was: It has to be Mitt, and I think we can convince those ignent peasants to vote for him. Those that we can't, we'll marginalize and use them as an object lesson for the rest of them.
I sure do miss Myles O'Brien - a real science journalist. For real reporting on this interesting topic, try the NYT, WP or PBS.
Ya know, the image of the particle looks errily similar to the flying spaghetti monster!
Interesting rumours, idened, and I am confidentthe Higgs will be found in the range 122-132 GeV, havingpredicted its mass together with the top quark massin a composite model, before either top or Higgs weredetected. But I'ld point out there were similar rumoursof an excess in the b anti-b channel indicating a Higgsin the range of 130-140 GeV just a couple of months back(personal communication from W. Marciano). It was a similardeal, a couple of sigma each in CMS and Atlas, which addedto a bit more than 3 sigma. It went away of course.My last look at the 2 gamma data, with abouthalf of the total data set analysed showed points aboveand below the theoretical continuum, and nosign of a bump whatever. The SM Higgs width at thismass is so small that I don't even remember the numberbut I believe it's on the order of 1 MeV. So in this casethe width of any bump in the 2 gamma mass spectrumwill be determined by detector resolution, on the orderof 5 GeV. There was an extra factor of two availablein the integrated flux not analysed at that time, butthat only gives 40% better resolution of any bumpat 125GeV. So I can't believe this will be conclusive.A SM Higgs this light just escapes the vacuumstability and metastibility (due to finite temperatureeffects in the early universe) if new physics onlyappears near the Planck scale. So it's premature for Kane and the supersymmetriciansto be rejoicing, I think. They should rather be worryingabout the absence of supersymmetry at 95% confidencelevel, below about 1 TeV. Exciting times! about 50%
Who then created the Higgs Boson?
85 Gordo,Answer: You got Obama because McCain was a tebirrle candidate in 2008. He came off as a tired grumpy old man. His political leanings had little to do with it. A candidate for President has to have a positive attitude and can never ever afford to gripe, grumble, frown, or scowl. McCain has still not figured it out. It is the one thing that Reagan, Clinton, Bush-I, Bush-II, Kennedy, Eisenhower, and Roosevelt all had in common. Nixon and Truman were the exceptions to this rule, but both of them left office with approval ratings in the cellar. Truman was able to salvage his reputation, but it took years. Simple
I am trying to understand the whole idea behind the “God Particle” that has been confirmed in proving the Higgs-Boson Theory. They’re saying this is what gives everything mass and it is all around us, permeating everything. Is it like the ...Tikkun Olam ( תיקון עולם) in Judaism? This calls us to work with the Creator to repair the world? Or is it like al Ruh as Quds ( الروح القدس) in Islam. This is said to strengthen all those who believe? Is it the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete? (παράκλητος) The Paraclete is the Helper of the faithful. Emerson wrote, “the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like fine ether." Is it like that? I need to read more science...
One more step closer to proving that the "zombie carpenter" theory is bunk.
Bill Nye: "I am not scientists but I play one on TV" He's not an actor either. He tried act as a scientist on Stargate SG-1 and failed.
"They" do NOT call it the god particle. That is a misleading term that was thrust upon the scientific community by small people who always want to inject religion where it has no business being. Leave god out of it. They – being the responsible scientists – call it the Higgs Boson particle.
It has been speculate by "mathematical elegant physical" reasoning... Oh Bill Nye.... you never cease to entertain =)
The Party has no control.OK.TAMPA, Fla. Florida's pmrariy might not be over just yet.The Newt Gingrich campaign is gearing up to challenge the results of the Florida Republican presidential pmrariy based on the Republican National Committee's own rules which state that no contest can be winner-take-all prior to April 1, 2012. (See RNC memo.)It was assumed that Mitt Romney, who won Tuesday's contest, would gain all 50 of the state's delegates. But the Gingrich campaign plans to challenge Florida's allocation and demand the delegates be divvied up proportionally. (See Gingrich memo.)Fox News has learned exclusively that on Thursday, a Florida Gingrich campaign official will begin the process of trying to have the RNC rules enforced so that the Sunshine State delegates are distributed based on the percentage of the vote each candidate got.RNC Chairman Reince Priebus warned Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry of the violation in a December letter quoting the rule, 'winner-take-all' states cannot hold a pmrariy or caucus before April 1, 2012. Ok, Republican Party. Show me.
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