What is the Higgs Boson?
Scientists behind Sixty Symbols (Ed Copeland, Roger Bowley and Tony Padilla from the University of Nottingham) are doing their best to answer what actually is the Higgs Boson.
Named after Peter Higgs, an Edinburgh University physicist, the Higgs boson is crucial to understanding the origin of mass. The Higgs boson is a hypothetical elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. It belongs to a class of particles known as bosons, characterized by an integer value of their spin quantum number.
The Higgs field is a quantum field with a non-zero value that fills all of space, and explains why fundamental particles such as quarks and electrons have mass. The Higgs boson is an excitation of the Higgs field above its ground state.
Experiments to determine whether the Higgs boson exists are currently being performed using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
I am by no means a particle physicist or mathematician; however, centuries ago, theoretical physicist referred to the "ether" to attempt to explain their observations. Einstein came along and said their is no ether, it is "space time" curved by objects that have mass. So, it seems to me the Higgs boson, the Higgs field, is the stuff that fills space between the earth and the sun and the space between our solar system and the galactic center and the space between the Milky Way galaxy and all the other galaxies. So, when a region of cosmic gas eventually collapses to form a star or a planet "space time" (the Higgs field) is stretched from surrounding regions and concentrated (curved) into the region of increasing mass (forming star or forming planet). So, the Higgs boson and the Higgs field make up "space time" which is nothing more than the "ether". Help me out here, I'm just an interested observer.
Much fun, watching this and listening to these humble, brilliant men explain the frontiers of thinking in their and closely related fields, as well as the process by which complex scientific finds and work get done. These outtakes were a nice addition to what I know about this topic. I recommend that readers also consult the blog of Matt Strassler, formerly a particle physicist at Rutgers and Harvard, now a freelance science communicator.
On the topic of intelligence: I'd much rather give money to build a new Webb space telescope or LHC every week than give it to "80% of people living on $10 a day." In my nation we tried pouring tens of trillions in the dimmest and most feckless, and all we have to show for it globally is massive proliferation of the dim and feckless. Go to the site Population Pyramids dot net and see how much of human creativity and intelligence has been drained into the sands of r-strategy reproduction and idiocracy.
That's population genetics. The vast majority of humans distribute well to the left of the intelligence and potential curves. That "genius searching the trash dump" is arithmetically so improbable for a given population of failed humans that it isn't worth wasting the money finding it.
I speak as a woman born to a very poor family whose IQ tested (multiple times) between 145 and 165. Nothing stopped me, and I was too smart to "beg on the streets" and so genetically robust that no "preventable childhood disease" stopped me either. I had most of them, and several enough to cause me lifelong physical problems that still did not impede me from getting a Ph.D. in statistics and having a good career supporting the proliferation of intelligence. In fact my IQ test that yielded the 145 I took with full-blown pneumonia and a fever of 101. I look back over my life now and see that no hardship ever stopped my intelligence from expressing itself, and I spent my first 22 years in a place that makes Ferguson, MO, look like a garden spot.
The idea that genius or high intelligence is common in all populations has absolutely no data behind it. Quite the opposite: 100 years of data show exactly which populations generate which clusters of personality and intelligence traits.
The idea that genius is that fragile strikes me as romantic...and condescending. Does the previous commenter (who sounds so resentful of people of high intelligence who don't trail some hard luck story behind them) believe that I needed him to thrive despite the rotten hand I was dealt at birth?
Guess, what--I didn't! Life is an intelligence test, and the genuine geniuses I've ever known have been incredibly resourceful, robust, and creative people. To be stopped by one's life and surroundings from realizing one's potential is a commentary on and assessment of that potential.
Very interesting documentary. I found very interesting the different levels of skepticism among the 3 speakers. The first one at a relatively young middle age displayed considerable skepticism. The second older scientist basically expressed skepticism not just about the Higgs Boson, but about the standard model as a whole. And then the young last guy really believed. And he did a much poorer job with the hat explanation than the older skeptical guy.
The second scientist brought up various papers and also talked about how scientists in different specialties in quantum theory can't talk to each other, much less to the public.
I think a lot of that happens because science has become big business and secret. I tried to look up the Anderson article and it popped up first on a google search. But when I went to the link you either had to sign in as a paid subscriber or pay a download fee.
What about all the super smart young people out there who might contribute if only they had access to these papers. Satyendra Bose, who they mentioned and after whom they named the boson, translated Einstein's papers into Hindi and distributed them.
Do these people think that only a small cadre of people have the intelligence to do what they do? Maybe, but super smart people get born every day all around the world. But 80% of the people live on less than $10 a day, so they have no chance under our pay to play system. How many geniuses wind up searching for scraps in trash dumps or begging on the streets, or dead at an early age from a preventable childhood disease?
great documentary! i am not a physicists so at times i was a bit lost, but overall, i have a better understanding of the higgs boson particle
can i tell you something buddy ??? the name higgs boson's does not necessarily contains the name of higgs , here the portion boson came from the most renowned physicist and mathematician sir sottendronath boso ... we call it by his name the boson's particle ..you should all make up your mind correctly each time you utter this word ...
terrible, boring speecher. i came to this link to learn this ****, but he is constantly making me sleepy.
Screw the critics. It's a brillilant theory...
It's a brilliant concept. Screw the nay-sayers...
Thanks!
what i understood so far is:
"Higgs didn't push himself!!!!"
my brain hurts
Hi. You could do uploading of scripts that video, please? I need of subtitle in english for understand
I'm sorry, but you 'aint got me'. I, for, one haven't a clue what your talking
about. The Higgs-boson particle, (or whatever,) may well be correct, in that it DOES give other particles 'mass' ----------------- but it might also give atoms
their colour! I wonder what colour they (atoms) are?
If the Higgs-Boson particle gives mass to other particlels ------------ there must be as many Higgs- Boson particles in the universe, as there is ordinary matter. If not, then each Higgs-Boson particle must be infinate in mass! It must pass on its Mass-giving 'magic' to every other particle ------------ which
leads me on to the next question; how does it avoid giving its 'magic', to a
particle that has previously been 'magic'd'?
I could do without the ticker at the bottom which is distracting me from trying to understand these ideas.
However Kim Alseer u did just make a paradox, cause 10 cents even though its mathmatically = to a dime; it is still ten cents and not a dime.
Kim Alseer im an American. Here theres 1 understanding, U got 2 cents, that is not = too, nor will it ever be a dime. So, back to the same thing of makeing the dime :) . U need 8 more cents. I could be wrong but im pretty sure my math is right on this. Common sense is a great power! Not a mirror or made believe fountain that only gathers 8 cents. TY!
lets say the field is inside Plack, then the story of the universe/ all its particles, mass, and fluctuations are outside, in the past or in the future, and there by they gain values by being reflections of an infinite zero mass potential, so basically the higgs field is a mirror so potential can be described. far out but just my 2 cent. well make it a dime. This could in fact tie life to the very concept of a higgs field, life is a higs field, adding values to what ever it want. THATS INTERESTING! ;-)
@Achems_Razor
Hi,
I can no longer afford the time for all of these circular 'discussions'. I made a comment about how eloquently someone described a concept and am unable to respond in kind to someone else's derogatory and unsolicited put down. Not talking about you, you always are polite. x
If the Higgs Boson is crucial, as they say, to understanding the origin of mass, then it is crucial to understanding the origin of the universe. And they are not sure if they have it as yet. So how do we know there is not something else crucial to that understanding?
Physicist Leon Lederman an Atheist coined the phrase "the God particle" he wanted to call it "the Goddamn particle" his editor would not let him. (Too bad)
A Higgs boson walks into a church,
"We don't allow Higgs bosons in here!" shouts the priest.
the particle asks "But without me, how can you have mass?" .
Higgs Boson according to present findings is hypothetical. Why ? So far known Boson was the discovery of our past scientist like Prof. Satyan Bose of India on his mathematical calculation communicated to Einstein in connection with Theory of Relativity etc. Farther more recently, Quartz particles or Anti matters as per String Theory it has only linear existence with no width or height. This is absolutely fantastic. If a particle exist though we may not conceive with our naked eye or with any scientific instrument for mathematical calculation it may not be true that it does not exist. Only our perception or knowledge is limited till now to estimate width & height, which is infinitely smaller but not same as zero perception.
An accidentally leaked video from CERN today (supposedly due to a technical glitch, and almost immediately taken down) announced the discovery of a new particle, that "decays into two protons, has an integer spin, and a mass roughly 100 times that of a proton." All of which fit the Higgs profile.
Wednesday is going to be very interesting, indeed, looks like.
@Moderators
A reply to @Pysmythe just disappeared? Was there something wrong with it or should I repost?