Higgs Boson Particle discovered, what happens now?

[Phil Fargaze]

I`m sharing the wow moment with the family but they are saying to me "what happens now then". So, what does happen now? Apart from reinforcing the theories etc will this lead to new theories or even new technology?

[knobby]

Listened to Darren Gough on talk sport trying to explain the God particle! This afternoon ... so funny

[JulianO]

Well - its a bit like discovering the electron. As it's discoverer said

"To the electron -- may it never be of any use to anybody." -- JJ. Thomson's favorite toast

where would we be without a thorough understanding of it? No electron microscopes, silicon chips, CCD for astronomy, ...

I think Brian Cox said a great statement on the news. Paraphrasing ... "Up to now we've been looking for a lost continent - not quite sure where it was in the oceans. Now we've found it, we can go there and explore, and find wonderful new things."

Who knows where it may lead, but as it controls mass, if we were able to influence the fields effects, we might suddenly be able to travel at the speed of light. I think this is extremely speculative, and probably completely impossible, but so were a lot of things when the electron was discovered.

[Phil Fargaze]

Summed up very well! I know I was a bit early to ask this question but time will tell no doubt.

[JamesF]

I've been wondering about this for a couple of days. Assuming they can confirm that it is the Higgs boson they've found, I wonder where that takes us. Obviously it's reassuring to find that our understanding of particle physics still looks good, but are particle physicists going to be sort of standing around shuffling their feet and looking at each other to see if anyone else knows what to do for the next few years, or are there people who have done all sorts of theoretical work based on the assumption that the Higgs exists and will soon be in a position to start working on those ideas for real?

And is it likely to have any impact on people's lives in, say, the next hundred years? Might there be someone somewhere who can see how they might build inertialess transport systems if only they knew the Higgs existed, or is it just a load of bosons?

James

[RikM]

Switch off the Higgs field and you have no mass to interact with gravity so you could have hover cars

[JulianO]

Just in time for Back to the future style hover boards we were promised!

[JamesF]

Switch off the Higgs field and you have no mass to interact with gravity so you could have hover cars

That's a weird idea though, isn't it? We understand about weightlessness, but what would it be like to have no mass? All sorts of atomic interactions might start to break down if they didn't have mass.

James

[mindburner]

unfortunately I have spent today trying to enlighten those who say such things as ' waste of money' 'so what' 'why don't they cure poverty' etc. While they use the fruits of similar research (computers, electronics)

I try and explain that such experimental results confirm the scientific method and are tremendous value for money.

But amazing news and it's a real breakthrough.

I hope it will encourage more into studying physics and science topics in general.

Overall I hope super symmetry gets some some supporting data

[RogerTheDodger]

Switch off the Higgs field and you have no mass to interact with gravity so you could have hover cars

Hmm, would that also mean no inertia?

[JulianO]

Well yes probably, and a slight inconvenience that you have to move at the speed of light.

[RogerTheDodger]

With no inertia you probably could...

[JulianO]

.. but the friction - ouch, that would sting, sting like a meteorite!

[RogerTheDodger]

heh, that's a good point

[username]

I'm quite excited as now we think we have found evidence of the thing which is meant to give things mass so maybe we can get to the bottom of dark matter.

I've always been troubled that we use dark matter to explain gravity we can't account for with normal matter when we didn't really understand gravity in the first instance. So I've always thought that it's more probable dark matter doesn't exist and we just don't understand gravity entirely.

So if it does indeed influence mass then maybe we can see if we understand gravity

[JamesF]

unfortunately I have spent today trying to enlighten those who say such things as ' waste of money' 'so what' 'why don't they cure poverty' etc. While they use the fruits of similar research (computers, electronics)

I try and explain that such experimental results confirm the scientific method and are tremendous value for money.

Brian Cox was on "This Week" last night (repeated at 6pm tonight on the parliament channel, I think. He had a couple of interesting quotes relevant to how much it costs. "The government spent more money bailing out the banks last year than it has spent on science since Jesus" was one. The other was that the cost of CERN is actually no more than running a modern university, and that cost is shared between quite a number of countries. In comparison to the money spent on other things, CERN is a drop in the ocean.

James

[Phil Fargaze]

I get the feeling that Brian Cox is going to be busy working on a new documentary. I look forward to it!

[sologuitarist61]

Brian Cox was on "This Week" last night (repeated at 6pm tonight on the parliament channel, I think. He had a couple of interesting quotes relevant to how much it costs. "The government spent more money bailing out the banks last year than it has spent on science since Jesus" was one. The other was that the cost of CERN is actually no more than running a modern university, and that cost is shared between quite a number of countries. In comparison to the money spent on other things, CERN is a drop in the ocean.

James

That's interesting. Wish I seen that. BBC iplayer here I come!!

[JamesF]

It's also linked on the BBC website, just for his bit. I'll find the link again...

James

[JamesF]

Here you go:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18736010

James

[sologuitarist61]

Yup, had a look and he talks a lot of sense (as usual). The thing I like about Brian Cox is tha,t because he always has a smile on his face, he can get away with with making some quite hard statements.

Having said that I tend to watch most of his TV shows with my eyes closed as there is just too much of him .. Brian Cox standing by cactus, Brtain Cox standing on a mountain, Brian Cox driving a car - just wish the producer (is it a woman I wonder?) would come up with some better visuals. I'll now stand back and wait for the torrent of abuse. :grin:

[JulianO]

He also said a while back something like "The cost of CERN is peanuts, literally peanuts. We spend more in the UK on peanuts each year than we do on CERN."

[sologuitarist61]

Classic !!

[ollypenrice]

Personally I couldn't care less if the Higgs Boson is useful or not. I couldn't care less that General Relativity made GPS possible. GPS is a trivial bit of convenience that the world managed without almost since the world began. The importance of general relativity lies in it's power to be an exciting idea. It the Higgs Boson adds to the world of ideas, then great. If it fails to add to the wonderful world of consumer trash, do we care? I certainly don't.

Ideas: bring 'em on!

Olly

[Treeden]

Here you go:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...litics-18736010

James

Thanks for the link James, that was interesting.

He is (now) fairly well known because of his enthusiastic presenting style in science documentaries, where I have always taken it that he is reading from pre-prepared scripts, but that clip also shows him to be politically aware, articulate on a broad range of subjects, and both calm and confident in a live tv environment. I think the young chap has a bright future!