See the press release of CERN:

“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,” said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. “The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks.”

This is cool news. Very exciting to be on the right track to confirming this particle’s existence.

Yep, very cool. Was with Luis Alfonso Gámez yesterday who told me he was awaiting the embargoed results. (Apart from being a skeptic he’s a science journalist).

If the Higgs boson is found, does anyone think that the so called “end of physics” will be on the front step?

mid atlantic - 04 July 2012 06:34 AM

If the Higgs boson is found, does anyone think that the so called “end of physics” will be on the front step?

No.

We will have destroyed the world before we would be even near to some end of ethics.

mid atlantic - 04 July 2012 06:34 AM

If the Higgs boson is found, does anyone think that the so called “end of physics” will be on the front step?

Not even close. My biggest annoyance with this search is the absurd “God Particle” name.

dougsmith - 04 July 2012 06:53 AM

mid atlantic - 04 July 2012 06:34 AM

If the Higgs boson is found, does anyone think that the so called “end of physics” will be on the front step?

Not even close. My biggest annoyance with this search is the absurd “God Particle” name.

You mean they haven’t found God yet? 

dougsmith - 04 July 2012 06:53 AM

mid atlantic - 04 July 2012 06:34 AM

If the Higgs boson is found, does anyone think that the so called “end of physics” will be on the front step?

Not even close. My biggest annoyance with this search is the absurd “God Particle” name.

Yeah, it’s crazy. My own father asked me if the scientist in Europe were trying to find God in a particle accelerator. He heard it at church.

My own father asked me if the scientist in Europe were trying to find God in a particle accelerator.

The whole “God particle thing was obviously a metephor, but just as an idle aside, I was thinking that it would be enormously embarrassing to the Abrahamic fundiwhackos if it DID turn out to be the case. God is not some bearded Guy In The Sky, but a subatomic particle which gives us mass.

The Pantheists would have the last laugh.

Not that the fundiwhackos would be deterred by that. They would just stick their fingers in the ears and cry “La la la la la, is ain’t sooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

They do the same with evolution.

Nah, they’ll just claim that god created the boson particle to do the work for him. 

Occam

Nah, they’ll just claim that god created the boson particle to do the work for him.

Cognitive dissonance! Ya gotta love it!

Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon - 04 July 2012 05:03 PM

Nah, they’ll just claim that god created the boson particle to do the work for him.

Cognitive dissonance! Ya gotta love it!

Yea, talk about cognitive dissonance, how is it some threads which are actually turdpiles of regurgitated misunderstandings, remain endlessly fascinating and no fly can resist?  I’ll mention no names…

Opps, a little off topic there, sorry

Hey anyone read the 4% Universe by Richard Panek.  I haven’t read it but I’ve just finished listening to it. And thanks to the bulky controls of the MP3 book and constantly resetting chapters, I had a very thorough listen.  And it was great.  I like his descriptive style and characters sketches.  It’s my first Panek book but I look forward to reading/listening to more.

The 4% Universe
“... The main topic of the book is the supernova searches that led to what seems to be a non-zero value of the cosmological constant. It also discusses the astronomical evidence for dark matter, as well as on-going searches for a dark matter particle.

One of the most interesting themes of the book is that of the encounter between the two different cultures of particle physics and astronomy. . .”

highly recommended

Wow, I have to agree with Doug.  I hadn’t noticed it before, but I’m getting sick listening to all the news reports talking about the GOD particle.  Whoever tacked that name on it should have been shot. 

Occam

I love it Darron! 

Absolutely, Darron.     

Occam