holy grail of physics – the elusive “God particle”

[katty]

more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3701645.ece

The 40-year hunt for the holy grail of physics – the elusive “God particle” that is supposed to give matter its mass – is almost over, according to the leading scientist who first came up with the theory.

Peter Higgs, whose work gave his name to the elusive Higgs boson particle, said that he was more than 90 per cent certain it would be found within the next few years.

The Higgs boson was the professor’s elegant 1964 solution to one of the great problems with the standard model of physics – how matter has mass and thus exists in a form that allows it to make stars, planets and people. He proposed that the universe is pervaded by an invisible field of bosons that consist of mass but little else.

As particles move through this field, bosons effectively stick to some of them, making them more massive, while leaving others to pass unhindered. Photons, light particles that have no mass, are not affected by the Higgs field at all.

The mysterious boson postulated by Professor Higgs, of the University of Edinburgh, has become so fundamental to physics that it is often nicknamed the “God particle”.

[Clear Blue Sky]

1. Mind boggling stuff, but cool too...

[katty]

2. yes, it's quite amazing

[BlueJazz]

3. I believe it looks like a wad of spaghetti, with 2 meatballs for eyes.

:)

[Phred42]

5. Which makes sense since the Flying Spaghetti Monster provide all

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster http://www.venganza.org/

[redsoxrudy]

6. Too True!!

Which leads us to another question: Is the spaghetti white flour or whole wheat? The answer to this will affect the inherent mass given by the field of higgs boson particles.

[Phred42]

7. Damn good point. We need an expert on this

[niyad]

4. k & r

[Poll_Blind]

8. So, if you could strip the Higgs bosons from an object...

...it might otherwise retain all other properties. If you could construct a field after stripping which prevented further Higgs bosons from glomming-on, you'd have a object which would be able to move at the speed of light- or possibly faster(e.g. what Drs. Nimtz and Stahlhofen did with microwave photons).

?

PB