looks like they've found the higgs boson or something very similar

[RickyGerbail]

http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/

[Consignia]

It's probably just my car keys, they are just as elusive.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

HIGGS BOSON DISCOVERED BEHIND THE FRIDGE

Scientists searching for the elusive Higgs Boson claim to have found it behind the fridge along with some loose change and a hard boiled sweet, it has emerged.  The discovery was made late last night after a late night trip to the pub.  "I got back and was a bit drunk, and I noticed the fridge was making that loud noise again, so rather than wait until morning and call someone out I thought I'd have a go at fixing it then and there", said one of the scientists.  "I can't believe it.  I'm still trying to work out how it got there."

The scientific community is now diligently searching behind its own fridges to see if more discoveries are yet to be made.  "I'm hopeful", said one.  "So far I've found a lump of mouldy cheese and a dead mouse.  The two discoveries may well be related, so it's an exciting time."

[The Masked Unit]

"party-time for HEP physicists"

And knowing those crazy bastards, it'll make Prince's 1999 partying look like a Sunday afternoon baby shower.

[Dead kate moss]

After wearily following the link because you, Ricky, could not be bothered to tell us what it says, I had to then follow another link, leading me to this -

Geneva, 22 June 2012. CERN1 will hold a scientific seminar at 9:00CEST on 4 July to deliver the latest update in the search for the Higgs boson. At this seminar, coming on the eve of this year's major particle physics conference, ICHEP, in Melbourne, the ATLAS and CMS experiments will deliver the preliminary results of their 2012 data analysis.

"Data taking for ICHEP concluded on Monday 18 June after a very successful first period of LHC running in 2012," said CERN's Director for Accelerators and Technology, Steve Myers. "I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the data reveals."

The 2012 LHC run schedule was designed to deliver the maximum possible quantity of data to the experiments before the ICHEP conference, and with more data delivered between April and June 2012 than in the whole 2011 run, the strategy has been a success. Furthermore, the experiments have been refining their analysis techniques to improve their efficiency in picking out Higgs-like events from the millions of collisions occurring every second. This means that their sensitivity to new phenomena has significantly increased for both years' data sets.  The crunching of all this data has been done by the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, which has exceeded its design specifications to handle the unprecedented volume of data and computing. 

"We now have more than double the data we had last year," said CERN Director for Research and Computing, Sergio Bertolucci, "that should be enough to see whether the trends we were seeing in the 2011 data are still there, or whether they've gone away. It's a very exciting time."

If and when a new particle is discovered, ATLAS and CMS will need time to ascertain whether it is the long sought Higgs boson, the last missing ingredient of the Standard Model of particle physics, or whether it is a more exotic form of the boson that could open the door to new physics.

"It's a bit like spotting a familiar face from afar," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer, "sometimes you need closer inspection to find out whether it's really your best friend, or actually your best friend's twin."

The Standard Model gives an extraordinarily precise picture of the matter that makes up all the visible universe, and the forces that govern its behaviour, but there are good reasons to believe that this is not the end of the story. For example, we know from observation that the visible universe is just 4% of what seems to be out there.

Physicists from around the world gathering in Melbourne for the ICHEP conference will be able to join the seminar via a live two-way link. The seminar will be followed by a press conference at CERN. It will be available via webcast at http://webcast.cern.ch/, accompanied by plain language interpretations from physicists accessible in blogs and chats from the webcast site.

Which in no way translates as 'looks like they've found the higgs boson or something very similar' so thanks for wasting my time there.

[RickyGerbail]

After wearily following the link because you, Ricky, could not be bothered to tell us what it says, I had to then follow another link, leading me to this -

you're an angry little man. i really can't be bothered arguing with you about this, check out what they say on the 4th of july and see for yourself.

[biggytitbo]

Mash is pretty similar to the higgs boson, are you sure they haven't found just some mash?

[Mr Eggs]

"It's a bit like spotting a familiar face from afar," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer.

I get that, sometimes.

A semi-familiar song shouted by an angry, pissed tramp.

An ex girlfriends smell on a well-used transit van seat.

A shit-smear stain on a public bog that looks like a mans hand.

The LHC will explain all this in time. Give it time, lads. Don't bicker.

[Dead kate moss]

you're an angry little man. i really can't be bothered arguing with you about this, check out what they say on the 4th of july and see for yourself.

If you've got any reason to believe that something amazing will be revealed on July 4th, tell us now, not post a link to a link that says fuck all. I'd be genuinely interested but you've got nothing here. And it's not anger that drives me to ask you to do more than post a link when you start a thread, it's an expectation that if I click a thread it will contain more than some mysterious link (that turns out to be useless). Just copy and paste something pertinent at least. Is that not reasonable?

[RickyGerbail]

If you've got any reason to believe that something amazing will be revealed on July 4th, tell us now, not post a link to a link that says fuck all.

"Reports from the experiments indicate that at least one of them, if not both, will reach the 5 sigma level of significance for the Higgs signal, when they combine 2011 and 2012 data and the most sensitive channels. So, this will definitely be the long-awaited Higgs discovery announcement, and party-time for HEP physicists."

apology accepted, now go and rage in some other thread.

[Mr Eggs]

[Mr Eggs]

^ That was  them pair in a "OOOO! Like your shoes..."  Moment.

[Dead kate moss]

True, that comment states what you claim, and it might have been nice if you'd quoted it. But I'm inclined to side with this comment

Please don't clobber me with criticism if I sound uninformed about this... but... though I do see all these articles, charts and graphs indicating something (large particle?) may have been found, I do not see anything (outside of a desire to find the Higgs) to indicate this IS the Higgs particle, nor do I see any explanation of how this will be demonstrated if a particle IS discovered. I would also ask, Isn't the Higgs boson/particle's existence based on the Standard Model's assumption that mass is granted, imparted, or virtually assigned by said particle? I just seem to be seeing lots of "There are indications of something there, if confirmed, it's the Higgs particle" statements. I see no mention of "What if it's just a newly discovered particle which is not the Higgs". I would just have thought they would first want to confirm that something was found, THEN go about some method to find out if the particle passes some falsifiable testing procedure for confirming it works as advertised.

But fair enough, I will apologize, as you were careful to include the caveat 'or something very similar' in your title. Ok?

[Replies From View]

Mash is pretty similar to the higgs boson, are you sure they haven't found just some mash?

Suicide is indeed painless.

[RickyGerbail]

True, that comment states what you claim, and it might have been nice if you'd quoted it. But I'm inclined to side with this comment

as i understand it they have theories on what the higgs should decay into, these are also the signals they are looking for at the LHC. sure it could be another particle that decays into the same particles as what the higgs probably might decay into if it exists but the most probably explenation imo for the 5 sigma signal right now is that it's indeed the higgs boson or something similar.

[MojoJojo]

After wearily following the link because you, Ricky, could not be bothered to tell us what it says, I had to then follow another link, leading me to this -

Which in no way translates as 'looks like they've found the higgs boson or something very similar' so thanks for wasting my time there.

To be fair, I think this means they've found it, just expressed in physicist terms. They basically found it last year, to a degree of confidence that would be more than enough for anyone who wasn't a physicist in charge of a billion Euro experiment.

[late edit]this was posted after DKMs last post, not attacking it. But just reading the comment it's ignoring the way CERN works - they receive billions (or some other large number) of events every millisecond - the only way they cope with the amount of data is to discard everything which doesn't look like a Higgs boson. If it isn't the Higgs boson, it's something which differs from it in a way we don't understand. CERN won't be able to notice the difference either).

There would be a lot more internet noise if this was anything other than a "yes it's right" answer.


It's a bit disappointing really - the higgs boson not existing would have been interesting, even to us plebs who don't understand the maths. It probably rules out any shortcuts to getting into space, unfortunately, although that was probably just wishful thinking to start with.

Guess New Scientist will be running a "Remaining Mysteries of Physics" issue soon.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

Yes, but what colour is it?

[WesterlyWinds]

Sky blue pink.

[RickyGerbail]

To be fair, I think this means they've found it, just expressed in physicist terms. They basically found it last year, to a degree of confidence that would be more than enough for anyone who wasn't a physicist in charge of a billion Euro experiment.

They were only at a 3 sigma confidence level last year, there's been a couple of signals like that that's gone away and i haven't gotten the impression from good bloggers that it's been pretty much a done deal until they combined the 2011 and 2012 data this summer.

[katzenjammer]

"It's a bit like spotting a familiar face from afar," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer.

Ah yes, the Bod particle.

[Dead kate moss]

To be fair, I think this means they've found it, just expressed in physicist terms. They basically found it last year, to a degree of confidence that would be more than enough for anyone who wasn't a physicist in charge of a billion Euro experiment.

[late edit]this was posted after DKMs last post, not attacking it. But just reading the comment it's ignoring the way CERN works - they receive billions (or some other large number) of events every millisecond - the only way they cope with the amount of data is to discard everything which doesn't look like a Higgs boson. If it isn't the Higgs boson, it's something which differs from it in a way we don't understand. CERN won't be able to notice the difference either).

(To be completely fair, I have to admit I just realised I read the first link and somehow managed to completely miss that really important paragraph that Ricky later quoted. In my defence I can only say I am capable of admitting when I've made a bit of a tit of myself. Also I was really tired after four hours sleep, and, er, there was a ghost in the room putting me off)

[Serge]

Actually, it looks more like Ghidorah is Godzilla's angry boss who's just caught Godzilla doing something he shouldn't and Godzilla is saying, "Ah! Yes! Er! Um! I can explain everything sir! Ah! Er! Oh, Crikey!"

[Mr Eggs]

^#
You put BLACK shoe polish on me brogues? Explain FOR WHY!"

"Makes em look old and classy,like....John Cooper Clarke does it...."

" Am I a punk poet? AM I"

"No boss...Yer an Undertaker...A CLASSY undertaker"

"Fair fucks. Lets BURY PEOPLE!!Or Fucking BURN THEM!!!."

[SetToStun]

Suicide is indeed painless.

Not if you feed yourself feet first into a wood-chipper it's not.

[Replies From View]

Not if you feed yourself feet first into a wood-chipper it's not.

Do dead people say "ow"?  No they do not.

[SetToStun]

They would if they'd just been feet first through a wood-chipper. Well documented medical fact, that.

[Beagle 2]

I am literally moist

If this is as exciting as science gets it's no wonder the magic sandals fella with the Derren Brown shit is so popular.

[shiftwork2]

[biggytitbo]

As I thought I'd explained before, this is nothing new. The Roly Polys discovered the Higgs Boson in 1981. They were going to hand it into the authorities in a tupperware box but they lost it on the bus on the way there.


So I think it'd be more accurate to say 'rediscovered' and to at least acknowledge the Roly Polys' contribution.

[BlodwynPig]

Does this mean the hover board will become a reality?