Theorizer of subatomic 'God particle' confident it will be confirmed next year Options

[Trip like I do]

http://technology.sympatico.msn.ca/Theoriz...c=abc&date=True


British physicist Peter Higgs first postulated the existence of the particle in the makeup of the atom more than 40 years ago.

Higgs, speaking during a visit the site of a massive new atom smashing accelerator in Switzerland, says scientists in both Europe and North America are about to confirm his theory.

Higgs was visiting the new $2-billion Large Hadro Collider in Geneva, which is expected to begin operation in June.

The collider, the world's most powerful, has been installed in a 27-kilometre circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border. It is operated by the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, known as CERN.

Higgs said Monday the particle may already have been created at the rival Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory outside Chicago, but that analyzing data from the lab's Tevatron accelerator is a time-consuming task.

"The Tevatron has plenty of energy to do it," Higgs said. "It's just the difficulty of analyzing the data which prevents you from knowing quickly what's hiding in the data."

The new, even more powerful Geneva collider, will re-create the rapidly changing conditions in the universe a split second after the Big Bang. It will be the closest that scientists have come to the event that they theorize was the beginning of the universe. They hope the new equipment will enable them to study particles and forces yet unobserved.

But Fermilab still has time to be first if it can show that it has discovered the Higgs boson, Higgs said.

Nobel laureate Leon Lederman has dubbed the theoretical boson "the God particle" because its discovery could unify understanding of particle physics and help humans "know the mind of God."

Higgs told reporters he is hoping to receive confirmation of his theory by the time he turns 80 in May 2009.

If not, he added, "I'll just have to ask my GP to keep me alive a bit longer," referring to his general practitioner, not the God particle, a term he does not embrace because he fears it might offend some people.

Higgs predicted the existence of the boson while working at the University of Edinburgh to explain how atoms - and the objects they make up - have weight.

Without the particle, the basic physics theory - the "standard model" - lacks a crucial element, because it fails to explain how other subatomic particles - such as quarks and electrons - have mass.

The Higgs theory is that the bosons create a field through which the other particles pass.

The particles that encounter difficulty going through the field as though they are passing through molasses pick up more inertia, and mass. Those that pass through more easily are lighter.

Higgs said he would be "very, very puzzled" if the particle is never found because he cannot image what else could explain how particles get mass.

Higgs said initial reaction to his ideas in the early 1960s was skeptical.

"My colleagues thought I was a bit of an idiot," he said, noting that his initial paper explaining how his theory worked was rejected by an editor at CERN.

He said a colleague spent the summer at CERN right after he did his work on the theory.

"He came back and said, 'At CERN they didn't see that what you were talking about had much to do with particle physics.'

"I then added on some additional paragraphs and sent it off across the Atlantic to Physical Review Letters, who accepted it. The mention of what became known as the Higgs boson was part of the extra which was added on."

[boots]

Nobel laureate Leon Lederman has dubbed the theoretical boson "the God particle" because its discovery could unify understanding of particle physics and help humans "know the mind of God."

Assuming that God exists and that God has a mind...

God's mind can either contain an infinite amount of knowledge or a finite amount of knowledge.
If God's knowledge has no end, it cannot be understood.
If this were the case, we could have only in an infinitely small gain in our attempt to know the mind of God, if we discovered the "God particle."
This acquisition would be infinitely minute, and therefore meaningless when speaking of Divine Mind.
We would be one step closer to knowing the unknowable, which is a contradiction.

If God's mind was finite, we would actually be taking a step closer to knowing the mind of God.
If we could come closer to knowing the mind of God, we would actually be taking a step towards omnisciency.
If science were to prevail, we could potentially obtain all of God's knowledge, and therefore be omniscient. This would contradict God's existence.

Basically, I think that Lederman could have created a better name than "the God particle," because the name itself implies contradictions.

[boots]

Note...I am not a theist.
I was just trying to think like one.

[Crazytheorist]

Note...I am not a theist.
I was just trying to think like one.

THE PARTICLE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GOD.

Higgs wanted to call it the "God damn it" particle, but his editor said no. So they decided to go with "God particle" to boost sales or something.

I expect more out of you people!

[Hey Hey]

I expect more out of you people!

We left the door open and he just walked in - not our fault!