justdrew

Searching for the “god” particle

Every day we collectively come closer to understanding the fundamentals of the universe we live in. Fear and ignorance, once in the driver’s seat, are now relegated to surly and unwanted hitch-hikers in the back seat.

Eventually, we’ll cast them out of the car altogether (at which point the ion-powered antigravity engines will kick in, the wheels fold under and we take to the air… to extend the metaphor and throw in some Spielberg-esque imagery)

This Newsweek article gives an update on the hunt for the Higgs boson. In extremely geeky scientific circles, this is the -to steal a phrase- Holy Grail of early 21st century physics.

It’s a fundamental particle that has been predicted in theory and has not yet been disproved, but also has never been observed in laboratory conditions. This is mostly because of the incredibly high energy scenarios the mathematical models require.

The opening of the Hadron Collider at Cern offered promise that the necessary experiments could be carried out soon. Of course, there was that little breakdown just after it opened and they are still trying to get the systems back online.

So, that delay to the Europeans and the latest speculation that the particles may actually show up at lower power conditions couple to give American-based Fermilab an edge in the race to be the first to produce evidence of the much sought-after particle. Not only are they operational, but their accellerator operates within the range some models predict will produce the “magic” particle.

Confirmation of its existence will replace theory with observed fact that could advance nearly every area of science. To paraphrase Newton- yet another giant on whose shoulders the next generation can stand.

So why should anyone care about this? Basically, even most physicists will concede, there is no apparent immediate benefit to proving the existence of the Higgs boson. Likely, what will happen is further advances in technology will be made because of our increased depth of understanding of fundamental particles and how the universe truly works.

I believe that once we begin widely using sub-atomic particles for computing, medicine, and constructive generation of energy (as opposed to nuclear weapons which use it destructively), we will see advances in technology that will easily make the 20th century look like we spent the time living in caves and hunting mastodon.

If nothing else, the Newsweek article closes with an awesome quotable quote:

…the physicists in Geneva might want to have some dark matter or a few extra dimensions to show for their efforts.

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For a nice concise summary of the Higgs boson, the latest Wikipedia entry is excellent.

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