ATLAS Mural Time-Lapse
Amazing time-lapse video of a 3-story mural painted on the side of the ATLAS building at CERN commemorating the world’s most advanced particle physics laboratory and today’s Higgs announcement, by Josef Kristofoletti.
(via Doobybrain and @brainpicker)
Requisite Higgs hilarity.
(originally muttered by the hilarious Brian Malow, the @sciencecomedian)
For starters, scientists hate it when people call it the “God Particle”. Not for any religious reasons, but because it overstates the importance of the particle (not that it isn’t important, just that it isn’t the underlying core of physics or anything like that).
The name comes from a book by physicist Leon Lederman called The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What’s the Question? The name refers more to the fact that the Higgs is so elusive, but certain assumptions required faith in its existence, even without proof.
Lederman has also said that his editor wouldn’t let him call it the “Goddamn Particle”, which may have been more appropriate given its frustrating nature.
Also, if the real Higgs boson science is too much for you, this “snow tracking” guide may help you understand its footprint.
Hey, at least we aren’t searching for Legolas.
Source: xkcd.com
Just so we get this out of the way right off the bat, I refuse to call this thing the “God Particle”. It makes physicists’ veins pop out of their foreheads, and I don’t want to cause them distress.
Our friends at Cheat Sheet point us to this AP news article, claiming that the announcement by CERN in the next couple of days will all but confirm the existence of the fabled Higgs boson.
There’s some distinctions to be made, according to the Geneva scientists. For one, they aren’t ready to say they have “discovered” the Higgs, only that the billions of dollars worth of particle smashing experiments have provided blips in the massive data set that are the footprint of the Higgs boson. As CERN physicist John Ellis puts it, in perfect “science-speak”:
“We’ve discovered something which is consistent with being a Higgs.”
With that bone being thrown in our direction, all we can do is wait, although most of the serious physicists I have seen speak on the matter are pretty sure that this week will all but verify the existence of the particle that gives quarks and electrons mass.
If you are still incredibly confused, check these out:
The Higgs Boson Explained with Animation
Can’t tell your “God Particle” from your “Dog Particle”? Too many quarks making you quack? Feel like a Higgs Bozo? Here’s what CERN is looking for, and what it might mean, via an awesome animation.
A PhD Comics animation, that is.
Source: openculture.com
The Top 10 Science Stories of 2011:
- The Japan Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis
- Technology Fuels the Arab Spring
- Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos?
- Record-Setting Extreme Weather
- A Hint of Higgs
- The End of the Space Shuttle Program
- The Death of Steve Jobs
- Gene Therapy Makes a Comeback
- The Sun Sets on Solyndra
- IBM’s Watson Computer Wins on Jeopardy!
Do you agree? What are some of your favorite science stories of the year?
Here’s a linkdown smackdown to give you some background, explainers, looks inside the facilities, and what today’s announcements from CERN mean and what they don’t mean:
What the f**k is a Higgs Boson?
What are they looking for at the LHC, and how?
What did they find, and what does it mean?
Today was a resounding “maybe” from CERN, with some unfortunate use of Comic Sans on the side. They must collect a ton more data when they start the detectors back up in March 2012. They could either continue to support their initial finding, or they could collect enough data to disprove it.
Either way, physics (and life) will go on, and 2012 will be a great science year!
Higgs Bosons Confirmed: 0
Comic Sans Powerpoint Presentations by CERN: 1
A big round of applause for CERN, everyone!
(via @FailedProtostar)
13 December 2011. In a seminar held at CERN1 today, the ATLAS2 and CMS3 experiments presented the status of their searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson. Their results are based on the analysis of considerably more data than those presented at the summer conferences, sufficient to make significant progress in the search for the Higgs boson, but not enough to make any conclusive statement on the existence or non-existence of the elusive Higgs. The main conclusion is that the Standard Model Higgs boson, if it exists, is most likely to have a mass constrained to the range 116-130 GeV by the ATLAS experiment, and 115-127 GeV by CMS. Tantalising hints have been seen by both experiments in this mass region, but these are not yet strong enough to claim a discovery.
Higgs bosons, if they exist, are very short lived and can decay in many different ways. Discovery relies on observing the particles they decay into rather than the Higgs itself. Both ATLAS and CMS have analysed several decay channels, and the experiments see small excesses in the low mass region that has not yet been excluded.
Taken individually, none of these excesses is any more statistically significant than rolling a die and coming up with two sixes in a row. What is interesting is that there are multiple independent measurements pointing to the region of 124 to 126 GeV. It’s far too early to say whether ATLAS and CMS have discovered the Higgs boson, but these updated results are generating a lot of interest in the particle physics community.
“We have restricted the most likely mass region for the Higgs boson to 116-130 GeV, and over the last few weeks we have started to see an intriguing excess of events in the mass range around 125 GeV,” explained ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti.“This excess may be due to a fluctuation, but it could also be something more interesting. We cannot conclude anything at this stage. We need more study and more data. Given the outstanding performance of the LHC this year, we will not need to wait long for enough data and can look forward to resolving this puzzle in 2012.”
“We cannot exclude the presence of the Standard Model Higgs between 115 and 127 GeV because of a modest excess of events in this mass region that appears, quite consistently, in five independent channels,” explained CMS experiment Spokesperson, Guido Tonelli. “The excess is most compatible with a Standard Model Higgs in the vicinity of 124 GeV and below but the statistical significance is not large enough to say anything conclusive. As of today what we see is consistent either with a background fluctuation or with the presence of the boson. Refined analyses and additional data delivered in 2012 by this magnificent machine will definitely give an answer.”
News Hype »» Actual Findings In Press Release
Like it was predicted yesterday, CERN scientists have found indications of something in a range that doesn’t exclude the Higgs. Right now, their data lies in a statistical gray area, where it could prove to be correct, or it could prove not to.
Over the next year, they will continue to collect massive amounts of data (man, are these experiments BIG) and try to improve those statistics. 2012 will be a big year for particle physics.
I’ll have more later. Let me know if you see any particularly breathless and awful news about this today!
(via scinerds)
Source: theamericanbear
I'm Joe Hanson, Ph.D. biologist and host/writer of PBS Digital Studios' It's Okay To Be Smart. Check out my "Episode Extras" here. There's a lot of amazing science out there. Let's go discover it together.
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