Higgs boson

Sunday Space Links

Quick-links to space-news around the web: Far-out space suits of past, present and future. NYT review of Particle Fever, the documentary covering the search for the HiggsBoson XS-1 update, the military spaceplane with flight-testing scheduled for 2017 Finding water vapour in the atmosphere of hot Jupiter exoplanet Tau Boötis b NASA is doing a twin-test,…

The Higgs Boson Particle Explained in 120 Seconds, By Peter Higgs

The discovery of the Higgs Boson is perhaps science’s biggest recent success—but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to understand. Who better to explain just what it is, though, than Peter Higgs himself? https://gizmodo.com/five-things-you-must-know-about-the-nobel-prize-winner-1442401152 In this video, Higgs describes the particle and what it does in under 120 seconds. But without doubt the best bit is…

Peter Higgs Says He Would Never Make It in Science Today

Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of what would be dubbed the Higgs Boson, says that he wouldn’t cut it if he were entering academic science today. Keep in mind that this dude won a Nobel Prize for physics a few months ago. Higgs did an interview with The Guardian while on his way to…

Stephen Hawking Doesn’t Think the Higgs Boson Is Interesting Enough

Professor Stephen Hawking is not impressed by the discovery of the Higgs boson particle earlier this year. First, it lost him a $100 bet. Second, he would’ve been happier if a more “interesting” solution to the problem of the mass of the universe had been discovered. In a speech at the Science Museum in London…

Stephen Hawking says physics would have been far more interesting if the Higgs boson hadn’t been found. Not only did it cause him to lose a $100 bet, he hoped the mystery would encourage scientists to look for evidence of more fundamental theories that explain the nature of universe.

Earlier this week, Francois Englert and Peter Higgs were awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on the theory of the Higgs boson. Many of us are still trying to wrap our heads around the dynamic duo’s discovery. These three cool GIFs from TED-ed will help.

Behold: Adorable Hand-Drawn GIFs That Explain Higgs-Boson

You hear about the Higgs-Boson all the time, but do you know what it is? If the answer is no, fear not: It’s complex and confusing. Luckily, the New York Times has a beautiful, animated explainer to break it down for you in layman’s terms. [New York Times]

Five Things You Should Know About the Nobel Prize Winner’s Higgs Boson

Analysts said it would happen. Professor Stephen Hawking said it should happen. And now it has. Peter Higgs, the man who first predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, or ‘God particle’, has been given a Nobel Prize for his efforts along with Belgian physicist Francois Englert. It’s been a long time coming. For Peter…

Higgs Boson Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Physics

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Francois Englert and Peter Higgs, for their work on the theory of the Higgs boson a.k.a. “The God Particle” a.k.a the elementary particle thought to explain why some other particles have mass a.k.a. the fundamental particle whose discovery Stephen Hawking bet against – a bet…

Is there a link between the Higgs boson and dark energy?

The Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate and we’re not entirely sure why. To deal with the problem, scientists have conjured up dark energy, a mysterious force that permeates all of space. Now, a pair of physicists say the newly discovered Higgs boson could help explain where it all comes from. https://gizmodo.com/what-todays-higgs-boson-discovery-really-means-5923494 Dark energy…

Did the Higgs boson discovery reveal that the universe is unnatural?

We discovered the elusive Higgs boson last year, but it wasn’t exactly what we expected. According to some physicists, that means the universe itself isn’t quite what we thought either. Over on the Simons Foundation website, Natalie Wolchover has a great introduction to this bizarre idea: On an overcast afternoon in late April, physics professors…

Planet Earth Can’t Afford Its New Gigantic Particle Accelerator

A team of scientists unveiled the technical designs for the International Linear Collider (ILC), a proposed particle accelerator that could unravel the deepest mysteries of the universe. At just under 20-miles long, it’s about 30 percent larger than the world’s biggest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Extra size…

Snubbed scientist wants to rename the Higgs boson

When it comes to the theory of the Higgs boson, British physicist Peter Higgs gets all the love. But that’s not fair, says Carl Hagen, arguing that he and four other scientists deserve just as much credit. The time has come, he says, to officially rename the so-called God particle. We’ve covered the battle over…

New Particle “Looking More and More Like a Higgs Boson”

Last July, scientists announced that they’d discovered what they strongly believed to be the Higgs Boson—but quirks in the data suggested that might not be the case. Now, though, CERN has announced that the observed particle is “looking more and more like a Higgs boson.” https://gizmodo.com/physicists-have-found-the-higgs-boson-5923422 Since the announcement in July, scientists at CERN have…

Yes, the ‘Vanilla’ Boson May Be Real

Forget the Higgs boson — this particle that gives stuff mass appears to be something of a disappointment. No, physicists haven’t disproven its existence. And no, the Higgs boson hasn’t jetted off to a Caribbean island, run up a huge bar tab, thrown TVs out of hotel windows and been arrested for getting into a…

Striking papercraft illustrations celebrate CERN and the Higgs Boson

As part of their 2012 retrospective, French newspaper Le Monde commissioned design studio Zim & Zou to create a series of papercraft illustrations as part of an article on CERN’s advancements in seeking the Higgs Boson. The cover illustration gives us a lovely interpretation of particle collision based on the Large Hadron Collider. The other…

Did Scientists Actually Find Two Higgs Bosons?

The Higgs Boson. The “God Particle.” We found it. It’s “real science.” Story’s over right? Not exactly. An anomaly in the data kinda-sorta makes it look like there might have been two. https://gizmodo.com/did-scientists-finally-discover-the-higgs-boson-a-k-a-5922738 When scientists originally found ol’ higgy, there was a bit of a strange blip that’s still confusing: the particle was decaying into…

The Moon landings, the Higgs Boson, and vaccinations are all fake

Here’s an absolutely lovely bit of ranty, frustrated-scientist humor from The Guardian’s Dean Burnett, that doubles as a smart explainer on the difference between true skepticism and scientifically vacant conspiracy theory. (Especially w/r/t media coverage.) Burnett’s ad-hoc reckons concerning the truthiness of Moon landings, the Higgs Boson and vaccinations are just a taste of the…

Physics PhD students make a zombie movie at the Large Hadron Collider facility

Think you’ve seen every single twist on the zombie movie? Decay has something that no other zombie flick does: the Large Hadron Collider. A group of Physics PhD students filmed their horror movie against the photogenic particle accelerator, cooking up a Higgs Boson-driven plot about a physics experiment awry. Watch the LHC-filled trailer. Sure, the…

The Higgs Boson Discovery Is Now Real Science

In July, scientists announced that they’d discovered what they strongly suspected to be the Higgs Boson, a particle that’s believed to be the key to unifying the standard and quantum models of physics. In August more experiments made the finding more certain—and now, the results have been peer-reviewed and published, making them, for want of…