Higgs boson breakthrough hailed as window to creation

July 25, 2011

Through the Large Hadron Collider, scientists may have finally found God – at least in the Eisensteinian sense. (Photo Credit: CC BY/Image Editor/Flickr)
Through the Large Hadron Collider, scientists may have found God – at least in the Einsteinian sense. (Photo Credit: CC BY/Image Editor/Flickr)

The specifics of the creation of the universe have eluded the grasp of science and theology. Yet a recent breakthrough at the Fermilab facility in Illinois has brought humanity two steps closer to what some have called the “God particle.” With the Tevatron Large Hadron Collider, Fermilab discovered a clusters of the elusive Higgs boson particle that has avoided human understanding for millions of years.

Higgs boson: A universal game-changer

Just two days after the Cern Institute near Geneva, Switzerland, announced the first sighting of the Higgs boson God particle, Fermilab announced the first U.S. discovery. For two clusters of Higgs boson particles to be discovered – especially in such a short time frame – is unprecedented. With its $10 billion Tevatron that accelerates beams of protons and anti-protons at extreme speeds through many miles of tunnels, Fermilab has created high-energy collisions that are believed to release the Higgs boson, the sub-atomic missing link in the Standard Model theory of particle physics.

According to The Independent, the difficulty so far has been observing the Higgs boson after creating it in a Large Hadron Collider.

Understanding the God particle

The Higgs boson God particle was first predicted in 1964 by an international consortium of physicists that included Dr. Peter Higgs of the University of Edinburgh. It is a theoretical part of the mechanism that endows all particles with mass. Under the Standard Model – which has been extensively verified – a Higgs boson or something similar is necessary to unify the weak nuclear force (which regulates nuclear decay) and the electromagnetic force (governing electricity, magnetism and light).

Scientists believe that once the existence of the Higgs boson is verified, humanity will truly come to understand why some elements have mass while others (like light) do not.

Higgs boson ‘hints’ will require a month of verification

The Higgs boson God particle announcements were made at a recent Europhysics conference in Grenoble, France. Scientists pointed out that what have been discovered so far are “hints” and other signs of Higgs boson particles and that it will take approximately a month to filter the data for verification purposes. Cern Large Hadron Collider project spokeswoman Fabiola Tonelli stated that nothing is certain yet, but the latest results are “intriguing.” Fermilab’s Donald Lincoln seconded this sentiment in an email media release.

The Higgs Boson ‘God particle’ explained

Sources

Higgs boson Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

The Independent: http://ind.pn/pijCfs

MSNBC: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/07/25/7155273-scientists-see-hope-for-higgs-hunt

Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110722/full/news.2011.435.html

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