USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: [nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists] Physicists Say They Have Found a Higgs Boson

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From: "Shittu, Aminu" Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:04:55 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists] Physicists Say They
Have Found a Higgs Boson
To: Nigerian Scientists <nigerianbiomedicalandlifescientists@yahoogroups.co.uk>

Math & Physics
Physicists Say They Have Found a Higgs Boson
http://science.time.com/2013/03/14/physicists-say-they-have-found-a-higgs-boson/

By AP / John HeilprinMarch 14, 201339 Comments
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AP / CERN
This 2011 image provide by CERN, shows a real CMS proton-proton
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(GENEVA) — The search is all but over for a subatomic particle that is
a crucial building block of the universe.
Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the
subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago, which will go
a long way toward explaining what gives electrons and all matter in
the universe size and shape.
The elusive particle, called a Higgs boson, was predicted in 1964 to
help fill in our understanding of the creation of the universe, which
many theorize occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang.
The particle was named for Peter Higgs, one of the physicists who
proposed its existence, but it later became popularly known as the
"God particle."
Last July, scientists at CERN, the Geneva-based European Organization
for Nuclear Research, announced finding a particle they described as
Higgs-like, but they stopped short of saying conclusively that it was
the same particle or some version of it.
Scientists have now finished going through the entire set of data year
and announced the results in a statement and at a physics conference
in the Italian Alps.
"To me it is clear that we are dealing with a Higgs boson, though we
still have a long way to go to know what kind of Higgs boson it is,"
said Joe Incandela, a physicist who heads one of the two main teams at
CERN that each involve about 3,000 scientists.
Its existence helps confirm the theory that objects gain their size
and shape when particles interact in an energy field with a key
particle, the Higgs boson. The more they attract, the theory goes, the
bigger their mass will be.
But, it remains an "open question," CERN said in a statement, whether
this is the Higgs boson that was expected in the original formulation,
or possibly the lightest of several predicted in some theories that go
beyond that model.
But for now, it said, there can be little doubt that a Higgs boson
does exist, in some form.
Whether or not it is a Higgs boson is demonstrated by how it interacts
with other particles and its quantum properties, CERN said in the
statement. The data "strongly indicates that it is a Higgs boson," it
said.
The discovery would be a strong contender for the Nobel Prize, though
it remains unclear whether that might go to Higgs and the others who
first proposed the theory or to the thousands of scientists who found
it, or to all of them.
The hunt for the Higgs entailed the use of CERN's atom smasher, the
Large Hadron Collider, which cost some $10 billion to build and run in
a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border.
It has been creating high-energy collisions to smash protons and then
study the collisions and determine how subatomic particles acquire
mass — without which the particles would fail to stick together.
Interactive Panorama: Step Inside the Large Hadron Collider

Read more: http://science.time.com/2013/03/14/physicists-say-they-have-found-a-higgs-boson/#ixzz2NYBSG7wv



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Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

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