Suspense on a subatomic scale

Will, Snoqualmie WA — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:07:28 GMT

I, for one, hope the Standard Model is off by at least a little bit. That would keep things more interesting.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Chris Eldridge — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 03:17:53 GMT

I never cease to be amazed at how much performance scientists can coax out of even older equipment. We've had satellites stranded in the wrong orbit that were recovered... Countless probe glitches that were fixed or worked around... The sensitivity of exoplanet hunting detectors continues to increase... they continuously come up with new and ingenious ways to test things... Heck, even the planetary society converted one of the oldest 3m telescopes so that it too could look for exoplanets (one of the few projects that I thought had the most promice). Thus, I'd suspect that even long after LHC is turned on, the Tevatron will continues to be at least of some use to someone especially if LHC does not find higgs right away or does find it but reveals something else that has to be researched and confirmed.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Dr To — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 03:56:57 GMT

Alan, good that you started a thread on Higgs but please do me a favor - stop referring the Higgs as 'God particle'. It's oxymoronic, certainly unscientific.

Tevatron interest in finding the Higgs is a sign of desperation. They need to justify their existence when there's little Tevatron low energy can discover in the future.

The Standard Model is of course flawed. These flaws are very major and are well-known on theoretical grounds. Just that no Earth-bound experiments have been able to provide evidence to confirm where it is flawed. Astronomers have discovered dark matter decades ago and the Standard Model provides no clue of its existence - currently the only direct evidence of SM's incompleteness. Physicists today agree we are missing something absolutely fundamental in our basic knowledge of the composition of the universe. And that something is not the Higgs particle nor dark matter.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Caveman — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:07:34 GMT

As the Caveman in the Geico commercial so aptly responded to the therapist's goggledegook, "What?"

Suspense on a subatomic scale

John Suppa, Thorofare, New Jersey — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:05:12 GMT

What they will find, once this particle is found...maybe not once it's found but with some intesnive testing and studying is that this particle carries a blueprint for everything including communication, they will find that the human brain does not in fact store thoughts or memories per se but what it does is constantly imprint these particles with thoughts and/or memories, and every other sensation the human brain experiences and when you have a thought or a memory, your brain scans for the particle with that information. I will go further in depth with my hypothesis if anyone has any interest in it, but basically your brain does sort through other people's thoughts and every bit of information ever recorded, sounds, thoughts, everything but it only recognizes and can decipher things in which your brain has experienced on its own and set the "code" for that information....remote viewing is an example of this, there are many other examples some of which people experience in every day life.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

dale hendon, Sunnyvale, CA. — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:26:06 GMT

Scientific investigation offers hope to those of us who see a world with grave problems and insurrmountable challanges.The people mentioned are true heroes.
I bask in the sunshine of this stellar endeavor hoping it is not too late to make a brighter future for us all.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Richard Coles — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:35:41 GMT

Men's obstination to become God!

Isn't the beginning of our ordeal on earth? of what brought us the disgrace,the separation with the Presence of our Creator?

The quest is still the same...we still want to eat of this forbidden fruit.

What will be this time the catastrophe related to our pursuit of the unobtainable Graal?

God only knows what we're running after but I personally think that one day scientists will alter the genes of the race and send us to an unreversible catastrophe that will erase civilisation as it is known from the face of the earth !

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Scott Potter, Lexington, KY — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:52:29 GMT

If history is any indicator, then scientists are yet again on another wild goose chase. The term 'atom' (indestructible elementary particle) was first proposed by Democritus and Leucippus (500 BC), but throughout most of history Aristotelian science ruled, which excluded atoms as unobservable, and hence, meaningless mental objects. By the early 19th century the field of chemistry was advancing, and the notion of discrete elementary particles arose as a "convenient mathematical fiction" for nearly a century until Max Planck and Einstein overturned conventional wisdom. Behold! Atoms are real. However, no sooner were they proven to exist than 'sub-atomic' elements were discovered, which amounted to a self-contradiction.

So, is there such a thing as a discrete indestructible elementary particle (God particle)? Those who understand Aristotelian science in its proper context, as a student of Plato and Socrates and teacher to Alexander The Great also know that ultimately all objects (once named) are mental objects first and foremost. Convenient mathematical fictions have always pre-saged social and political realities. Aristotle's physics spoke at once of the fall of a stone and the growth of a child to adulthood.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Earle Salt Lake City — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:10:22 GMT

I read and I read and could find no hard fact. If you have something to report, report it. Don't beat around the bush with mush :(

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Bob E., RIchmond, VA — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:38:05 GMT

The advancement of science is the most important endeavor of humanity and should be treated as such. R & D spending each year should come in right behind entitlements and defense.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Tommaso Dorigo, Venice, Italy — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:06:51 GMT

Hi Alan,

nice post, it is good to see the press handling these issues better as time goes by. We started the year in a suboptimal way with New Scientist and the Economist portraying inaccurately the situation, and then things got better with Physics World, Slate, Wired, and now your site (I missed a dozen headings in between).

I guess the moral is: keep talking about science, and people will start getting the story right. It is the very reason why I blog about particle physics.

Cheers,
T.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Frank Glover — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 21:12:52 GMT

"Alan, good that you started a thread on Higgs but please do me a favor - stop referring the Higgs as 'God particle'. It's oxymoronic, certainly unscientific."

Perhaps, but Alan didn't invent the term, it's been around for some time now. There's even another particle whose unofficial name is a take-off of it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-energy_cosmic_ray

Suspense on a subatomic scale

jess martinez — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:48:05 GMT

This is so silly that it falls into dumb. and we go backwords in looking for the Higgins Boson.

The Higgings Boson is exactly where it should be.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Hamlet, Lexington, KY — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:07:30 GMT

I have always thought that science would one day prove the existence of God. I'd say we're getting close. God had to be whatever caused the big bang and subsequent development of the universe, as we know it.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

spit — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:45:39 GMT

Big bang? If if did happen than there is a God. So why risk a tear in the fabric of space/time. Hell will be unleashed on man kind.

Suspense on a subatomic scale

Peter Bouchez — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:38:38 GMT

WE ARE GOING TO MESS AROUND UNTIL WE CREATE THE 2ND B I G B A N G THEN, CREATION WILL END AS IT BEGAN.

WITH A SOUND THAT NO ONE WILL HEAR.