By JOHN HEILPRIN and SETH BORENSTEIN
Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) — Scientists believe the “God particle” that might explain the underpinnings of the universe is real, and they are about to present their evidence to the world.
Physicists at the world’s biggest atom smasher plan to announce Wednesday that they have nearly confirmed the primary plank of a theory that could shape the scientific understanding of all matter.
The idea is much like gravity and Isaac Newton’s discovery: It was there all the time before Newton explained it. But now scientists know what it is and can put that knowledge to further use.
The focus of the excitement is the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that, if confirmed, could help explain why matter has mass, which combines with gravity to give an object weight.
…
But two independent teams of physicists are cautious after decades of work and billions of dollars spent. They don’t plan to use the word “discovery.” They say they will come as close as possible to a “eureka” announcement without uttering a pronouncement as if from the scientific mountaintop.
full AP story here
Lobos Motl has more here and writes:
According to an incognito ATLAS member who spoke to Nature, they have a discovery without any doubts. Pure elation that will culminate on Wednesday morning.
A live webcast will be provided, though I expect it it will be so overloaded as to be useless:
Watch at webcast.cern.ch
nearly confirmed
Doesn’t cut it in my book.
I doubt it; they should concentrate on more useful research.
So they kinda know it exists… kinda like we already knew it exists?
wOw!
that’s great , just don’t tell Richard Dawkins 😉
Oh God.
Have they done genetic studies on scientists who believe in the ‘God particle?’
“Physicists at the world’s biggest atom smasher plan to announce Wednesday that they have nearly confirmed the primary plank of a theory that could shape the scientific understanding of all matter.”
Nearly confirmed? A bit premature, then, isn’t it? Why don’t they wait until it is confirmed? Do they have it or don’t they? Is this a funding thing?
I do wish people would stop using “God particle”
God says “That’ll be the day!” :p
I’d cut them a little slack on this one. According to the Sunday Times article I saw yesterday, they’ve a four-sigma degree of confidence that they’ve found the Higgs boson. Likewise, reanalysis of collisions at Tevatron is to be published showing a similar level of confidence. Merge the two studies and you may well have the five-sigma degree of confidence to say “Yep, there it is”.
At least Mr Higgs is still going strong and able to pick up his Nobel Prize for physics next year.
OK, so it’s only a press release, but … can’t wait for the details! Thanks for the news, you’ve cheered my evening up considerably.
I’m sorry to say, because of the global warming scheme, I hesitate to believe anything coming from “scientists” anymore. Something will be announced, to justify why they need a few more billion to confirm their suspicions and justify their existence. Distortions and prevarications, by “climate scientists”, has wrecked my once firm belief in the community. Who will be the heros, in the community, that will step forward and restore faith in the work of science?
Why is it whenver they mention “Higgs boson”, Magnum P.I. comes to mind?
Sounds like one of his investigations, as well…
oops, whenever…sorry
Pure elation here in Old North Wales. I am in the process of culminating it. It should thoroughly culminated by tomorrow.
It would be so nice if it were true. ( I want my jetpack!!). And all the societal wealth that comes with such a scientific advance. Either it is true, or it is not. And time will tell.
I remember listening to the radio in the 1970’s, and reading in the newspapers, about a carburator design that would give 100 miles per gallon…but that the Saudi’s bought the rights to it and denied it to the world.
But then, upon further investigation, nothing. Either way, releasing it to the world would be a good idea. So it makes me wonder why the teaser?
They would want to be 100% sure – we all know what happened when they announced they had found a particle that travels faster than the speed if light!
They have produced a statistical model which explains mass!
And now they want to use it to tax people…
“Scientists have to show with complex formulas that there’s a less than 1 in 1.7 million chance that the findings are a statistical fluke.”
Now that’s how I would like to see climate research. Fat chance.
Well I suppose God will be pleased.
Lubos Motl will certainly have an opinion. I agree w/Leif — too early. Remember the faster-than-light neutrinos….
That reminds me, Motl’s site has lately caused my Firefox to choke. His site’s always been overloaded w/trackers, gadgets & scripts, but now it’s outright locking up. I use Ghostery & NoScript, but now even those don’t help. Setting View/Page Style/No style works on some dodgy sites, but no joy.
Lubos, if you read this or someone else knows, there was another site of yours you listed once that had a simpler html presentation, but now I can’t find it. Anyone have it?
for what it is worth “Particle physics has an accepted definition for a “discovery”: a five-sigma level of certainty – The “three sigma” level represents about the same likelihood as tossing more than eight heads in a row
Five sigma, on the other hand, would correspond to tossing more than 20 in a row
With independent confirmation by other experiments, five-sigma findings become accepted discoveries’ -From the BBC website.
Assuming the description that description is correct, that would make it 1 in 2^20 or 1 in 1,046,576 – call it 1 in a million possiblity of being wrong (ie experiements are false and not showing the particle). That is pretty darn confident – btw, I do not claim that I’ve got the right description of 5 Sigma.
They have 4 sigmas. They need 5. This is a world away from the ‘give or take a bit’ mannipulation we are used to. Real science, real scientists, real statistics. I fear too many on this blog have become so cynical about climate science they’re extending cycnicism into genuine areas of scientific triumph.
Even better will be when CERN finds something that *wasn’t* predicted…
Thank you Jebus!!