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Tag: higgs boson

  • Exotic Hadron Particle Confirmed by LHC

    Quarks, or subatomic, elementary particles of other subatomic particles, have only been known to exist since the 1960’s. Since that time, though, scientists have made great progress with identifying key characteristics of quarks and their utility. Quarks come in six different flavors – up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top. These quarks combine in different ways to form either baryons or mesons, both of which fall under the hadron category. The most common forms of baryon particles are protons and neutrons, while mesons are usually observed as products of nuclear decay. Quarks are also the other subatomic particle to experience all four fundamental forces of nature – strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravity. Because of this, all quarks had been explainable by the Standard Model of particle physics. Until now, that is.

    On April 9, scientists at the CERN Laboratory in Switzerland made an amazing new discovery. While the scientists were waiting for the repairs and improvements of the Large Hadron Collider to be complete and for the particle accelerator to come back online, they decided to look at some of the data the LHC had collected during its previous online operations.

    What the scientists discovered may change the face of particle physics forever.

    The scientists studied the decay of more than 25,000 mesons from 180 trillion proton-to-proton collisions and were faced with stunning news. The tetraquark, which had first been postulated in 2003, was confirmed as true by the data the scientists studied.

    This tetraquark, composed of four quarks, defies the laws of all known particle physics. Until this point, scientists knew only of the two previously mentioned types of hadrons – baryons and mesons. Baryons are composed of three quarks, while mesons are composed of two – both a quark and an antiquark.

    The Standard Model of particle physics predicts the existence of both categories of hadrons; it does not, however, predict any semblance of a tetraquark.

    “We’ve confirmed the unambiguous observation of a very exotic state—something that looks like a particle composed of two quarks and two anti-quarks. The discovery certainly doesn’t fit the traditional quark model. It may give us a new way of looking at strong-interaction physics,” stated study co-leader Tomasz Skwarnicki, a high-energy physicist at Syracuse University.

    When the particle was first proposed in 2003, it was called Z(4430) and derived from observations of a previous particle collider which implied that a particle heavier than any other known subatomic particle existed. Unfortunately for those scientists, they were not able to prove to the scientific community that such a particle did, indeed, exist.

    “Some experts argued that [the] initial analysis [of Z(4430)] was naïve and prone to arrive at an unjustified conclusion. As a result, many physicists concluded that there was no good evidence to prove this particle was real,” recalled Skwarnicki.

    The scientists are CERN, though, are quite positive of their results. The report of the tetraquark came with a certainty of 13.9 sigma. In layman’s math, this means that the margin of error with the result is 1*10^-44, or about the same as winning the lottery multiple times in a row.

    “The significance of the Z (4430) signal is overwhelming – at least 13.9 sigma – confirming the existence of this state. The LHCb analysis establishes the resonant nature of the observed structure, proving that this is really a particle, and not some special feature of the data,” reported LHCb spokesperson Pierluigi Campana.

    While the scientists would love to postulate about the impact of this discovery, essentially nothing is known about this exotic hadron particle. And, in even worse news, no new research will be conducted until the LHC is back online in 2015. However, the wait will be rewarded as the new LHC will be twice as powerful as it previously was and six times as powerful as any other particle collider in the world.

    Image via Facebook

  • Higgs Boson Team Wins Nobel Prize for Physics

    LiveScience and Reuters both report that Peter Higgs of Britain and Francois Englert of Belgium have been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for physics yesterday. Their prediction of the Higgs boson’s existence helps to explain how the stars and planets formed from elementary matter.

    LiveScience managing editor Jeanna Bryner said that early Nobel forecasts were predicting the win for Higgs and Englert, who were among the original team to propose the theory in 1964. The prize was jointly awarded to both scientists. Higgs’ and Englerts’ predictions were fulfilled in the summer of 2012 when CERN’s super-sized underground particle smasher detected the presence of the theorized particle.

    Higgs, who is known to avoid the spotlight where possible, said in a statement from the University of Edinburgh, “I am overwhelmed to receive this award. I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research.” Englert, meanwhile, told reporters excitedly by phone from Stockholm, “You may imagine that this is not very unpleasant, of course. I am very, very happy to have the recognition of this extraordinary award.”

    The official reason for the award cites “the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider” on the Nobel website.

    The Higgs boson has been popularly called the “God particle” because of its place as a fundamental building block in the universe’s construction, although scientists avoid that title and Higgs himself does not favor it.

    By studying the debris from particle collisions in the L.H.C., Higgs and Englert proved that the particles inside atoms gain mass by interacting with an invisible field that pervades all space; as they interact further, so they gain more mass. That field’s existence is made possible by the Higgs boson.

    Attempting to understand the concept of the Higgs boson particle may seem like a daunting task; thankfully, artist Nigel Holmes with the New York Times created a fascinating series of drawings illustrating the more nuanced aspects of the discovery; they can be viewed here.

    [Image via Nigel Holmes/The New York Times]

  • Higgs boson Discovery Nets Nobel Prize

    Francois Englert and Peter Higgs were awarded the Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday for work that led to last year’s discovery of the Higgs boson.

    However, their work actually began in 1964 with independent papers on the Higgs boson, which is considered evidence of a pervasive field called the Higgs field that endows other particles with mass, and is one of the mysterious attributes of physics, according to CNet. Watch the announcement here:

    It has been a long, slow road in the confirmation of their theory. What began in 1964, and earnestly awaited the invention underground particle accelerator, called the Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, has finally been proven this year beyond doubt.

    In 2011, CERN said that a hint of the Higgs boson has been discovered, but stopped well short of declaring it to be verified. In 2012, the scientists declared the likelihood to be 99.99999%, then in 2013, increased that even more after gathering more data.

    So who are these amazing scientists who have contributed such a bounty to the world of physics?

    Peter Higgs, a UK citizen, was born in 1929 in Newcastle upon Tyne. He received his doctorate degree in 1954 from King’s College, University of London and is a professor emeritus at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom and apparently very shy, according to LiveScience. The Nobel committee apparently couldn’t reach Higgs to give him the big news.

    “The rumor has it that he has gone into hiding for the rest of the week in anticipation,” said Olga Botner, a Nobel committee member, in a live webcast. “Since this prize was so anticipated he knew that in either case, if he gets it there will be a press storm, if he doesn’t get it there will be a press storm.”

    Francois Englert, a Belgium citizen, was born in 1932 in Etterbeek, Belgium, and received his doctorate degree in 1959 from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Brussels, where he is now a professor emeritus.

    Reportedly, Englert collaborated with another physicist, Robert Brout, on the original paper, but Brout has since died and therefore isn’t eligible for the Nobel Prize, worth about $1.25 million.

    Image via youtube

  • Google Street View Goes Inside CERN Lab

    Google Street View Goes Inside CERN Lab

    Google has launched new Street View imagery from inside CERN, the lab near Geneva where the Large Hadron Collider resides.

    “We’re delighted that CERN opened its doors to Google Maps Street View allowing anyone, anywhere in the world to take a peek into its laboratories, control centers and its myriad underground tunnels housing cutting-edge experiments,” says Google’s Pascale Milite. “Street View also lets scientists working on the experiments, who may be on the other side of the world, explore the equipment they’re using.”

    Here are some of the available shots:

    Large Hadron Collider

    Street View CERN

    ATLAS Detector

    Street View CERN

    ALICE Detector

    Street View CERN

    Compact Muon Solenoid Detector

    Street View CERN

    “For two full weeks back in 2011, members of our Street View team from Google’s Zurich office worked with our CERN partners to capture this incredible imagery,” says Milite.

    In May, Google shared a video of a physics teacher using Google Glass to conduct a hangout from CERN.

    Images: Google

  • Higgs Boson Found in Large Hadron Collider Data

    Scientists working with data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) this week revealed that a detailed analysis suggests that the elusive Higgs boson really has been discovered.

    The possible discovery of the so-called “god particle” was announced last year, but scientists emphasized that more research would be needed before the discovery could be confirmed. Researchers have now analyzed two and a half times the data available at the time of that announcement, and it still appears likely that the Higgs Boson has been found.

    “The preliminary results with the full 2012 data set are magnificent and 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 working on the CMS project at CERN.

    The analysis of the data focused on the observed particle’s quantum properties and interactions with other particles. The Higgs boson is hypothesized to have no spin and its parity is hypothesized to be positive. Researchers stated the data collected at CERN “strongly indicates” that the observed particle is the Higgs.

    “The beautiful new results represent a huge effort by many dedicated people,” said Dave Charlton, spokesperson for the ATLUS experiment at CERN, which is using the LHC’s high power to observe particle interactions. “They point to the new particle having the spin-parity of a Higgs boson as in the Standard Model. We are now well started on the measurement programme in the Higgs sector.”

    (Image via CERN)

  • What is the Higgs Boson? These Hipsters Are Clueless

    With the scientific community still buzzing about this week’s announcement concerning the Higgs boson, we think it’s important to educate the internet community about its significance and delve into the reason why people are making such a fuss about something that sounds like a villain in a Western.

    And by “educate,” I of course mean “let the grownups educate.” That’s why we gave you this wonderful video of a particle physicist (and epic beard owner) explaining the Higgs boson to us like we were five years old. His beautiful analogy revolving around snow allowed me to understand the true importance of the Higgs boson. I now know exactly how everything works.

    Just kidding, it’s still confusing as hell. The Higgs boson is the theorized particle that gives everything in the universe mass. There. That’s enough to keep myself from being embarrassed as parties, and that’s really all we can ask for, right?

    You can find plenty of videos of people explaining (or attempting to explain) the Higgs boson on YouTube. But it’s rarer to see someone out on the street, Jaywalking-style, asking people if they know anything about the famous particle.

    And according to this “Hipster Pop Quiz” from the folks at Motherboard, they don’t. know. anything.

    We should probably cut the good people of Williamsburg some slack. Until earlier this week, when everyone one of Facebook became a particle physicist, it’s doubtful that most of the country would have been able to give an accurate on-the-spot description of science’s biggest discovery as of late.

  • This Guy and His Beard Explain the Higgs Boson to You Like You’re a Dumb Child

    Over the past couple of days, you may have read that scientists have found the Higgs boson. You may have even heard some people refer to it as the “God Particle.” You also may have just glossed over that headline because why would you care that they’ve found it, when you don’t even know why the hell they were looking in the first place?

    In short (really short), the Higgs boson is hypothetical particle (boson) present in a Higgs field. The Higgs boson was first mentioned in 1964 as a way to explain the Higgs mechanism, or, the way in which particles acquire mass. Thus ends my embarrassing attempt at particle physics.

    Well, if you ever wanted to have the Higgs boson explained to you by a guy wearing a pretty sweet T-shirt – now is your chance.

    The “guy” is actually John Ellis, a theoretical physicist who sat down to attempt to succinctly define the Higgs boson just one day before CERN made their big announcement regarding their research into the particle.

    For those who feel like understanding something like this is out of the realm of possibility, the video won’t answer all of your questions. We’re dealing with complicated stuff, mind you. But at least you won’t feel left out at parties and can maybe throw your two cents into the mix when people are arguing about whether or not it should really be called the “God Particle.”

    Get educated below:

    Now that you (kind of) understand what’s so important about the Higgs boson, you can see why it’s such a big deal that they’ve found a new particle that’s “consistent” with the highly prized Higgs boson.

    What’s next?

    The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle and its significance for our understanding of the universe. Are its properties as expected for the long-sought Higgs boson, the final missing ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics? Or is it something more exotic? The Standard Model describes the fundamental particles from which we, and every visible thing in the universe, are made, and the forces acting between them. All the matter that we can see, however, appears to be no more than about 4% of the total. A more exotic version of the Higgs particle could be a bridge to understanding the 96% of the universe that remains obscure.

    Go get ’em, guys.

  • Higgs-Boson: What Is The “God Particle”, And Why Is It So Important?

    Particle physicists think they have discovered a key element to a question we have never been able to answer: where did we come from?

    While it’s long been thought in the scientific world that life on Earth was created by a “big bang”–the high-energy collision of particles and matter billions of years ago within the universe–one very big snag in the theory was the question of where those particles came from, themselves. It becomes a sort of, “chicken-or-the-egg” thing, and thinking about it too long makes my brain hurt; if I could get Neil Degrasse Tyson to explain it to me, I’m sure it would all sound simple enough.

    The missing element to the theory is what scientists call the “God particle”–the Higgs boson–, which has been to those in the science world what the Holy Grail was for Indiana Jones; much speculated about, but always just out of reach. Now, researchers think they’ve found a key element to that particle, what is essentially a “footprint” of the Higgs boson, and are eager to examine it more carefully to determine if it is, in fact, the basis of living organisms.

    If you picture the Higgs boson as a huge field in space which affects everything it comes into contact with, you’ll get a sense of why it’s so important. Other particles are either super-charged because of it, and are therefore attracted to it, or they don’t have much energy and sort of slog through the particle field. The super-charged particles give the Higgs boson more mass. Only it’s not volumetric mass; in this case, “mass” means a charge, or energy. I’ll let these guys explain it:

    The Higgs Boson Explained from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

    That’s essentially been the theory, anyway. And if what has been discovered is indeed a Higgs boson, we may be able to determine exactly how it began all those billions of years ago. But those hard-working scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) aren’t getting ahead of themselves; they’ll be announcing on Wednesday what they’ve found but won’t claim to have discovered anything just yet, not until much more data can be completed.

    “I agree that any reasonable outside observer would say, ‘It looks like a discovery,’” British theoretical physicist John Ellis, a longtime researcher at CERN, said. “We’ve discovered something which is consistent with being a Higgs.”

  • Help the Higgs Boson Elude Pesky Scientists in This Fantastic iPhone Game

    If you’ve been following news from the world of physics lately, it’s likely you’re familiar with the search for the Higgs boson, or, as the press more dramatically calls it, the God particle. The Higgs (which nobody involved in the search for it seriously refers to it as “the God particle,” although one bemused physicist coined a rather colorful name for the particle) is one of those so-close-yet-so-far-away players that always seems to be just without reach of the physicists who have dedicatedly pursued it since Peter Higgs proposed its existence in 1964.

    While the detectives of the physics world proceed with their dragnet of the subatomic world, a clever developer named Andy at Test Tube Games has devised a fun game where, in an interesting twist on the Higgs story, you actually help the elusive Higgs boson stay hidden from the scientists that are trying to root it out. Set as one part spy movie and two parts puzzle game, Agent Higgs, who is clad in a completely appropriate Groucho Marx disguise, is set inside a particle accelerator wherein you must help the Higgs remain hidden among the known particles and antiparticles as you confront the fundamental forces of nature.

    The objective is to maneuver electrons and other particles around the board, sliding them against the walls and other barriers until you eventually reach the Higgs boson (thus hiding it), at which point you move on to the next stage. With over 100 different levels, each one of increasing difficulty as you solve them, you’ll be graded on how efficiently you completed the stage and whether you did so with the absolute minimum amount of moves.

    Agent Higgs for iPhone

    The game recalls another iOS game, Unblock Me, in that you have to strategically move blocks around a board in order to move on to the next stage. However, there are many more complexities to Agent Higgs because you must work with the different properties of the particles you move around, meaning this game has a few more rules than Unblock Me. This is where the game’s brilliance comes into play (in addition to the surprisingly fun soundtrack) because it actually teaches you some basics about the particles relevant to the Higgs while you play. For example, Level 4 just told me that a neutrino is like an electron except it has no charge and that it can pass through solid matter (i.e., you can pass right through the barriers to reach the Higgs).

    For now, this game is only available for iPhone and while it does cost $0.99 to download, the game is fun enough that you’ll get your time and money’s worth out of the app (plus, there are no ads with the game), especially if you like to nerd out about the Higgs. Besides, $0.99 is an incredibly small amount to pay and give credit to a fun and very good idea.

    [Via New Scientist.]

  • LHC Physicists Explain the Higgs Boson Particle

    The Large Hadron Collider is pretty interesting. New subatomic particles are being discovered with its utilization. Just last Friday a new particle was discovered – “neutral Xi_b^star baryon”. The new particle is made up of three quarks, and only exists for something like .00000000000000000000001 seconds.

    If it only exists for an amount of time that can not really be observed, then how do we know if it even exists? Well, scientists examine the end product, and from those results they are able to determine (somewhat) what type of particle existed. The “somewhat” comes from the fact that tons of tests have to be performed, and data analyzed across a large number of experiments to get information they can use.

    The ultimate goal of the Large Hadron Collider is to discover the existence of the Higgs Boson Particle. The theory is that the Higgs Boson particle is responsible for giving mass to other particles, and is the missing puzzle piece in understanding particle physics.

    The Higgs Boson particle is expected to be found later this year.

    I am not a scientist, obviously, so why not hear it from the source. Actual scientist working on the actual Large Hadron Collider.

  • God Particle Not Found by CERN, Finds Comic-Sans Instead

    CERN is an organization which can be accredited for bringing us the internet via Tim Berners-Lee, along with other scientific and technological advancements. Lately, they’ve been utilizing their Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator to find the higgs boson. Which is also called the “god particle“.

    You would think an organization dealing with something like the higgs boson has professional presentations with sleek and stylish designs. Or they could present a slideshow using Comic-Sans as the font. As proven by this photo, and tweet from the person who looks to have discovered the font use first.

    CERN Comic-Sans

    @FailedProtostar
    Andrew Symes    Not sure whether they’ve found the Higgs Boson, but it’s clear that they haven’t discovered PowerPoint 2010. #CERN http://t.co/oIRoHi6v 1 day ago via Twitpic · powered by @socialditto

    The photo and knowledge of CERN, the organization with some of the most brilliant minds in the world using Comic-Sans, has led to ridicule from not just people on Twitter but other sources as well. The most interesting being this YouTube video, which I have no words to describe. Apparently, God is a hipster in sunglasses.

    Here’s some other funny reactions from Twitter users, poking fun at the group of people who could easily wipe us all out.

    @jeeveswilliams
    Jeeves Williams    CERN, the creators of the Large Hadron Collider, have used Comic Sans on their presentation. I don’t want to live on this planet any more. 1 day ago via Mobile Web · powered by @socialditto

    @LukeScheybeler
    Luke Scheybeler    I’m pretty sure the Nobel Committee will take @CERN‘s use of Comic Sans into consideration when they award the next prize. Not looking good. 1 day ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @bloggerheads
    Tim Ireland    #CERN used Comic Sans deliberately to measure the expressions of disgust in Twitter (currently travelling faster than the speed of spit) 1 day ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    @flashboy
    Tom Phillips    The CERN team’s slides appear to be using Comic Sans. There is no God. #Higgs 1 day ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    If I may interject, I think we’re being a little hard on CERN here. These people are trying to unlock the mysteries of the universe, not impress us with their amazing design choices during their presentation. However, you would think an organization which is looking into these mysteries would know Comic-Sans can stir up enough rage to make their LHC look like a pop-gun. They might find solace within the walls of the Comic-Sans Project though.

  • CERN Presents Status Of Search For The Higgs Boson

    The quiet moments of the day can typically permit deep, existential questions to steep in the mind and, allowed enough time, germinate into severe contemplations that can change the tone of your day. Questions arise like: What goals do I need to pursue this coming year? Am I dying? Do I have time to make coffee this morning? Do these boots make my hips look round?

    If you’re a physicist, your ruminations might gravitate towards bigger questions, like why people have mass:

    Without mass, the universe would be a very different place. For example, if the electron had no mass, there would be no atoms. Hence there would be no ordinary matter as we know it, no chemistry, no biology and no people. In addition, the Sun shines thanks to a delicate interplay among the fundamental forces of nature, which would be completely upset if some of those force particles did not have large masses.

    No mass? No people! Nice!

    In fact, the search for why objects have mass was the topic of a presentation today at CERN where the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented the status of the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson. If that sentence intimidates the pants off of you, don’t worry – most of humanity is clutching their britches right along with you. You see, the Higgs boson is a proposed particle that might give other particles mass. I know, that statement screws my mind a bit, as well, because haven’t we laity always been taught that mass is an innate quality of all matter? Not exactly. Physicists suspect that there is an entity – the Higgs boson – that imparts mass to other particles simply by interacting and passing by them.

    Okay, just… just stop right there before you give yourself a nosebleed. In order to better understand exactly what the Higgs boson is (or is expected to be), consider this analogy. Suppose, like today at CERN, the Higgs boson is a famous celebrity on whom all admirers and fans cannot wait to arrive:

    Imagine you’re at a Hollywood party. The crowd is rather thick, and evenly distributed around the room, chatting. When the big star arrives, the people nearest the door gather around her. As she moves through the party, she attracts the people closest to her, and those she moves away from return to their other conversations. By gathering a fawning cluster of people around her, she’s gained momentum, an indication of mass. She’s harder to slow down than she would be without the crowd. Once she’s stopped, it’s harder to get her going again.

    This clustering effect is the Higgs mechanism.

    Everybody got that? Okay, good. So, did CERN actually find proof that the Higgs boson exists today? Not exactly. While they have made significant progress in their search for the Higgs boson, no definitive proof has been attained to confirm that the Higgs boson does in fact exist. So the search continues:

    The main conclusion is that the Standard Model Higgs boson, if it exists, is most likely to have a mass constrained to the range 116-130 GeV by the ATLAS experiment, and 115-127 GeV by CMS. Tantalising hints have been seen by both experiments in this mass region, but these are not yet strong enough to claim a discovery.

    The physicists continue to explain that, if the Higgs boson particle does exist, they could have a very short existence and also decay in many different ways. It is important, they say, to be able to observe the particles the Higgs decays into rather than the Higgs itself. The Higgs boson is not expected to be able to be seen directly so instead researchers are focusing for the effects that the Higgs has on other particles, such as the presence of excessive decay products, as a more reliable detector for the existence of the Higgs boson.

    As if realizing the confusing vernacular wound up in that statement, the researchers decided to throw a bone to us rubes and explain that “none of these excesses is any more statistically significant than rolling a die and coming up with two sixes in a row.” So basically, the existence of the Higgs boson is no more guaranteed than being able to confidently predict rolling the same number on a dice twice in a row. Not good odds, really, but so it goes.

    (At this point, I want to personally congratulate you, dear reader, for sticking with this article so far.)

    The fact that the Higgs boson might exist was enough to excite the physics world today, which was observed on Twitter during CERN’s webcast of the findings. Viewers were encouraged to post questions to the researchers using the #Higgsupdate hashtag, but the trend was continued afterwards for tweeters to follow the aftermath. Reactions ranged from the learned:

    @kashfarooq
    Kash Farooq    So, I think, CMS also sees something around 126 GeV, but not at a high confidence level. Is that correct? #higgsupdate 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @j_a_nash
    Jordan Nash    #higgsupdate watched in full Lecture Theatre at IC. Fantastic to see such beautiful results from the two experiments. 20 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @qmrmnr
    Qamar Munir    Darn, I’ve been so enticed by today’s #higgsupdate that I’ve barely even touched my breakfast in the last hour. 54 minutes ago via Tweetbot for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    @stshank
    Stephen Shankland    Question for #Higgsupdate : If lightweight Higgs reinforces supersymmetry, can the LHC find SUSY particles? 2 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    To the practical:

    @wizardgynoid
    Wizard Gynoid    i love it. a major press conference to say “We have not found it.” #higgsupdate 51 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    @carlzimmer
    carlzimmer    Watching the jerky, confusing, over-powerpointed #higgsupdate feed, I feel content there will always be work for science writers… 1 hour ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto

    @TomClarkeC4
    Tom Clarke    Never before in the field of science journalism have so few journalists understood what so many physicists were telling them! #Higgsupdate 2 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    To the jocular and wry:

    @DrMichaelBrooks
    Michael Brooks    Now I see why CSI: CERN never got past the pilot episode #higgsupdate #casenotclosed 10 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    @SirDooks
    Papa    Listening to the #Higgsupdate. Trying to understand but it just won’t go in… the lack of a physics degree might be a problem 1 hour ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto

    @kahoakes
    Kelly Oakes    What I’m getting from #higgsupdate is that they’re using comic sans at the seminar – trying to distract from the fact they haven’t found it? 2 hours ago via Tweetbot for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    Essentially, though, the entirety of the conclusions presented today at CERN can be succinctly summarized as such:

    @newscientist
    New Scientist    So to conclude…Nothing screaming “I’m a #Higgs” at CMS #Higgsupdate 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    And by this cozy limerick provided by The Guardian:

    A physicist saw an enigma

    And called to his mum “Flying pig, ma!”

    She said “Flying pigs?

    Next thing you’ll see the Higgs!”

    He said “Nah, not until it’s five sigma!”

    So did anybody else follow the presentation from CERN today? What’d you think, were you disappointed by the findings (if you even understood them at all)? Were you excited? Do you really not care and still just wanna complain about the fact that there’s no flying cars yet? Comment below!