Scientists say they've found a "God particle"
Last Updated 8:01 a.m. ET
GENEVA The search is all but over for a subatomic particle that is a crucial building block of the universe.
Present at the Creation with the CERN Atom Smasher
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."
The discovery would be a strong contender for the Nobel Prize. Last July, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, announced finding a particle they described as Higgs-like, but they stopped short of saying conclusively that it was the same particle or was some version of it.
Scientists have now finished going through the entire set of data.
"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 who heads one of the two main teams at CERN, each involving several thousand scientists.
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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. After checking, scientists said the data "strongly indicates that it is a Higgs boson."
The results were announced in a statement by the Geneva-based CERN and released at a physics conference in the Italian Alps.
CERN's atom smasher, the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider that lies beneath the Swiss-French border, has been creating high-energy collisions of protons to investigate how the universe came to be the way it is.
The particle's 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, so the theory goes, the bigger their mass will be.
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I'd have some friends that were poor
I'd run around with the wrong crowd
Then I'd heal me a blind man
Get myself crucified
By politicians and preachers
Who got something to hide
I'd lay my life down for you
I'd show you who's the boss
I'd forgive you and adore you
While I was hangin' on your cross
I'd look you right in the face
And tell you I love you
With amazing grace
:p
Best leave my Claw Hammer alone!
<smile>
What we need right now is a replicator!
It takes raw elements and assembles them into the desired output.
Oh -- And BTW God is Real -- Just because you don't "believe" something doesn't mean it's not real - trust me - we'll all get to meet Him one day
I'll try to talk to ya'll later today
If not --Have a Great Safe Weekend! and....
May God Bless
<smile>
v/r
Ranger
:p
I really can't believe that you think Darwins unscientific "THEORY of Eveloution" is factual -- doesn't pass the common sense test -- where did all the "space and dust" come from for his "big bang" and that life began with a 'lightning bolt of DNA struck a gene pool'
HAR!
Anyway ....
God Bless
I gotta run - Jessie Belle is gonna be late for her beauty appointment
Ranger
So slow do you believe in a life after this one, you know a soul and a Consciousness that lives on after our body dies??
slow_news replies:
Nope.
yellowstone2551 replies:
Sad but you won't be missed, there is plenty of scientific evidence to the contrary.
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Interesting claim. What is your scientific evidence?
"Do you believe consciousness can exist beyond your body?"
I think you guys are here only because you see an opportunity to slam people you don't know, it's the sadist in you.
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You do the same thing, loserville. So what is your point?
No, I did not read those. But it does not surprise me. Poor old loserville seldom makes sense.
nananananananananan
idiots.
Of course the religious types have latched onto it also without really having any kind of understanding of what it is or what the implications of the existence of the particle means.