~ 7.6.2012 Grand Topic ~

Higgs Boson or "The God Particle" - From Science Fiction to Reality

    One of the most important discoveries (if not the most important) in particle physics and science as a whole of the last 25 years has possibly just been made by experimentalists at CERN, the giant laboratory just outside of Geneva on the border of Switzerland and France. News about it are all over and it would be almost impossible to not hear about it.
Scientists there think that they have discovered the Higgs field, also nicknamed the "God particle" by Nobel laureate Leon Lederman ( the rumor stating he wanted to call it "The Goddamn particle but it's a whole different story). If the result is verified, the Higgs will have a mass about 125 times the mass of the proton, making it as heavy as a medium-sized nucleus, giving a solution of one of the great outstanding unsolved riddles in physics of the 20th century: the origin of all mass. If the properties of the Higgs are confirmed, the picture of fundamental particle forces will be completed. Scientist will have the complete guide through universal knowledge and it will most probably be a new age in mankind history.
   The Standard Model of particle physics provides a description of microscopic matter and their fundamental interactions. All matter is comprised of quarks and leptons. Three quarks bind to form the proton and neutron. The neutrons and protons stick together to form nuclei – the tiny, heavy central "hearts" of atoms. Leptons appear in nature in two types: electrically charged and neutral. Neutral leptons are called neutrinos and hardly interact with matter at all. There are three known charged leptons, the lightest of which is the electron. How about that? Electrons, which are negatively charged, are attracted to nuclei, which are positively charged, to form atoms. A good pictorial representation of an atom is a cloud of electrons swarming around a tiny nucleus, much the way bees might swarm around a queen who has left her hive – no joke !!! Since atoms make up everything in the world, quarks and leptons are the fundamental building blocks of nature.
     There are three fundamental forces.(Yoda would say it's just one – The Force but our scientists   wouldn't believe him). The most familiar is gravity, which holds humans and other objects to the Earth, makes the Moon go around the Earth thereby leading to tides, lunar phases and eclipses, and causes the Earth to orbit the Sun thereby leading to seasons. You can always test it by jumping off a building but we don't recommend it). Gravity is generated by objects with mass. But because gravity is such a weak force, only bodies of huge mass, such as the Earth and Sun, create a significant effect. In the subatomic world, where protons, neutrons and electrons are extremely light, gravity plays no role.
     The second fundamental force is a combination of three forces previously thought to be independent of one another: magnetism, the electric force and the weak subnuclear interaction. The unification of the electric and magnetic forces was discovered in the 19th century, leading to electromagnetism. The electromagnetic force is the source for all macroscopic forces except those created by gravity. Friction, spring forces, air pressure, the forces in collisions, and so on, originate from the electromagnetic force. The weak subnuclear interaction is responsible for certain decays of nuclei and plays a role in generating the energy of the Sun and other stars in their cores. As its name implies, it operates at distances smaller than a nucleus and it is very weak. For this reason, it is difficult to observe. At the end of the 1960's, a theory was proposed that unified the weak subnuclear force with electromagnetism. Experiments in the 1970's and 1980's confirmed the electroweak theory. In 1979, Steven Weinberg, Sheldon Glashow and Abdus Salam received the Nobel Prize in physics for unifying the weak subnuclear interaction with electromagnetism.
     After the short physics lessons let's stop and give a thought to the magnitude of the discovery we have witnessed this year. This scientific achievement gives our imagination such a strong push that we don't know where it could end up – hopefully not in the mental clinic. Most probably in the near future we will witness historical changes and achievements that have long been only plots of fantastic books and sci-fi movies. Our biggest concern now would be the question – is mankind ready for a power that big? World history comes to show us that every time the almighty all-wise human is granted big power it gets really messy. Atomic bombs and World Wars are the bloody examples. Are we civilized enough to be able to get the best of knowledge like this or are we going to do the most stupid and self destructive things so far in our history? Only time will show ....
What we can do now is wait, dream, hope, be interested, speculate and be positive and responsible as a new age is coming and we better be ready for it !