What's up with the Higgs boson?

My understanding of it is that it's the particle that creates a sort of energy field, that draws other particles together to create mass. If there was no mass, the particles (atoms, their components, etc), wouldn't hold together at all, so matter wouldn't exist. Hence the nickname "God particle." less

Astrophysics is not a science that is easily understood. I have a cousin who is an astrophysicist and despite the fact that I'm a fairly intelligent person, and I took physics (102) in college (and got an A) I can't understand a lot of what he talks about. (I work in medicine and he can't understand how viruses work as opposed to bacteria as opposed to prions so I guess we're kind of even.)

Here's an article, yeah, it's three pages, but it explains the Higgs Boson in fairly understandable terms. The problem with reading anything scientific, from physics to medicine, is if you don't have the background, the more complicated stuff if going to be more difficult to understand... unless someone explains the basics to you first.

Here is a [good article|link] that explains it as well as one can to lay people. This is the best, most understandable article I've found so far.



OR... there's this....




This is actually part of the equation that describes the Higgs boson. No, I don't get it either... but my husband (an electrical engineer who works with physics a lot) works with a guy who actually pauses the screen when he watches Big Bang Theory and looks for mistakes in the math on the white boards... then he points it out to his kids (who think he's a big dork ) and then emails Big Bang's production company and tells them....

But back to the Higgs Field and the boson it effects, basically, the theory (that afawk has most likely been proven in the last few weeks) completes the Unified Field Theory that Einstein struggled his entire life with and couldn't completer. He didn't have the Colliders and Accelerators we have now, so he was at a loss to complete his Theory... he was right, but lacked the technology to prove it.

We have the technology now, we've been looking for it and it looks like we've found it. Pretty cool stuff. (My nerdy space obsesssed kids were having nerdgasms when they heard...) less

And then the governments exercised their control and found a way to turn the Higgs field off, and the most horrible weapon ever invented was created.



think about it: If you could shut the Higgs field down for even a few seconds in a confined area... EVERYTHING would die/disintegrate/turn into a puddle of homogenous universal material goop. less

And then the governments exercised their control and found a way to turn the Higgs field off, and the most horrible weapon ever invented was created.



think about it: If you could shut the Higgs field down for even a few seconds in a confined area... EVERYTHING would die/disintegrate/turn into a puddle of homogenous universal material goop. less

Astrophysics is not a science that is easily understood. I have a cousin who is an astrophysicist and despite the fact that I'm a fairly intelligent person, and I took physics (102) in college (and got an A) I can't understand a lot of what he talks about. (I work in medicine and he can't understand how viruses work as opposed to bacteria as opposed to prions so I guess we're kind of even.)

Here's an article, yeah, it's three pages, but it explains the Higgs Boson in fairly understandable terms. The problem with reading anything scientific, from physics to medicine, is if you don't have the background, the more complicated stuff if going to be more difficult to understand... unless someone explains the basics to you first.

Here is a [good article|link] that explains it as well as one can to lay people. This is the best, most understandable article I've found so far.



OR... there's this....




This is actually part of the equation that describes the Higgs boson. No, I don't get it either... but my husband (an electrical engineer who works with physics a lot) works with a guy who actually pauses the screen when he watches Big Bang Theory and looks for mistakes in the math on the white boards... then he points it out to his kids (who think he's a big dork ) and then emails Big Bang's production company and tells them....

But back to the Higgs Field and the boson it effects, basically, the theory (that afawk has most likely been proven in the last few weeks) completes the Unified Field Theory that Einstein struggled his entire life with and couldn't completer. He didn't have the Colliders and Accelerators we have now, so he was at a loss to complete his Theory... he was right, but lacked the technology to prove it.

We have the technology now, we've been looking for it and it looks like we've found it. Pretty cool stuff. (My nerdy space obsesssed kids were having nerdgasms when they heard...) less

Astrophysics is not a science that is easily understood. I have a cousin who is an astrophysicist and despite the fact that I'm a fairly intelligent person, and I took physics (102) in college (and got an A) I can't understand a lot of what he talks about. (I work in medicine and he can't understand how viruses work as opposed to bacteria as opposed to prions so I guess we're kind of even.)

Here's an article, yeah, it's three pages, but it explains the Higgs Boson in fairly understandable terms. The problem with reading anything scientific, from physics to medicine, is if you don't have the background, the more complicated stuff if going to be more difficult to understand... unless someone explains the basics to you first.

Here is a [good article|link] that explains it as well as one can to lay people. This is the best, most understandable article I've found so far.



OR... there's this....




This is actually part of the equation that describes the Higgs boson. No, I don't get it either... but my husband (an electrical engineer who works with physics a lot) works with a guy who actually pauses the screen when he watches Big Bang Theory and looks for mistakes in the math on the white boards... then he points it out to his kids (who think he's a big dork ) and then emails Big Bang's production company and tells them....

But back to the Higgs Field and the boson it effects, basically, the theory (that afawk has most likely been proven in the last few weeks) completes the Unified Field Theory that Einstein struggled his entire life with and couldn't completer. He didn't have the Colliders and Accelerators we have now, so he was at a loss to complete his Theory... he was right, but lacked the technology to prove it.

We have the technology now, we've been looking for it and it looks like we've found it. Pretty cool stuff. (My nerdy space obsesssed kids were having nerdgasms when they heard...) less