Live broadcast of presser on ye olde Higgs Boson:

[bleever]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/04/watch-live-researchers-release-data-on-higgs-boson-god-particle/

Courtesy our friends at RawStory.

[Duppers]

1. not the Higgs Boson?

Last edited Wed Jul 4, 2012, 04:04 AM - Edit history (1)

"Incandela announced that the results from the CMS detector had a "combined significance of 5 standard deviations," which signaled a particle discovery. The word was greeted with applause in the CERN auditorium."

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/04/12554487-milestone-in-higgs-quest-scientists-find-new-particle?lite

[Duppers]

5. Intro from the Raw Story

"The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced early Wednesday morning in Zurich that they had new data in their search for the so-called “God particle.”

The particle, nicknamed by Nobel prizewinning physicist Leon Lederman, can help scientists understand the origin of mass in the universe. Despite giving the particle the nickname, Lederman isn’t such a fan of the title. “I find it embarrassing because, though I’m not a believer myself, I think it is the kind of misuse of terminology which I think might offend some people,” he recently told The Guardian.

U.S. physicists announced on Monday that they had gathered sufficient evidence that showed “strong hints” of the particle’s existence, but they were waiting on additional data to be released from CERN to confirm this discovery."

[Poll_Blind]

2. Watching now, much greatness. Hope the presenter survives the experience!

PB

[Duppers]

4. lol. nt.

[bleever]

8. Job description: explain, with slides, a thousand iterations of data analysis that lead

through a newly drawn path to an unprecedented level of certainty regarding...whew, I'm tired right there.

[XemaSab]

9. Five standard deviations, dude!

Five!

[bleever]

11. That is a lot of standard deviations.

If I was thirsty, I wouldn't want my water that far away.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. how DARE they do this on the 4th of July...

I mean... oh, wait...

sP

[joshcryer]

18. I'm so glad. I ritually watch ID4 on this day because I dislike the 4th for the most part...

...except for the fireworks, which we won't have here because of the fire danger, so meh.

I wish the world had an international holiday and ID4 sends that message to me. As Krugman said, it'd take an alien invasion for us to get our shit together as a species.

[Surya Gayatri]

22. Excuse my ignorance, josh, but what is ID4?

[joshcryer]

23. The movie Independence Day.

Spoiler:

[Surya Gayatri]

25. Who knew! Thanks!

[XemaSab]

6. This is very exciting

Can someone tell me what he's saying?

[bleever]

7. Boosted Decision Tree

will be the name of my next band.

[zappaman]

10. LOL

thanks for that!
I'm struggling to comprehend wtf they are saying and this made me laugh!

[joshcryer]

12. Heh, I was having my ritual ID4 watch and glad I signed in to DU.

This is so much more awesome.

[joshcryer]

13. We have observed a new boson with a mass of 125.3 +/- .6 GeV at 4.9 significance!

The 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, the Standard Model was right!

[XemaSab]

14. God help me, I got sniffly at the end

when he said that even though he doesn't belong to a CERN member state, he is happy that CERN opened their facilities up to the world community because this is a discovery for all mankind.

[joshcryer]

15. Yeah, it's amazing! LHC has really been an international effort.

Lovely, I'm so glad I caught the end. Totally got lucky.

And hopefully I'll be forgiven for my corny ID4 quote...

[Duppers]

16. ...

but.... they're not yet calling it the Higgs.

[joshcryer]

17. 5 sigma is necessary for "formal discovery" of a particle.

Plus there's still a lot more work to be done to make sure it fits within the Standard Model.

Scientists hail God particle find
Professor John Womersley. chief executive of the Science and technology Facilities Council, told reporters at a briefing in London: "They have discovered a particle consistent with the Higgs boson. Discovery is the important word. That is confirmed. It's a momentous day for science."

Hey for what it's worth I'd be stoked if it turned out to be something different. Just highly unlikely.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. but.... they're not yet calling it the Higgs.

More like the expected effect of it.

Kind of like having a series of regular welts appear after having your face smacked with a waffle iron.

[Surya Gayatri]

24. Yes, many of the eggheads have called it

a "boson". But, they say the question is "What kind of boson?" That will be their next line of research.
Now, to unravel the next scientific conundrum...

[DCBob]

27. Can someone explain the significance of this discovery?

I am fascinated by particle physics but some of it just so strange and hard to understand.

[joshcryer]

31. I think its primary significance is proving the "Standard Model" is still a good approach.

A lot of "Grand Unified Theories" have come out (specifically String Theory) to "debunk" the Standard Model. Here, instead, we have something that proves that 50 years of particle physics is strong, and that it's based in reality.

A confirmation of the Standard Model isn't necessarily exciting, but there are still some holes to be filled by a Higgs Standard Model.

The wiki page is probably most informative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

[DCBob]

33. yes, that makes sense.. especially the "reality" part.

Thanks!

[joshcryer]

19. Stephen Hawking owes University of Michigan physicist Gordon Kane $100.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/07/03/higgs_boson_and_stephen_hawking_the_famous_physicist_is_about_to_lose_another_bet_probably_.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. And he's conceded

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18708626

[Surya Gayatri]

20. Who knew? God has the very prosaic name of HIGGS!

Thanks so much for posting this link, bleever...love it!

Here's one European collaboration that has worked spectacularly!

[Firebrand Gary]

26. I wish Maddow were here geeking out wish us! This is so fascinating to watch!

Best new thing in the world! Literally.

[Surya Gayatri]

30. She's certainly following this and high-fiving

with her fellow geeks. She'd be jumping up and down at her newsdesk if she was there.
BEST NEW THING IN 50 YEARS!

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Another triumph in physics for Scottish mountains

Prof Higgs, 83, has been waiting since 1964 for science to catch up with his ideas about the Higgs boson. It was in that year he dreamed up the concept in a moment of inspiration while walking in the Cairngorms.

Two scientific papers followed, the second of which was initially rejected but finally published in the respected journal Physical Review Letters.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5juzNebL1_3Yc9vnZ1zKck3dqE3lw?docId=N0266681341368363633A

And C.T.R. Wilson's 1927 Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

And my choice of a subject to work upon was not due to any forethought on my own part nor to any good advice received, but just to the fact that in the autumn of 1894 I spent a few weeks on a cloudy Scottish hill-top - the top of Ben Nevis. Morning after morning I saw the sun rise above a sea of clouds and the shadow of the hill on the clouds below surrounded by gorgeous coloured rings. The beauty of what I saw made me fall in love with clouds and I made up my mind to make experiments to learn more about them.

Working in J. J. Thomson's laboratory during the years when X-rays and radio-activity were discovered, I could not help being interested in ions - and with ions and clouds I have worked ever since.

To those few weeks spent on the highest point of my native land I owe many happy years of work in the laboratory and not a few exciting moments - and perhaps my presence here tonight!

And perhaps I ought to tell how an experience on another Scottish hill was responsible for diverting my attention to another type of cloud than those condensed on ions in the laboratory - the thunder-cloud. While I stood on the top of a hill listening to the mutterings of distant thunder my hair suddenly rose up on end - and so my attention was very forcibly directed to the electric field of a thunder-cloud!

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1927/wilson-speech.html

[Surya Gayatri]

29. Maybe the national libation was more of an inspiration

than the mountains?

After walking in those chilly hills, you just have to warm up with a wee draught. Gets those grey cells churning.