Are they really, or is this a case of seeing what they want to see? After all, atoms have never actually been ‘seen’ but scientists have ‘proven’ their existence because experiments unfold as expected if atoms and other particles are well, as we imagine them to be.

I do think everything would be much more interesting if science had decided Leprechauns were responsible for everything. After all, we haven’t seen any of those either 😉 Oh yeah, and then there’s that “God” thing, that scientists would love to reduce down to a ‘particle.’ Always nice to think everything has an answer we puny humans can understand. Funny thing, I have a feeling no matter what they see, it’ll be declared exactly what they want it to be.

As God laughs. And gives them the headshake.

Researchers Close in on Elusive ‘God Particle’

A picture starts to emerge from the fog.

Two of the world’s greatest particle smashers announced tantalizing hints that the Higgs boson — or “God Particle” — may soon be within reach, a breakthrough find that could either make or break our model of the universe as we know it.

Again, no one is shouting eureka just yet, but taken together, collision data from the Large Hadron Collider and the Tevatron suggest scientists may have seen the first glimpses of the elusive Higgs particle, the grand prize of physics…

Both the LHC and Tevatron have been hurtling subatomic particles around a ring, colliding them at huge energies to blast them apart and study the pieces. This has already yielded plenty of interesting physics, including the announcement of a brand-new particle just last week. The point is to prove what’s called the standard model of particle physics, the system of particles and forces that governs the universe. The Higgs boson, named for the physicist who proposed its existence, is the most sought-after piece of the standard model puzzle. The Higgs particle is thought to endow other particles with mass, and it would unify the weak nuclear and electromagnetic forces.

Or…Smurfs.


This, of course, is a simulation of what scientists believe a Higgs boson following a collision of two protons looks like. I think it might look more like this:


But who’s to say?

This section is for comments from tammybruce.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Tammy agrees with or endorses any particular comment just because she lets it stand.
7 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. trevy says:

    1 Corinthians 1:26-28
    26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,

    Psalm 19
    1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
    2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
    3 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.

    In the documentary “Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed” Ben Stein debated a scientist who said if God exists, then why doesn’t He just reveal Himself. Ben said that God IS revealing Himself through science.

  2. Tinker says:

    Of course it’s the God particle, God created all the particles. Gee, that was easy.

    I’ll add one of my favorite passages to Trevy’s nice one’s.

    Colossians 1:
    16 For by Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him;
    17 And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist (exist).

  3. Charles_TX says:

    Tammy, your posting is wrong, right, and nails the fundamental problem with modern physics and quantum theory.

    First the wrong – Atoms have been observed for quite a long time using the Field Emission (FEM), Field Ionization (FIM), and Atom Probe (APM) microscopes developed by Edwin Müller et al. of Penn State. The first devices to achieve atomic resolution were constructed in the 1950’s. The magnification is a purely geometric thing that doesn’t require any analysis of complex data. It’s like a very powerful electron microscope. In fact, I watched Barium atoms move around on a Tungsten needle as an undergraduate at Penn State in the mid-70’s.

    Next, the correct. The use of the term “God Particle” comes from Leon Lederman, the former director of FermiLab. It has been picked up upon by the media and used incessantly because the name is catchier than “Higgs Boson.” (Neither of which words means anything to normal people such as yourself.) The names of particles in high-energy and nuclear physics range from the whimsical (quark, gluon) to the utilitarian (J, p, and n). Personally, I cringe every time I hear “God Particle” since it is offensive to large numbers of people.

    Finally, you are correct that for particles “scientists have ‘proven’ their existence because experiments unfold as expected if atoms and other particles are well, as we imagine them to be.” That is due to the fact that nuclei and fundamental particles are much smaller in size than the relatively enormous atom, and can’t be seen directly. The fundamental problem of all nuclear and particle measurements is that you must infer the actual behavior of an object from a comparison of experiment and theory. The danger for the experimentalist is that he can introduce a fair amount of bias into a measurement if not careful. Similarly, the danger for the theorist is that he can be unconstrained by reality. The real fun is when things don’t behave as expected.

    PS. No disrespect intended by the choice of pronouns. Sadly, only 13% of physicists are women so the field is still heavily male-dominated. One the other hand, some of the best physics of the 20th century was done by women (Madame Curie, Madame Wu, Noemie Koller, Leona Libby, etc.)

  4. dr4ensic says:

    I’m totally confused. I thought we already knew that the “God particle” happened when Obama sneezed.

  5. otlset says:

    Perhaps we’ll see more physicists showing up at church now.

  6. wastubbs says:

    Well, weather its an Higgs thingy or something else, I like the idea of an GOD particle.

  7. Ginger says:

    What must God be thinking?

    Maybe, “What is man, that I am mindful of him?” Paraphrasing Psalm 8:4 just a little

You must be logged in to post a comment.