"The God Particle"
Ken
2012/07/06 17:45:08
From Nobel laureate Leon Lederman's The God Particle - If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?, p. 22:
"There is, we believe, a wraithlike presence throughout the universe that is keeping us from understanding the true nature of matter. It's as if something, or some one, wants to prevent us from attaining the ultimate knowledge.
"This invisible barrier that keeps us from knowing the truth is called the Higgs field. Its icy tentacles reach into every corner of the universe, and its scientific and philosophical implications raise large goose bumps on the skin of a physicist. The Higgs field works its black magic through -- what else? -- a particle. This particle goes by the name of the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is a primary reason for building the Super Collider. Only the SSC will have the energy necessary to produce and detect the Higgs boson, or so we believe. {As now has been proven true.}
This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I have given it a nickname: the God Particle. Why God Particle? Two reasons. One, the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing. And two, there is a connection, of sorts, to another book, a much older one. . ."
Ibid, p. 368:
"The mass, m, actually has two parts. One is the rest mass, mo , which is what is measured in the laboratory when the particle is at rest. The other part of the mass is 'acquired' by th e particle by virtue of its motion. . . or by virtue of its potential energy in a field. We see a similar dynamic in atomic nuclei. For example, if you separate the proton and neutron that make up the deuterium nucleus, the sum of the masses increases.
"But the potential energy acquired from the Higgs field differs in several ways from the action of the more familiar fields. The Higgs-acquired mass is actually rest mass. In fact, in what may be the most intriguing version of the Higgs theory, all rest mass is generated by the Higgs field. Another difference is that the amount of mass soaked from the field differs for various particles. Theorists say that the masses of the particles in our standard model are a measure of how strongly they are coupled to the Higgs field."
From Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos - Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, p. 29:
"For millennia, the philosophical parsings of space often arose in tandem with theological inquiries. God, according to some, is omnipresent, an idea that gives space a divine character. this line of reasoning was advanced by Henry More, a seventeenth-century theologian/philosopher who, some think, may have been one of Newton's mentors. He believed that if space were empty it would not exist, but he also argued that this is an irrelevant observation because, even when devoid of material objects, space is filled with spirit, so it is never truly empty. Newton himself took on a version of this idea, allowing space to be filled by 'spiritual substance' as well as material substance, but he was careful to add that such spiritual stuff 'can be no obstacle to the motion of matter; no more than if nothing were in its way.' Absolute space, Newton declared, is 'the sensorium of God.'"
Ibid, p. 269 - 270:
"Without invoking the spiritual, therefore, we may well closely brush up against the thinking of Henry More in our scientific quest to understand space and time. To More, the usual concept of empty space was meaningless because space is always filled with divine spirit. To us, the usual concept of empty space may be similarly elusive, since the empty space we're privy to may be {is!} filled with an ocean of Higgs field."
* * * * *
About the Authors cited in this blog:
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1988 was awarded jointly to Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger "for
the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure
of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino".
Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his writings on science.
"There is, we believe, a wraithlike presence throughout the universe that is keeping us from understanding the true nature of matter. It's as if something, or some one, wants to prevent us from attaining the ultimate knowledge.
"This invisible barrier that keeps us from knowing the truth is called the Higgs field. Its icy tentacles reach into every corner of the universe, and its scientific and philosophical implications raise large goose bumps on the skin of a physicist. The Higgs field works its black magic through -- what else? -- a particle. This particle goes by the name of the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is a primary reason for building the Super Collider. Only the SSC will have the energy necessary to produce and detect the Higgs boson, or so we believe. {As now has been proven true.}
This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I have given it a nickname: the God Particle. Why God Particle? Two reasons. One, the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing. And two, there is a connection, of sorts, to another book, a much older one. . ."
Ibid, p. 368:
"The mass, m, actually has two parts. One is the rest mass, mo , which is what is measured in the laboratory when the particle is at rest. The other part of the mass is 'acquired' by th e particle by virtue of its motion. . . or by virtue of its potential energy in a field. We see a similar dynamic in atomic nuclei. For example, if you separate the proton and neutron that make up the deuterium nucleus, the sum of the masses increases.
"But the potential energy acquired from the Higgs field differs in several ways from the action of the more familiar fields. The Higgs-acquired mass is actually rest mass. In fact, in what may be the most intriguing version of the Higgs theory, all rest mass is generated by the Higgs field. Another difference is that the amount of mass soaked from the field differs for various particles. Theorists say that the masses of the particles in our standard model are a measure of how strongly they are coupled to the Higgs field."
From Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos - Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, p. 29:
"For millennia, the philosophical parsings of space often arose in tandem with theological inquiries. God, according to some, is omnipresent, an idea that gives space a divine character. this line of reasoning was advanced by Henry More, a seventeenth-century theologian/philosopher who, some think, may have been one of Newton's mentors. He believed that if space were empty it would not exist, but he also argued that this is an irrelevant observation because, even when devoid of material objects, space is filled with spirit, so it is never truly empty. Newton himself took on a version of this idea, allowing space to be filled by 'spiritual substance' as well as material substance, but he was careful to add that such spiritual stuff 'can be no obstacle to the motion of matter; no more than if nothing were in its way.' Absolute space, Newton declared, is 'the sensorium of God.'"
Ibid, p. 269 - 270:
"Without invoking the spiritual, therefore, we may well closely brush up against the thinking of Henry More in our scientific quest to understand space and time. To More, the usual concept of empty space was meaningless because space is always filled with divine spirit. To us, the usual concept of empty space may be similarly elusive, since the empty space we're privy to may be {is!} filled with an ocean of Higgs field."
* * * * *
About the Authors cited in this blog:
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1988 was awarded jointly to Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger "for
the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure
of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino".
Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his writings on science.
Protons early no mass - move at speed of light (anything with mass can not do that I asume) collide and produce the Higgs - something that contains mass is the answer to our existence.
It is a proof something is created out of nothing. Exiting.
“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.” Albert Einstein, "The Quotable Einstein," p. 161, citing New York Times obituary, April 19, 1955:
That, at least would take the fear of the religions.
Interesting that the vatican already minimises this discovery by warning that it will take 30-40 Years to provide deeper proof.
I am more for discovering what we can do with it, and how we can simplify lives trough knowledge for a better future..
just an exciting discovery ..