May the Higgs field be with you!

higg-boson-joke.jpg
 
Hawk Teflon said:
I'll be honest. I've read three articles and watched 5 videos. I still have no idea what this all means.
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It means empty space isn't empty. It's filled with an energy field that gives matter mass as it moves through it. The evidence of that field is the particle that was briefly seen in the LHC...It means nothing to our everyday lives right now, but at one time, the discovery of the electromagnetic field didn't impact everyday people's lives either and look what that has wrought. Someday, we may be able to manipulate the Higgs field and the Higgs Boson the same way we wield electricity, which could give us control over gravity or possibly even a limitless supply of free energy. Who knows?
 
A little premature but "Shut up and take my money!"

Batutta said:
It means empty space isn't empty. It's filled with an energy field that gives matter mass as it moves through it. The evidence of that field is the particle that was briefly seen in the LHC...It means nothing to our everyday lives right now, but at one time, the discovery of the electromagnetic field didn't impact everyday people's lives either and look what that has wrought. Someday, we may be able to manipulate the Higgs field and the Higgs Boson the same way we wield electricity, which could give us control over gravity or possibly even a limitless supply of free energy. Who knows?
Click to expand...
 
dillont said:
A little premature but "Shut up and take my money!"
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LOL...there is also the possibility nothing will come other than scientific understanding. We may understand the how and why it exists, but have no practical way of manipulating it for anything useful.
 
Not yet anyways but we will find a use. I guess we (the scientists, not us per se) only understand a few percent of the universe, so I hear. I'm glad somebody is working on it. I know I'm not. -beers
 
Hawk Teflon said:
I'll be honest. I've read three articles and watched 5 videos. I still have no idea what this all means.
Click to expand...
Try this fourth article:
The discovery of the new particle completes what’s known as the Standard Model of particle physics, the equivalent of chemistry’s Periodic Table.
The Standard Model lists and arranges the particles and forces of nature. Many of the particles were predicted long before they were found — and the Higgs was the last holdout, and the most important.

That’s because it is thought to give rise to the “Higgs field,” a sort of force field the permeates everything.
“We know the Higgs is at the center of everything,” said Lykken. “This is why (Nobel Prize-winning physicist) Leon Lederman called it the God particle. It talks to all the other particles in some fundamental way.”


When the other particles that make up the stuff of the universe — protons, neutrons, electrons and so on — interact with the Higgs field, they acquire the trait known as mass.
More massive objects get tangled up in the field — and hence, slowed down as they move — more than less massive objects.


One way to think of the Higgs field: It’s the water the entire universe swims in.
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"This boson is a very profound thing we have found," he said. "We're reaching into the fabric of the universe in a way we never have done before. We've kind of completed one particle's story. ... Now we're way out on the edge of exploration."

The discovery is so fundamental to the laws of nature, Incandela said, that it could spawn a new era of technology and development in the same way that Newton's laws of gravity led to basic equations of mechanics that made the industrial revolution possible.
"This is so far out on a limb, I have no idea where it will be applied," he added. "We're talking about something we have no idea what the implications are and may not be directly applied for centuries."
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Columbia University physicist Brian Greene, speaking before the announcement, said, “Everything I’ve ever done, directly or indirectly, has something to do with a Higgs-like field.”
The discovery of the Higgs is the latest reminder, he said, that the universe can be understood through mathematics.
“It makes you feel good as a theorist,” Greene said. “Math really does provide a window on reality!”


The discovery hardly ends the quest to understand the essence of space, time, energy and matter.
Among the remaining mysteries are dark matter, the unknown substance observed only through its gravitational effects, and dark energy, a cosmic force that seems to be causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate.

Turner, the University of Chicago physicist, said after the announcement, “Okay, the particle physicists got their Number 1 wish — the Higgs. Now we cosmologists want ours — the dark-matter particle.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/scien...f-everything/2012/07/04/gJQADi8nMW_story.html
 
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I think one of the coolest things about this finding is that the guy that predicted it (Higgs) is still alive to hear the applause !!
 
So the Higgs field (or that which is presumably the field) has mass?

First thought: How have we not been able to manipulate it yet? I'm not saying that's easy by any stretch as I'm still confused on the topic, but if we're able to control something IN the field, how do we not control the field itself?

After reading grove's stuff: I guess it's back to the water example. We could control a boat in the water, but not the water itself without an outside force.

At one point, we believed that atoms were the smallest of anything in existence, right? Then quarks, now this? So why is this the smallest? Why can't there be smaller?
 
I'm still a bit confused, but it's exciting nonetheless. At first I thought it was what they thought was Dark Matter, but now I'm hearing it's something different. Sound sort of like it, but I know little to nothing about this stuff.
 
Threads like this are why I absolutely LOVE DVXuser.

There is not one place online that covers just about *all* the things I'm interested - science, technology, filmmaking, art, and teaching. The discussions and topics I come across here are always engrossing.

Thank you for threads like this!

Dillon
 
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