At the very smallest conceivable level of existence, there is nothing but energy, variously called the Quantum Foam, or the Quantum Vacuum, it is still just a complex and random frequency of energy, except here and there some little bit of order exists. This is a very simplistic explanation and I welcome others with deeper knowledge than myself to voice in, but to keep it simple, those little bits of order are the specific frequencies that form sub-atomic particles, and those particles form, well, everything. Everything that exists, and we have a formula that says so. It is called The Standard Model and it describes how the universe came to exist as we know it.
It looks something like this:
I won’t pretend I understand it, but right there is the beginning of the universe in mathematical formula.
Until this week, one crucial piece has been missing. One piece that we assumed existed only because there was a place in the formula that it had to be for the rest to be true. Its importance comes not only from the fact that without it holding that place in the formula the rest would fall apart, but from the fact that this particular piece is what bridges the gap between energy and matter.
WHY THE HIGGS MATTERS – WHAT THE NEW PARTICLE MEANS
The Higgs was proposed in 1964 – it is the last missing piece of the Standard Model, the theory that describes the basic building blocks of the universe. The other 11 particles predicted by the model have been found – the Higgs is the last jigsaw piece.
If the particle was shown not to exist, it would have meant tearing up the Standard Model and going back to the drawing board.
Theory has it that as the universe cooled after the Big Bang, an invisible force known as the Higgs field formed.
This field permeates the cosmos and is made up of countless numbers of tiny particles – or Higgs bosons.As other particles pass through it, they pick up mass.
Any benefits in the wider world from the discovery of the Higgs boson will be long term, but they could be in fields as diverse as medicine, computing and manufacturing.
Experts compare the search for the Higgs boson to the discovery of the electron.
The idea of the electron – a subatomic particle – was first floated in 1838, but its presence was not confirmed for another 60 years.
A century on, the electron’s existence underpins modern science. Our understanding of it is critical to the development of technology from television and CDs to radiotherapy for cancer patients.
Without the existence of the Higgs Boson, there is only energy, no matter. Without it particles do not have mass. You and me and everything else are plum ripe with them. Photons, not so much. This is why photons behave as both a particle and a wave.
Professor John Womersley. chief executive of the Science and technology Facilities Council, said: ‘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.’
‘This is indeed a new particle,’ said lab spokesman Joe Incandela.
‘This is something that may in the end be one of the biggest discoveries or observations of any new phenomena that we’ve had in our field in the last 30 or 40 years,’ said Incandela.
The discovery fills in the last gap in the ‘standard model’ of physics – proving Einstein right, and possibly leading to new technologies built on our understanding of the workings of the atom.
In December last year scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – the ‘Big Bang’ particle accelerator which recreates conditions a billionth of a second after the birth of the universe – revealed they had caught a first tantalising glimpse of the Higgs.
Since then they have sifted through vast quantities of data from innumerable high energy collisions in an effort to reduce the odds of being wrong.
Of course sensationalism in the press has dubbed the Higgs Boson the “God Particle” because of its importance to, well, everything. Neither science, nor religion was pleased with the name, but everyone is stuck with it now.
The search for the particle caused controversy as members of the public feared that the high-energy collisions could cause a black hole or an interdimensional gateway in Switzerland.
Religious groups also objected to the use of the term ‘God particle’ – although CERN’s scientists dislike the term just as much.
Nobel prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman nicknamed the boson the ‘God particle’ in 1993 – which makes it popular in the media but has angered many scientists, including Professor Higgs himself.
What does it mean to the world in general? Knowledge always has value, but only the future and a lot more research will prove any practical applications.
What does it mean to the world of the paranormal? Well, the Hadron Collider has been part of the speculation of the recent flurry of strange atmospheric noises. Some element of the scientific community was uncertain of the effect of use of the collider, in similar fashion to the uncertainty that surrounded detonation of the first atomic tests.
For the sake of entertainment, let’s speculate.
Realistically
*At first glimpse, one of the limiting factors in interstellar space travel has been the speed of light. As an object approaches the speed of light its mass approaches infinite and so there cannot be enough fuel to breech that limit. If there is a way to manipulate the Higgs Boson, could there not be a way eliminate the gain in mass, even reduce mass? Light Speed broached.
Possibly
*When Star Trek first hit the air waves in 1966 they were the most expensive television series ever produced, but that does not mean they did not have a budget to adhere to. There was no room in that budget for special effects of a ship landing on alien planets, so Transporters were born. Now there are several problems with matter transportation not solved by this discovery, but one of them has been and that is that we have always been able to get energy out of matter, in one limited way or another, but never before have we been capable of deriving matter from energy. Now there exists that potential.
Not likely but still…
*Now, I am a fence sitter when it comes to ghostly apparitions, leaning toward unbeliever. But for the sake of argument, what is a ghost but the appearance of a living being, without mass. Nuff said?
*There are people in the world whose bodies naturally generate such strong magnetic fields that they cannot wear a conventional mechanical watch, or in some cases even an electronic one. Suppose there are some people who are for some reason tied into the the Higgs field? Without consciously understanding how or why, could they reduce the mass of an object and cause it to levitate, or move? Telekinesis anyone?
Well, they are just a few very broad speculations from the mind of someone who has watched and read way too much Science Fiction, but I am willing to bet that some of these ideas, and probably way more than I can think of are going to start finding their way into the various fields of paranormal research, whether legitimately, or in hopes of gaining legitimacy by attachment to legitimate science. In any case, the news of this discovery is, to borrow a quote, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
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