36 replies to this topic

[ccabal86]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18702455

Quite a historic milestone. This might just open a new chaper in theoretical physics

[Danvey]

Hooray Physics! A great discovery - I particularly liked Stephen Hawking talking about his $100 bet

[Shan Revan]

CMS was such a troll, coming to a total of only 4.9σ after starting out with all those fives. They put on a good presentation though with lots of awesome jokes. Atlas however was making comic sans cool again. Hilariously bad presentation but at least they pulled out the results. Big day for Peter Higgs. In tears recalling how Heisenberg had flat out told him he was wrong.

A lot of disappointed physicists out there today and SUSY people are gonna be pissed but really it seems nothing is gonna kill that thing, it just gets made harder to test.

[ccabal86]

Also interesting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18708741

[Shan Revan]

You know what's really damn impressive and explains why it was so hard to find?

The Higgs-Boson has a mass of ~125GeV right? That's about equivalent to Caesium. That means the particle is heavier than a little under half of the known atomic elements.

[Shan Revan]

You know what's really damn impressive and explains why it was so hard to find?

The Higgs-Boson has a mass of ~125GeV right? That's about equivalent to Caesium. That means the particle is heavier than a little under half of the known atomic elements.

[ccabal86]

It should account for all the missing mass in the universe.

[Shan Revan]

It should account for all the missing mass in the universe.

Perhaps but I don't think so. Especially considering that the Higgs mechanism only imparts a small amount of the mass of matter (fermions specifically). Whereas I understand gluon self-interactions make up the majority of mass so that even if the fundamental particles were mass-less (somehow having disabled the interactions with the Higgs field) you would still have significant mass in matter from the gluons doing their thing.

[Rafay]

Oooh Physics geniuses.

I also wanted to be a Nuclear Physicist.

Anyway I heard it traveled faster than light, this boson. Not Neutrino, I know there was a glitch in the equipment in that.

But think of the possibilities that this discovery has opened for us. Are we getting closer to space travel guys?

Also I heard that the universe has dark matter, what's up with that? Is it dark or anti-matter?

Please impart your knowledge to a wannabe Physicist.

[Dark Specter]

Oooh Physics geniuses.

I also wanted to be a Nuclear Physicist.

Anyway I heard it traveled faster than light, this boson. Not Neutrino, I know there was a glitch in the equipment in that.

But think of the possibilities that this discovery has opened for us. Are we getting closer to space travel guys?

Also I heard that the universe has dark matter, what's up with that? Is it dark or anti-matter?

Please impart your knowledge to a wannabe Physicist.

this could get us closer to space travel depending on what they do with it.

And i believe that dark matter is anti-matter

[Dark Specter]

but i am more into things like this My link and quantum technology

[ccabal86]

Also, dark matter is not anti-matter

Dark matter
Anti-matter

[DevastationStation]

In it's current state it will be years until any kind of use will be derived from it, however as such with all great scientific experiments and findings, it will be tested in the weaponry class before anything else (at least maybe not publically announced). It is human nature (or will be explained via 'we must defend ourselves'!) We are thrilled for creation, we strive for destruction.

[Shan Revan]

I'm not sure we'll ever find a direct use of this knowledge (as in a means to manipulate the higgs field) - considering the rather extreme conditions required to even produce. It's hard to say though - no one expected to be cooking when they invented microwaves. However it's vastly important because it confirms parts of existing theories and challenges others - it means we can now solidly move forward with better theories. The standard model, as it exists, is actually woefully inadequate. It outright ignores gravity for instance and dark energy. Whether or not it's ever a directly useful technology, the knowledge that can be built on this is very important and probably more directly useful.

Not to mention all the new technologies and processes invented for the LHC to work since construction started is expected to pay back the 7.5B E something like 350% which is hard to complain about.

[Rand0m her0]

Oooh Physics geniuses.

I also wanted to be a Nuclear Physicist.

Anyway I heard it traveled faster than light, this boson. Not Neutrino, I know there was a glitch in the equipment in that.

But think of the possibilities that this discovery has opened for us. Are we getting closer to space travel guys?

Also I heard that the universe has dark matter, what's up with that? Is it dark or anti-matter?

Please impart your knowledge to a wannabe Physicist.

I rather doubt it traveled at FTL nor is it likely to get us appreciably closer to real space travel (at least not in the short term, the higgs boson is massively important, and with the greater understanding it will provide who the hell knows what shakes loose in the next 50-100 years)

Antimatter is matter composed of the various antiparticles, (A particle with the same mass but opposite charge, so the antielectron or positron mass the same mass as an electron, but a positive charge). Otherwise it should have the exact same properties as regular matter (Ignoring the fact that there's WAY less of it then there should be)

Dark Matter is matter that doesn't emit (or absorb) light or EM radiation (Which is to say it's literally dark matter) in contrast to "luminous" matter which does . This makes it impossible to observe through telescopes. It'll be composed of an as yet unobserved subatomic particle.

Also, dark matter is not anti-matter

Technically incorrect. Unless dark matter is very weird, there should be Antidark matter.

Edited by Rand0m her0, 06 July 2012 - 05:03 AM.

[Shan Revan]

I rather doubt it traveled at FTL nor is it likely to get us appreciably closer to real space travel (at least not in the short term, the higgs boson is massively important, and with the greater understanding it will provide who the hell knows what shakes loose in the next 50-100 years)

Antimatter is matter composed of the various antiparticles, (A particle with the same mass but opposite charge, so the antielectron or positron mass the same mass as an electron, but a positive charge). Otherwise it should have the exact same properties as regular matter (Ignoring the fact that there's WAY less of it then there should be)

Dark Matter is matter that doesn't emit (or absorb) light or EM radiation, which makes it impossible to observe through telescopes (Which is to say it's literally dark matter). It'll be composed of an as yet unobserved subatomic particle.




Technically incorrect. Unless dark matter is very weird, there should be Antidark matter.

Fun fact, if matter were to fall backwards in time, it would look and behave exactly like anti-matter.
Also there's heaps of anti-particles popping in and out of existence within every single proton constantly. It's a real complicated mess.

[DevastationStation]

I'm not sure we'll ever find a direct use of this knowledge (as in a means to manipulate the higgs field) - considering the rather extreme conditions required to even produce. It's hard to say though - no one expected to be cooking when they invented microwaves. However it's vastly important because it confirms parts of existing theories and challenges others - it means we can now solidly move forward with better theories. The standard model, as it exists, is actually woefully inadequate. It outright ignores gravity for instance and dark energy. Whether or not it's ever a directly useful technology, the knowledge that can be built on this is very important and probably more directly useful.

Not to mention all the new technologies and processes invented for the LHC to work since construction started is expected to pay back the 7.5B E something like 350% which is hard to complain about.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not all conspiracy and no theory - I think this is one of the most important things to happen within the scientific field in some years (thinking almost first computer proportions (a.k.a T.I. -01, not really but it was basically a giant calculator)). Now, if we could just figure out cold fusion.

[onbekende]

grats, they "think" they found something that will have no direct application whatsoever cause they made it the same way the universe did, a Big Bang. They also found it as long as the universe does, uncountable in milliseconds.

Theoretical physics is nice and all but theory is usually applicable to something, these fellows are going off into mathematical models where few know what greek symbol is what and even fewer know what the next line should be. Pointless mostly imo.

Yes I am raving cause I can't understand it myself but want to

[Rand0m her0]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not all conspiracy and no theory - I think this is one of the most important things to happen within the scientific field in some years (thinking almost first computer proportions (a.k.a T.I. -01, not really but it was basically a giant calculator)). Now, if we could just figure out cold fusion.

Proving it's existence will confirm the Higgs mechanism and give us a better foundation to build new theory on, which could lead to who the hell knows what. We're unlikely to see some new world changing tech come out of this however, assuming this is even the Higgs boson.



As for cold fusion happening... may as well hope for power-plants that run on fairy dust instead.

[Shan Revan]

We'd be better off investing in things like LFTR reactors than cold fusion. Or straight up hot-fusion.