Higgs boson found - maybe

[Juan]

The AP is reporting scientists believe they have found the Higgs boson.  How will sNoory celebrate the event - Hoagland?, Bara?  Or will he turn to Tommy and say, "Bos'n?  We had plenty of those low level sailors when I was an officer in the Navy.  You know, I received a special request from the president to join up."

[Sardondi]

The AP is reporting scientists believe they have found the Higgs boson.  How will sNoory celebrate the event - Hoagland?, Bara?  Or will he turn to Tommy and say, "Bos'n?  We had plenty of those low level sailors when I was an officer in the Navy.  You know, I received a special request from the president to join up."

I'm old enough to have been aware of the discovery of, I think, four increasingly small (is that an oxymoron?) increments of the "basic building blocks of the universe", in which scientists swore this was it, we mean it, last one, nothing smaller, take it to the bank. My money is on the H-B being just another nesting doll. But we won't know for years, or perhaps even decades. Which is the nature of science.

As is I think the smuggery implicit in the announcement of the scientists of this latest discovery. W/o even meaning to there is a sense, and maybe it's all on our side, (okay, my side) that the scientists who came before were just a tad provincial and slow to think that *their* discovery of the what they swore was really the smallest unit. Heh. Poor lads were doing the best they could. Which is exactly the attitude which will be showered on the H-B crew in the 2020s when an even smaller subatomic particle than the HB, known as the "BGRBU" (pronounced "Buggerboo", and an acronym for "By-God-Real-Basic-Unit") has been found.

Cynical? Heck no. I believe in the ability of science to eternally embarrass us. 

[MV/Liberace!]

wasn`t this discovery already announced a few months ago? i`m confused.

[onan]

wasn`t this discovery already announced a few months ago? i`m confused.

http://coastgab.com/index.php/topic,2044.msg70938.html#msg70938

[ufogadfly]

I'm old enough to have been aware of the discovery of, I think, four increasingly small (is that an oxymoron?) increments of the "basic building blocks of the universe", in which scientists swore this was it, we mean it, last one, nothing smaller, take it to the bank. My money is on the H-B being just another nesting doll. But we won't know for years, or perhaps even decades. Which is the nature of science.

As is I think the smuggery implicit in the announcement of the scientists of this latest discovery. W/o even meaning to there is a sense, and maybe it's all on our side, (okay, my side) that the scientists who came before were just a tad provincial and slow to think that *their* discovery of the what they swore was really the smallest unit. Heh. Poor lads were doing the best they could. Which is exactly the attitude which will be showered on the H-B crew in the 2020s when an even smaller subatomic particle than the HB, known as the "BGRBU" (pronounced "Buggerboo", and an acronym for "By-God-Real-Basic-Unit") has been found.

Cynical? Heck no. I believe in the ability of science to eternally embarrass us.

Indeed. But I wonder if they've really discovered what they think they have. I also sometimes wonder (though I admit I haven't a clue as to the math involved) whether "dark matter" may be an erroneous concept that's the result of mathematical contortions done to explain certain features of the universe which don't seem to fit with previous ideas.

[Sardondi]

Indeed. But I wonder if they've really discovered what they think they have. I also sometimes wonder (though I admit I haven't a clue as to the math involved) whether "dark matter" may be an erroneous concept that's the result of mathematical contortions done to explain certain features of the universe which don't seem to fit with previous ideas.

Yup. Here I realize I'm just betraying my left-brain-edness as well as my limited intelligence and my even more limited math skill, but I wonder whether working new formulas and equations (or even even entirely new maths) is really "proof" - which is much as you say. Are the maths touted as proof of something or other really the same as "observation and replication"? Or am I being hopelessly slow and shirt-sighted, and so entirely missing the point?

[ufogadfly]

Yup. Here I realize I'm just betraying my left-brain-edness as well as my limited intelligence and my even more limited math skill, but I wonder whether working new formulas and equations (or even even entirely new maths) is really "proof" - which is much as you say. Are the maths touted as proof of something or other really the same as "observation and replication"? Or am I being hopelessly slow and shirt-sighted, and so entirely missing the point?

My wonderings exactly, and amplified well. And as for being shirt-sighted, Just pull your shirt up or down away from your eyes.