Another Perspective
What the Higgs Is a Boson?
Science is worthwhile for its own sake — even if normal people don’t understand it.
“Yes,” the reporter said, “But what can it do? What difference does the Higgs boson make in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people?”
The physicist on the radio stumbled over his words. He had already explained this once, but she had apparently not understood. “I would say,” he said, “that you can’t do anything with it, and it makes no real difference in the daily lives of ordinary people.”
The Higgs boson is a particle that has been sought by physicists for years. Named for physicist Peter Higgs, the particle is the counterpart of the “Higgs field” which is hypothesized to fill all of space, and which lends to ordinary matter its property of mass. The Higgs’ importance lies in this fundamental role it plays in the behavior of the material universe, and also in the fact that it is the final major component of the “Standard Model” of particle physics, the basic framework that describes physicists’ current understanding of nature at a fundamental level. If the Higgs is found, it indicates that physicists are on the right track. Failure to find the Higgs would indicate that something somewhere has gone astray.
Two weeks ago, researchers with the European organization CERN announced the discovery of a new boson “consistent with the Higgs.” Two independent teams working with CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have detected signs, with significant confidence, of a Higgs-mass boson in the showers of debris created by the collider’s energetic experiments. While formal pronouncements have been prudently guarded, the general consensus is that yes, indeed, the Higgs has been found.
There are economical questions, to be sure, about such a discovery. It takes a lot of money to smash protons together at significant fractions of the speed of light and examine the remains for long-hypothesized elements of nature. Not a lot of economic revenue comes of it, either. Perhaps we might sell Higgs t-shirts, but the payoff is finally in knowledge, not dollars.
Some, too, have complained about an unnecessarily religious spin that has been put on the discovery of the Higgs boson, especially in its nickname of the “God particle.” While I agree that the nickname is misleading and largely used just to gin up interested by the media, I have in fact been impressed by the propriety with which the scientific community has handled the announcement. To begin with, the team at CERN announced their findings with excitement but also with scientific prudence, cautioning that definitive identification of the newly-found boson as “the Higgs” would take some time. Second, while I’m sure that some searchers of the Internet might find a few examples to the contrary, the scientific commentary on the Higgs has largely been to present it as exactly what it is: a milestone in particle physics, not a revolution in theology. In fact, scanning both the scientific and religious media, both of which have my sympathy, I have found in my own reading more articles cautioning against over-theologizing the Higgs than I have found by writers actually committing that error! The “God particle” moniker has been bandied about, but no serious attempts have been made, that I am aware of, to proclaim that the discovery of the Higgs boson actually plays a revolutionary theological role.
The point is that the discovery of the Higgs boson, long awaited as it has been, is important in the world of particle physics, and remains important there. It changes nothing in the economical scheme, provides no grand source of power of nature, and doesn’t even serve any new philosophical or theological end. It is an important scientific discovery which is forced to stand on its own.
That doesn’t mean, however, that it cannot be viewed in the broader light of the human intellectual tradition. Fr. James Schall, S.J., political science professor at Georgetown, writes in his book The Order of Things: ”We are beings who are moved by the ‘wonder of the world’ — that is, we wonder at the world, how it is, that it is, why it is. Plato speaks of this philosophic eros to remind us that seeking the truth of things is no indifferent activity of our souls.… We are beings who want to know — and to know the truth.… [W]e are made to be such beings that our very unknowing challenges us, unsettles us so that we seek to know the what is of everything we encounter, including ourselves.” Fr. Schall would add that, if we are beings whose nature it is to know, we are meant to finally know our Creator “face to face,” as Saint Paul puts it. This religious aside is not entirely out of place, for if it is true that human beings find their ultimate fulfillment in seeing or in knowing, it is not surprising that we find, in the meantime, some temporary fulfillment in knowing things about the world in which we find ourselves, even when those things we come to know serve no immediate purpose. In other words, it may very well be that our human drive to do science, to simply know about the world around us, acquires its power from our nature as beings meant to finally know the source of all things.
There are, in the final analysis, some things that we do simply because it is good in itself to do them. Man is called to know. It is his nature. Thus we cannot help but philosophize. Thus we find in science, pure science which does not simply seek to exercise power, some hints of the noblest aspects of ourselves. The Higgs has no yet foreseeable service in furthering man’s economic mastery of his environment. It plays no revolutionary theological role, being particularly no more and no less a sign of the Creator than any other element of nature. The Higgs boson is, in a sense, useless. Yet it is still good to know about it, because it is a human good just to seek to know.
About the Author
Michael Baruzzini has been published by First Things, Crisis, Sky & Telescope, and he writes online at his site The Deeps of Time.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (52) | Leave a comment
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DTOM| 7.20.12 @ 7:32AM
Hey Mike, haven't you seen the articles in which they originally were calling it the "G-D" particle as in 'it's so G-D small!' Which was then bowlderized to the "God" particle providing the media with the opportunity to stick its grimy thumb in the eye of the Faithful while simultaneously facetiously claiming to be respectful of Him.
They should man up and keep calling it the G-D particle - a lot of us know that they're going to Hell either way, they might as well give it the Thelma and Louise pedal-to-the-metal treatment and enjoy this, while it lasts...
Dave Williams| 7.20.12 @ 1:07PM
....Once again, the iron fist in the christian velvet glove shows itself. Bub, I've got news for you: death is annihilation, pure and simple, and after it, nobody goes anywhere. I'm wrong? Prove it, schmuck.
JohnLeo| 7.20.12 @ 3:30PM
Well it's easy to say that when you ignore 170 years of research that indicate just the opposite. You might start with the Scole experiment, and work your way up to NDEs.
DTOM| 7.21.12 @ 9:19AM
Uh Dave,
Are you seeing things?
Nowhere did I mention Christianity in my post.
And I agree with you that death is annihilation, of the body. But I also believe that I have a soul. I believe you do, too. Too bad your are taking such poor care of it. Eternity is a long, long time - much longer than your attention span in this world.
Good luck with that.
I don't have to prove anything to you. In fact I can't. That's why we call it "faith."
Get it? Are you trying to get it? Too bad.
TLP| 7.20.12 @ 7:40AM
The Hadron Collider was built, Not to prove the Big Bang, but to Disprove the Existence of GOD. But, in order to do that, they need to explain, in Physical Terms, the Unexplainable.
If the Universe began with the Explosion of a Single Hydrogen Atom. Where did the Hydrogen Atom come from? Since, OBVIOUSLY, there's no such thing as GOD, it had to be something else.
So they spend Billion$ on a machine worthy of The Illuminati, in search for the last digit of The Square Root of pi. (more or less)
Instead of using that money for Medical Research, or New Nutritional Alternatives for the betterment of Mankind, they, instead, piss it down a Rat Hole, in an effort to stick their finger in to anyone's and everyone's eye, who BELIEVES in GOD.
And, what have they come up with?
Nuthin.
What a waste.
Think of the Interstellar Propulsion Systems that they could have been working on, with that Money, instead of searching in vain for The Evidence that, Not only is GOD DEAD, but HE never existed in the first place.
(And, you wanna stop giving Government more of your Money in Taxes?)
Why?
rongoodman| 7.21.12 @ 4:26PM
Where did you get the idea that the Big Bang had anything to do with the "Explosion of a Single Hydrogen Atom"?
TLP| 7.21.12 @ 9:14PM
In School, Dumb@ss.
That was the DOGMA, forever.
I'm 55.
You sound like you're about 10.
rongoodman| 7.21.12 @ 10:42PM
A quick Google search will lead you to a number of articles regarding the timeline of the universe following the Big Bang. It would have been several hundred thousand years before things cooled off enough for hydrogen atoms to form. You're welcome.
TLP| 7.22.12 @ 8:20PM
No, you're Stupid.
The Theory has ALWAYS been that a Single Hydrogen Atom, was the Catalyst for the Big Bang.
I'm 55, and that is what the Dogma has always been.
"You're Welcome."
Screw you.
ebonystone| 7.23.12 @ 1:16AM
If you want the gummint to spend more on medical research and nutritional research, why not reduce our astronomical level of social-welfare spending to get the money? Talk about pissing money down a rat-hole! The budgets for NASA and particle research combined are only a few percent of the amount spent on hand -outs to deadbeats.
Jack London| 7.20.12 @ 7:42AM
I'm amazed to see this article on AmSpec - all the usual posters and article writers here would shut down all our academic research and national laboratories in a heartbeat.
TLP| 7.20.12 @ 8:41AM
This, coming from a True Believer in the Cult of Junk Science.
A True BELIVER of The Population Bomb. The coming Apocalypse from Alar in the Apples. Three Mile Island and "The Silent Spring" of DDT. (Tell us, Jackass. How many Africans have to DIE FROM MALARIA CARRYING MOSQUITOES, before your Cult will allow them to Use the Best Method ever devised, for Killing MALARIA CARRYING MOSQUITOES?)
He believes in the Infallability of that Pathetic Fool at NASA, and the totally Debunked Fairy Tales of "Professor" Hockey Stick Boy, at P.U.
A True Believer in Man Made Global Cooling, which was "revised" in to Man Made Global Warming, which was soon to be "revisited" as Man Made Global Climate Change, which is a Huge Problem, because, as anyone in Jackass' inner circle of Fellow Jackasses will tell you - The Earth's Climate has never changed.
Ever.
So, we need to Raise Taxes, Punish Businesses, and take Mankind back to the days of Wind Power, and getting our Heat and Light from The Sun God.
Isn't that right, Dumb@ss?
This is the guy with his Nose turned up, at the rest of us?
Unbelievable.
justmom| 7.21.12 @ 2:26PM
Good post TLP. I also wonder how any lib can sleep at night as a child dies of malaria because the DDT is sealed, the perfectly fine DDT. I used to run in the spray when I was a child.
TLP| 7.21.12 @ 9:18PM
Thanks, Mom.
Occam's Tool| 7.20.12 @ 3:42PM
Wrong. The Higgs Boson is important in the sense that learning rarely goes forward in a straight line, and neither does economic progress. Apple was started in a garage, you know.
A certain Brit did not throw out a moldy bacterial dish, and from that eventually derived a massive pharmaceutical industrial product.
The benefit of knowing about the Higgs boson at this time is not financial. But it may be. E=MC2 did not originally have a financial or military purpose, either.
But I, for example, am considerably less of a Luddite than you are, Jack.
TLP| 7.21.12 @ 9:20PM
Please refer to what I wrote, above.
Bob S| 7.21.12 @ 1:26AM
Typical liberal, making conservatives look like the boogeyman. At least I'm not being paid for my beliefs, Jack London. I hope Media Matters gives you at least a liveable salary.
JimH| 7.20.12 @ 8:52AM
The trouble with big science being funded from the government is that possible alternate theories get pushed aside without being tested because they do not fit with the agendas of those who get the funding. Witness what goes on with global warming research. There are some voices outside the mainstream of physics that are not entirely satisfied with the theoretical underpinnings which require such things as a Higgs Boson or Dark matter. There may come a future time when the convolutions of current physics will look like the epicycles used by Earth centric astronomers.
C. Vernon Crisler | 7.20.12 @ 10:37AM
Well, I've read criticism that Dark Matter is a hypothesis to account for a predictive failure of the Big Bang model. I don't see the Higgs boson as being used to explain the failure of any particular theory. Can you elaborate?
JimH| 7.20.12 @ 11:20AM
Maybe less the existence of the Higgs Boson and more in the way of its implications. I am in no way asserting this, but I have seen criticisms of Special relativity which use some form of aether associated with gravity and the speed of light being variable. Such theories seek to explain the universe without resorting to arcane mathematics and resorting to such things as dark matter and energy. I’ve seen Jerry Pournelle make reference to such a theory and I think it was also espoused by the late Prof. Petr Beckmann.
C. Vernon Crisler | 7.20.12 @ 1:46PM
My main criticism of Einstein is that he assumed that the speed of light was a constant IN THE PAST, as well as today. There is no independent evidence for that belief; it's just an unacknowledged metaphysical assumption. (I don't think aether theories really advance anything.)
JimH| 7.20.12 @ 2:10PM
I am by no means up on this but I don’t think that what is referred to as aether in these theories is meant to be the same as was used in the 19th century. I think it a sort of short hand for some type of pervasive medium through which gravity and other forces can act. From what I’ve seen described, there seems to be a certain elegance in that they allow the solving of computations using only algebra where special relativity requires tensors. Regardless of whether some form of this theory is accurate, I think that there is a loss when big science and big government are joined at the hip and ideas competing with the status quo don’t get a chance to be heard or tested.
Bob S| 7.20.12 @ 11:44PM
There are some theories that start with the premise of a variable speed of light. These theories have mostly been dismissed by mainstream scientists, despite evidence that the fine structure constant, which is directly related to the speed of light, could have been much different a long time ago.
John Moffat made some influential research on varying speed of light in the early '90s. He is also pioneering an alternate theory of gravity, scalar-tensor-vector gravity or Modified Gravity. Interestingly, varying speed of light would do away with the need for a big bang, since it would solve the horizon problem, explaining why regions on opposite sides of the universe have uniform temperature, and modified gravity would do away with the need for dark matter and dark energy, explaining why gravity acts differently on the scales of galaxies and the universe and lead to flat galaxy rotation curves and apparent expansion of the universe.
The Big Bang, dark matter, and dark energy happen to be some of the most popular theories on cosmology in modern physics.
Bob S| 7.20.12 @ 11:32PM
It is used to explain the failure of modern physics to explain the origin of inertial mass. Why do different particles have different masses? Physicists proposed the Higgs field, and the Higgs boson as the mediator of the Higgs field, as a mechanism to give particles their mass.
Of course, this then begs the question of why some particles interact different with the Higgs field than others. You're exchanging one fundamental constant, the mass of elementary particles, for another, the number that indicates a particle's interaction with the Higgs field, which doesn't really accomplish much in my book.
THKrupp| 7.20.12 @ 10:41AM
Well the only way to prove which theories are correct you have to test them....which is what they did. If they would not have found the Higgs particle that would have given more strenght to the other competing ideas.
fmm| 7.20.12 @ 2:55PM
To say they have tested the theory is a stretch. The standard theory is full of holes (dark matter being the largest one, followed by the big bang, etc.) which have to be solved for physicists to feel good about themselves. So the physicists predict something which will do that for them, then design experiments which are targeted to find that special thing. You can bet that eventually they will find what they are looking for, whether it is real or not.
THKrupp| 7.23.12 @ 9:11AM
Yes I know this, Im not a physicist or even very knowledgable in the subject. I have a pretty good idea about how the scientific method works. Thats what scientists do...they have an idea about how something works then they set up experiments to prove it.
TLP| 7.21.12 @ 9:23PM
Please explain the End Result of this experiment.
Other than further emptying the Churches of Europe.
THKrupp| 7.23.12 @ 9:16AM
Another small piece of information was gained about how the world works. It doesnt prove or disprove the existance of God. The churches in Europe were empty before this experiment took place.
ebonystone| 7.23.12 @ 1:01AM
Exactly! If a theory is scientific, that means it can be disproved. The search for the Higgs was as much an attempt to disprove the Standard Model as it was to prove it. If the Higgs was proposed to have such-and-such properties, discoverable by such-and-such methods, and then those methods were employed, and no such particle was found after repeated attempts, then the Standard Model would be in trouble.
It's easy to speculate about alternatives to the Standard Model, but if one cannot come up with a way to test for them, they remain speculation.
Peter McGrath| 7.20.12 @ 10:27AM
This is a bit of a luddite reaction to a truly amazing discovery which rounds out our understanding of quantum physics by demonstrating the existence of sub-atomic particles which make it possible for atomic nuclei to bind together to form mass. Without the Higgs boson, the universe would be a mist of atomic particles, shapeless and formless, evenly distributed throughout a theoretical universe which could never exist b/c there's no possibility of mind or intelligence.
There actually are potential uses for this discovery, particularly in the field of fusion energy. More specifically, technology from the particle colliders, and our new knowledge of the Higgs field, may make it possible someday to create fusion energy w/o the extremely high temperatures currently thought necessary to replicate fusion reactions here on Earth. More, here:
http://news.discovery.com/spac.....boson.html
TLP| 7.21.12 @ 9:28PM
Quantum anything, is a Theory.
String Theory, is just that. A Theory.
Everything Einstein gets his ass kissed, over, is a Theory.
I'll give you an example.
Einstein PREDICTED that NOTHING can Travel faster than the speed of light.
Yet, the Effeminate Boys, at CERN, say that they have found particles that, indeed, Travel faster than light.
I rest my Case.
C. Vernon Crisler | 7.20.12 @ 10:35AM
I wonder how the Higgs field got there in the first place. Hmm.
DTOM| 7.21.12 @ 9:22AM
George Soros made it - everybody knows that! HAH!
TLP| 7.21.12 @ 9:30PM
Exactly.
Who Knows?| 7.20.12 @ 11:08AM
“it is the final major component of the "Standard Model" of particle physics.”
Perhaps the Higgs boson is the “final” whatever, but unsaid by the author is that physics, and ALL OF science, is a theory ABOUT nature. It is indeed a MODEL, not the reality itself.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed studying cosmology for years.
Try “The Dancing Wu-Li Masters” by Gary Zukav, 1979; “The Tao of Physics”, Fritjof Capra, 1975; “The Reflexive Universe- Evolution of Consciousness”, Arthur M. Young, 1976; “Laws of Form”, G Spencer Brown, 1969, “The Crack in the Cosmic Egg”, Joseph Chilton Pearce, 1971, “Finite and Infinite Games”, James Carse, 1986.
Forget about the Higgs boson---read about Bell’s Theorem, which has been physically proved, and as Zukav writes—
“One of the implications of Bell’s theorem is that, at a deep and fundamental level, the ‘separate parts’ of the universe are connected in an intimate and immediate way.
In short, Bells’ theorem and the enlightenment experience of unity are very compatible.” Page 282
“An elementary particle is not an independently existing, unanalyzable entity. It is, in essence, a set of relationships that reach outward to other things.” Henry Stapp, physicist Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
Who Knows?| 7.20.12 @ 11:24AM
“Things are not ‘correlated’ in nature. In nature, things are as they are. Period. ‘Correlation’ is a concept which WE use to describe connections which WE perceive. There is no word, ‘correlation’, apart from people. There is no concept, ‘correlation’, apart from people. This is because only people use words and concepts.
“‘Correlation’ is a concept. Subatomic particles are correlations. If we weren’t here to make them, there would not be any concepts, including the concept of ‘correlation’. In short, if we weren’t here to make them, there wouldn’t be any particles!” page 71
“The ‘isolation’ that we create is an idealization, and one point of view is that quantum mechanics allows us to idealize a photon from the unbroken unity so that we can study it. In fact, a ‘photon’ seems to become isolated from the unbroken unity BECAUSE we are studying it.” Ibid page 72
“One of the most profound byproducts of the general theory of relativity is the discovery that gravitational ‘force’, which we had so long taken to be a real and independently existing thing, is actually our mental creation. There is no such thing in the real world. The planets do not orbit the sun because the sun exerts an invisible gravitational force on them, they follow the paths they do because those paths are the easiest way for them to traverse the terrain of the space-time continuum in which they find themselves.” Ibid page 187
C. Vernon Crisler | 7.20.12 @ 9:53PM
"One of the most profound byproducts of the general theory of relativity is the discovery that gravitational ‘force’, which we had so long taken to be a real and independently existing thing, is actually our mental creation. There is no such thing in the real world."
Sounds like Berkeley's Idealism. Might want to read up on Karl Popper's criticisms of this view of physics.
DTOM| 7.21.12 @ 9:26AM
If gravitational force is just an aberrant force, let's ask him if he wants to show the strength of his confidence in this assertion. The parapet of any ten-story building will provide an excellent jumping off point for the proof I am asking for.
Good Luck With That.
Who Knows?| 7.21.12 @ 10:47AM
You are exposing your ignorance.
Einstein over 100 years ago showed that gravity is actually the curvature of space-time, which has been proved numerous times by physicists.
Of course you fall from a height.
Even Newton realized that the force of gravity as he explained it in his equations was weird.
Think about it. How can the sun reach out over millions of miles and "grab" the earth?
Jane Chingo| 7.20.12 @ 5:24PM
When do you think you might stop spouting sophomore-at-2am-the-morning-the-paper-is-due nonsense and actually answer the question in your headline? I know what a boson is, but nobody who reads your 'article' will find out.
BackToBasics| 7.20.12 @ 9:01PM
If it becomes certain that the Higgs Boson has been found it will advance our knowledge but it will not neither prove nor disprove the existence of God.
If it is proved that it exists and imparts mass to subatomic particles why would that preclude the existence of God who could have used any method he chose to bring about creation?
Belief or disbelief in God still comes down to a faith choice.
BackToBasics| 7.21.12 @ 11:41AM
corr. - neither prove nor disprove
TLP| 7.21.12 @ 9:31PM
Where did IT come from?
BackToBasics| 7.22.12 @ 2:04AM
You missed my point.
TLP| 7.22.12 @ 8:22PM
Actually, that was for the guy ahead of you.
TexasRanger1| 7.20.12 @ 10:59PM
Michael:
The closing paragraphs of your excellent article is a wonderful description of our God-given pure desire to know. I suspect you are familiar with Bernard Lonergan's work and transcendental epistemology. If not, enjoy the intellectual journey to the virtually unconditioned and the Question of God.
Bob S| 7.20.12 @ 11:24PM
And now there are reports that this wasn't the Higgs boson anyway. It maybe have been a Higgs-consistent event, but it was no Higgs.
So they continue to fail to find this particle. Go figure.
DTOM| 7.21.12 @ 9:27AM
They continue to fail to report accurately - the more things change...
ebonystone| 7.23.12 @ 1:30AM
"... the propriety with which the scientific community has handled the announcement. To begin with, the team at CERN announced their findings with excitement but also with scientific prudence, cautioning that definitive identification of the newly-found boson as "the Higgs" would take some time."
Yes, compare their caution to the behavior of the AGW "scientists", who, if they found a single place on the globe reporting a record high temperature for the day, would be trumpetting it as proof of AGW.
Theo Prinse| 7.23.12 @ 9:46AM
Not the question of either proof of existence or non existence of a supreme being is important .. but whether the human nature or man surrounding nature is finite or infinite, is important.
-------------
Gravity
The force of gravity is caused or mitigated through particles.
These (free) gravitons are either relatively motionless in vacuum space.
Or gravitons are fixed in a position within matter while f.i. (the mass of) the Earth flies through this vacuum sea of gravitons with 80.000 km/h.
Gravitons are f.i 3 or 30 powers smaller than the thus far known smallest particle, the electron or tau-neutrino.
Again, the spatial dimensions in both the direction of the smallest particles and vice versa in the direction of ever increasing larger objects is infinite ...
Fixed gravitons within and free gravitons outside electrons, protons, molecules etc. comprises all forms of matter from stars or larger to electrons or smaller.
For reason of simplicity it is understood that electrons and protons etc. are comprised of fixed gravitons.
Through the process of 'repression‘ within electrons and protons culminating in planets, stars etc... gravitons - as a collective - are forced to a motion of local orientation which carries a stronger force (gravitation) on the local particles like electrons, protons etc.
This action of repression (gravity) relates in an order like that of ever faster spinning wheels placed in a load-bed of an aero-plane. .... cnt'd
Theo Prinse| 7.23.12 @ 10:19AM
Cnt'd
These gravitons always strive towards an absolute spherical field around electrons, protons, stars etc..
Gravitons settle evenly, linear in their field among each other (like photons which are far bigger) in initially massive streams extending from the center and equable where and while each one of them remain in their (relatively) fixed place in space.
So graviton(systems) stretch from and far beyond the center of any electron (or star etc) .. but not into infinity.
The mutual, smoothly, even settling between gravitons ignores the abrupt ending of the material surface of a particle, planet, star etc. where the even settling transfers into vacuum space or (the low mass of) any atmosphere.
Gravitation or rather the even settling process ignores the shift from matter to vacuum.
Gravitation does not occur suddenly much less ... f.i. 1 cm above the Earth surface but evenly at 1 cm above the surface or in a hole miles under the surface.