How the "God Particle" is not like God and Where Mass Comes From.
It sounds very anti-intuitive to say a particle gives mass to other particles. It's almost like saying God created the universe, which begs the question of what created God. If you need some outside entitiy to give you mass, when what gives the Higgs its mass?
How the "God Particle" is not like God and Where Mass Comes From.
Hi. Higgs here. Whether I won my bet or not, I’m happy for the physicists, even if the Higgs particle has acquired has the most annoying nickname ever to be given to a scientific idea. Every time I hear the term “God Particle” I bring up a hairball.
It's just plain pompous, whether one believes in God or not. It's also not descriptive or helpful.
And it's confusing. When people say the Higgs particle gives other particles their masses, it suggests that particles need some outside entity to give them mass. So what, then, gives the Higgs its mass? The situation is quite analogous to the proposition that God created everything in the universe, which implies that things can't exist without a creator and then begs the question of who or what created God.
Despite their inability to shake the odious "God Particle" label, physicists don't really think of the Higgs this way.
Here’s the result of some research we did with our local physicists:
The Higgs is named after the English physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed a theory in 1964 to explain a mystery: why the constituents of matter have mass but the light particle, or photon, is massless. Scientists had gotten used to the idea that electric and magnetic fields could pervade space, and Higgs proposed another field, bearing his name, through which particles could acquire mass.
Physicists say Higgs particles can be thought of as waves or ripples in the Higgs field. The particle is the manifestation of the Higgs theory that's potentially testable.
In the 1970s, the Higgs field was incorporated into a Nobel-winning theory that united electromagnetism with one of the forces involved in nuclear reactions. Now the Higgs idea is woven into the so-called Standard Model, which describes the constituents of matter and the forces that act on them.
So there you go. What they’re seeing is the testable prediction of Dr. Higgs’ idea. The particle doesn't magically bestow mass on other particles. All the particles, including the Higgs, are being weighted down by the Higgs field. By the way, this idea was independently formulated by a few other scientists so there may be a big catfight around Nobel time. Still, the physicists all deserve a treat. Thanks for letting me express my views. – Higgs.
I’ve seen a lot of ill-educated and ill-informed theists hoot and holler like monkeys noticing a jaguar when the Higgs boson is mentioned, so thrilled that someone misquoted someone else by calling it the “God particle” and thinking it validates their myths. I wonder if they realize that this means that their god becomes nothing more than a set of predictable laws, and not the existential best friend they pretend it is? The universe is again shown to be a coherent place, it’s only puny human limits that have made the process to figure it out so long and arduous. There is no god to make a Seussian world where *anything* can happen, something required if one wants to postulate a omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent being.— Vel- Referring to people with whom you diagree as "monkeys" really has no place in a discussion between well-informed and well-educated people.
— varsity - It's easy to see from this post that Ms. Flam is much more anti-god than pro-science. When you inject your politics and prejudices into science, you breed skepticism. So when you chide global warming skeptics, remember it is those like you who engage in "political science" (to reuse a term), that created them in the first place.— jmc
- Personally, I love science. I believe in evolution, and do not belong to any religion, or believe in god as represented in those religions. That said, to believe that only what can be known through the human mind is all that there is, amounts to a foolish, empty existence.— jmc
- I disagree that this post shows that Ms. Flam is "much more anti-god than pro-science". I think she is anti-conflating-religious-ideas-with-science.
Skepticism is a good thing -- it means withholding judgment until sufficient data is in. The more unlikely the claim, the more evidence is needed to support it. In the case of global warming 'skeptics', they are refusing to accept the evidence. They are more like conspiracy theorists who refuse to accept evidence that is contrary to their beliefs, than they are like skeptics.— lepperk - jmc at 11:30 AM, 07/05/2012:
"...to believe that only what can be known through the human mind is all that there is, amounts to a foolish, empty existence."
Au contraire, when it comes to "knowing," the only method we have any scientific evidence for is the ability to know through the mind; there is no evidence for the supernatural. If you imagine that life's a foolish, empty existence when only known through the mind, that is the simply the perception of your individual mind, not some deep universal truth. i.e., opinion, not fact.— Mike Richard - I knew instantaneous when I saw "God Particle" to investigate further. No surprises, Higgs is an atheist and dismayed by the label but one should not be surprised given our institutions, culture and general lack of philosophical context. In other words, we have a varying mix of skilled/unskilled individuals but the duncitude factor does not discriminate in our society...no matter your capacity or execution of intelligence..— feudal_nobility09
- i think they are going to suck the earth into a black hole with this atom smasher...that's how the world is gong to end, and we won't even know why it's happening.— deatheater
Isn't this basically what dark matter is comprised of? Why not just call it what it is? Dark matter? No mention of this in your story? don't you watch Through the Worm Hole with Morgan Freeman, reporter?
The only group that ever called the Higgs boson the "God Particle" was the media. Mostly because of some outlandish statements that if we found the Higgs boson all kinds of stuff could happen, like inverting the universe. The reason scientists have been looking for it so hard is because it provides an insight to some fundamental properties. Stop this nonsense of comparing religion and science.— verve- jmc - How can you say "That said, to believe that only what can be known through the human mind is all that there is, amounts to a foolish, empty existence."
All that we experience, learn and have known is ONLY because we have a human mind. It is NOT a foolish or empty existence to understand reality. Just because there are questions or mysteries we might never have the answer to making up some magic man (god or gods) doesn't by default make life more meaningful nor does it give it any special meaning expect to make the believer feel better. Illicit drugs can also make a person feel better but it doesn't mean they are grounded in reality.— FreshLooks - It's interesting that you brought the term "reality" into the disucssion. All human beings experience their reality differently from other human beings, including the laws of physics. For example: Kobe Bryant experiences the effects of gravity in a way very different from my own experience with it. Since our experience of reality is subjective, when you refer to reality you are really only referring to your own "reality". Another example: time. We say time "flew" or we say time "dragged", the experience is different but the measurement of time remains a constant. All of those experiences occur in the human mind (as you mentioned), therefore- leave room in your opinions for how other experience their reality. — varsity
- What this discovery of the Higgs Boson means is that empty space isn't really empty. Nothing isn't nothing anymore. The empty vacuum of space actually has this Higgs field in it. The quantum world is so strange. I really don't understand it but it fun to read about it.— FreshLooks
If the inqy keeps suppressing pro-God posts, not matter how benign, they may be getting some free-speech action from the ACLU. I left you one in the oven and it is overdone.— r a leon
In pursuit of her stories, writer Faye Flam has weathered storms in Greenland, gotten frost nip at the South Pole, and floated weightless aboard NASA’s zero-g plane. She has a degree in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology and started her writing career with the Economist. She later took on the particle physics and cosmology beat at Science Magazine before coming to the Inquirer in 1995. Her previous science column, “Carnal Knowledge,” ran from 2005 to 2008. Her new column and blog, Planet of the Apes, explores the topic of evolution and runs here and in the Inquirer’s health section each Monday. Email Faye at fflam@phillynews.com.
Reach Planet of the at fflam@phillynews.com.
