Cern announces discovery of Higgs boson

**judedeath** · 07-05-12, 12:30 AM

Isn't that LHC thing the thing that was supposed to blow up the world or create a black hole or whatever and destroy the earth?

/reverse threadjack

**gehn** · 07-05-12, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by Kanati8869

Not to mention that what "changed" isn't something concrete or physical that you can hold in your hand.

We learned that the theory of the higgs... of a particle that gives mass to everything around us exists. It is what holds our universe together. Is that worth knowing? Is knowing it and marking it off the list of things we have to guess about a big enough "change"?

Is it a big enough change that being able to put a check next to the higgs and measure it and observe it could now lead to discoveries of why gravity is so weak, or what dark energy or dark matter is, or any number of paths that couldn't have been taken by NOT knowing about it?

It is a step in understanding something about our universe and like anything in this world if you can understand something you have the potential to control it. Knowledge is power as they say.

**DancingCorpse** · 07-05-12, 01:04 AM

At first I was like:

Then I was like:

After I was all:

But then I was all:

So that made me:

And go:

And now I am all:

Then I started reading replies to the thread:

And I just go all:

**AetheLove** · 07-05-12, 01:49 AM

Originally Posted by deathgodusmc

Ok. So what changed today from it?
What will change next week?
How about next month?
Fuck month how about next year?
Maybe a decade from now it will mean some change but odds are nope.

This is a curiousity thing. The knowledge means next to nothing right now.

I thought Hannibal over reacted to your good-natured joke, but now I'm thinking he was dead on. You're just hatin'.

When the electron was discovered, it was "a curiosity thing", but WTF is your world now? It's drenched in electronics. That you can EVEN HATE ON IT here is due to the discovery of the electron and the way it fit into the model of the day. The X-Ray was a curiosity. Lorentz transformation was a curiosity.

Radium was a curiosity. The Leyden Jar was a curiosity.

The method of infinitesimals was a curiosity. Non-Euclidean geometry was some spectacularly esoteric bullshit... until it turned out to be spectacularly useful.

C'mon, DG, give these CERN guys their props.

Cheers,

AetheLove

**DancingCorpse** · 07-05-12, 01:54 AM

Originally Posted by AetheLove

When the electron was discovered, it was "a curiosity thing", but WTF is your world now? It's drenched in electronics. That you can EVEN HATE ON IT here is due to the discovery of the electron and the way it fit into the model of the day. The X-Ray was a curiosity. Lorentz transformation was a curiosity.

In other words: They gave you internet porn, so just fucking let them have THIS.

**Guyver** · 07-05-12, 01:57 AM

Originally Posted by AetheLove

I thought Hannibal over reacted to your good-natured joke, but now I'm thinking he was dead on. You're just hatin'.

When the electron was discovered, it was "a curiosity thing", but WTF is your world now? It's drenched in electronics. That you can EVEN HATE ON IT here is due to the discovery of the electron and the way it fit into the model of the day. The X-Ray was a curiosity. Lorentz transformation was a curiosity.

Radium was a curiosity. The Leyden Jar was a curiosity.

The method of infinitesimals was a curiosity. Non-Euclidean geometry was some spectacularly esoteric bullshit... until it turned out to be spectacularly useful.

C'mon, DG, give these CERN guys their props.

Cheers,

AetheLove

DG hates anything that he doesn't understand...lol. I don't entirely understand it either...but, I'm not so naive to call it useless or nothing either.

**Kraker Jak** · 07-05-12, 07:18 AM

Originally Posted by Guyver

DG hates anything that he doesn't understand...lol. I don't entirely understand it either...but, I'm not so naive to call it useless or nothing either.

Holy shit I agree with Guyver

DG, like DC said....through many discoveries over the years that seemed useless at the time....we now have immediate streamed porn to our homes....God bless the USA.....

**AetheLove** · 07-05-12, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by AetheLove

I thought Hannibal over reacted to your good-natured joke, but now I'm thinking he was dead on. You're just hatin'.

When the electron was discovered, it was "a curiosity thing", but WTF is your world now? It's drenched in electronics. That you can EVEN HATE ON IT here is due to the discovery of the electron and the way it fit into the model of the day. The X-Ray was a curiosity. Lorentz transformation was a curiosity.

Radium was a curiosity. The Leyden Jar was a curiosity.

The method of infinitesimals was a curiosity. Non-Euclidean geometry was some spectacularly esoteric bullshit... until it turned out to be spectacularly useful.

C'mon, DG, give these CERN guys their props.

Damn. This is what I get for posting after celebrating our nation's birthday so exuberantly (where we measure "exuberance" in 12-ounce units).

As I understand the history, the method of infinitesimals was pretty hot-shit right from the start. So I blew that one.

Also, I didn't mean to say that you were wrong, DG, and I'd agree that preliminary (though strong) evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson isn't likely to change most of our lives any time soon.

My point was that emphasizing how much money was spent and asking what sort of return we can expect (by next week, please) seems like the best way to miss the point. Research is expensive. No argument there. But my sense of it is that the payoff from a broad culture of research is huge. You never know which thing will be the most useful.

But polio got cured, so that was nice.

The CERN people had a big day. Yeah, it was expensive to build the facility - but it's not like physicists are getting rich. I think they deserve a little love.

And as long as I'm coming clean, I have a confession: all those beers yesterday were Canadian.

I'm so ashamed. I throw myself on the mercy of the court.

Cheers,

AetheLove

p.s. but in a world where Budweiser is Belgian, wtf can a poor patriot do?