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MSNBC reported today that scientists may be coming closer than ever to finding the Higgs boson particle, commonly referred to as the "God particle." But what is the Higgs boson? Why are scientists looking for it, what the hell is the "Standard Model," and for that matter what's a particle accelerator?
MSNBC.com has even posted a Live Poll asking for readers' opinions on this research. But if people don't understand what any of this means, how can they have an informed opinion on the matter? The MSNBC piece, while informative for those "in the know," does little in the way of explaining the issue to readers who may not be already well-versed in physics.
So let's start from the top: What is particle physics? The simplest explanation is that it's the study of elementary, or "sub-atomic" particles. Sub-atomic particles are the buildings blocks of atoms, and atoms are the building blocks of molecules. By learning the way these particles interact with one another, we can come to better understand the makeup of all matter in the universe and answer difficult questions such as how the universe was born.
So how do we study particle physics? We use machines called particle accelerators. You're probably already unknowingly very familiar with a type of particle accelerator called the Cathode Ray Tube. That's right, the guts of your old TV set and computer monitor. It works by firing photons - light particles - at a glass pane to form colored pixels which you see as an image on the screen. But to make advances in particle physics, scientists need to use accelerators which use a lot more energy to fire electrons and protons, moving very close to the speed of light, at atoms. When the particles collide, the kinetic energy of the protons and electrons is transferred into the atom, which responds by shattering violently into smaller pieces. By examining this process, we can see what the atoms are made of and what holds them together. To use an example made by Richard Feynman, it's like taking a hammer to a watch and then looking at the pieces to see how the watch was put together. To get usable results, however, we need accelerators much larger than the one in your TV set. Imagine that the distance from your screen to the back of the TV is not a couple of feet, but a couple of miles.
So what is the Higgs boson, and why are we looking for it? Well, through years of research with particle accelerators, physicists have developed a very good theoretical framework called the "Standard Model," which describes the particles that make up atoms and the forces that bind them together. Many of the predictions made by the Standard Model have held true when tested, but there's a missing piece to the puzzle. I'll spare you the gritty details, but the fundamental problem is that the Standard Model doesn't really work unless the Higgs boson particle is real, but experiments so far have failed to produce the particle because the energy required to break the hypothetical particle away from an atom is substantial; beyond the abilities of most particle accelerators currently in existence.
Enter the Large Hadron Collider, which will be the largest particle accelerator ever made. Physicists hope that this new accelerator will be able to produce the Higgs boson, the remaining piece of the puzzle, and further validate the Standard Model as a scientific theory. If it fails to do so and the Higgs boson is never discovered, the theory may need to be reframed in a manner which does not require its existence. Quite a bargain to be placed on a seven billion dollar device, but regardless of the fate of the "God particle," it will nevertheless help scientists to answer more questions about the composition of matter.
