Today, science did not take a step foreward, it leaped!
As the famous astronaut Neil Armstrong once said "One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind!" Of course, Neil was talking about the first man to set foot on the moon. The first man to walk on a terrestrial body that was not Earth. It truly was a giant leap for mankind.
But today, man just made an even larger leap. Today, we confirmed the existance of a new Boson particle. This particle acts and looks, and interacts just like the thoerized Higgs Boson Particle. While they stopped JUST short of confirming that it was the Higgs Boson, it is certain that it is.
So certain, that most have already accepted it as fact, and even those that haven't accepted it as fact, most realize that we just need to make sure, one last time.
So what's the big deal? Well, the Higgs Boson particle explains how the "Big Bang" actually formed the universe. It explains how planets, stars, nebulae, and other things are formed. It explains how the universe exists, and how it formed. It proves that it was the Higgs Boson that created the Earth and the heavens. It almost completely disproves the existance of a creator entity.
Yeah, that's right. Proof. Not that theists accept anything as crazy as 'proof', 'evidence' or 'facts', but still. This is why the particle was nicknamed the "God Particle", not that that name is appropriate.
Mankinds knowledge and understanding of the universe have taken a leap foreward so far, it outshines things like a Man on the Moon, or even the sequencing of DNA. A discovery almost as important as the discovery of Photons, or the Atom.
One of the greatest scientific discoveries of this generation.
Your understanding of the higgs boson particle and the higgs mechanism is rudimentary at best. It most certainly does not explain the big bang theory. The particle itself illustrated that it can absorb other particles from a particle field, creating an energy asymmetry between the field and the particle. That is what it can do. this goes to help to explain how particles have mass without falling apart. That's it. This is a great discovery, but it isn't the scientific community who praises it as the "god particle", but the sensationalism driven media. The rely on peoples laziness not to research what the particle actually does, in hopes to create media frenzy which sells papers/air time/web hits, etc..
ReplyDeleteHere's an article that illustrates that peter higgs doesn't care for the "god particle" moniker http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/may/29/why-call-it-the-god-particle-higgs-boson-cern-lhc
Now, as an atheist, I couldn't care less if the name offends theists, in fact I quite enjoy it. I do however take issue with greatly exaggerating how far along this discovery is. It's merely the first step in explaining the big bang theory, not the be all and end all of the conversation.
Really, the fact that the Higgs Boson Particle causes other particles to have mass is one of the few holes the Big Bang Theory had. And while the BBT is still a theory, this discovery makes is much more plausible.
DeleteThe term the "God Particle" really is a misnomer. While it does, essentially, explain how physical objects with mass are formed, and that everything we can touch has physcial properties. What is does not explain, however, is still quite a bit. The "God Particle" name is not very accurate in that regards. The Higgs Boson is simply one piece of a puzzle. I would call the puzzle the "God Puzzle", but not attribute it to any single piece.
No, the Higgs Boson is not the reason the Big Bang happened, but is is a key intregal part in understanding how it happened, and how such an event could create a universe.
Many theists say "How did the big bang create something out of nothing?" This is a big part of that answer. The Higgs Boson is the reason random particles gained mass and formed into solid objects.
Perhaps I wasn't quite as clear in my original post, but there is alot more involved in how the Higgs Boson works and why its discovery is so important. We now have to wait for them to confirm their findings, and then we need to use our newfound knowledge to try to unlock more pieces of the puzzle that is our universe, and how it works.
This is a breakthrough, yes. We now have a key piece in the puzzle put into place. Now, we need to find and fit in the next piece.