livingentity 0 Report post Posted December 9, 2001 Physicists Hunt For the 'God Particle' By Cathryn Conroy, CompuServe News Editor Why does matter have mass? This isn't a high school physics test question. This is something that research physicists from the best universities still can't answer. In the 1960s, Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University had an idea: The answer could be found in an elusive subatomic particle--a kind of missing link that would explain why matter has mass and other fundamental laws of particle physics. Officially, it was called the "Higgs boson," but physicists quickly dubbed it the "God particle." And the hunt began. In earnest. But after years of searching and sifting through data, the God particle is just as elusive as its ever been. Now physicists fear it may not exist. "It's more likely than not that there is no Higgs," John Swain of Northeastern University in Boston told New Scientist magazine. What IS Higgs boson or the God particle? World Book Encyclopedia explains it all. Swain bases that statement on the results--or lack thereof--of tests using the world's largest particle accelerator at the CERN nuclear physics lab near Geneva. This device allowed physicists to hurl particles at nearly the speed of light on a collision course that breaks them up so the nature of matter can be studied. Conclusion: There is no evidence of the God particle at the energies where the scientists had expected to find it. The accelerator has now closed. CERN has ceased the search for the Higgs boson. Problem: There is no other viable theory of matter. Hope: CERN is building a Large Hadron Collider that will be able to smash particles at even higher energies. It will be operational in 2007. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
