perhaps it was the case that merely thinking about it's possible existence made it pop in to existence.
seriously, scientists will be the death of all of us, with all that tinkering around with nature.

If men were meant to fly, then we would have been born with wings...

... What were we talking about again?

Are you guys sure that America isnt invading Iran right now? Seems like everyones talking about this...so i mean, now would be the time.

Originally Posted by Visceral

Are you guys sure that America isnt invading Iran right now? Seems like everyones talking about this...so i mean, now would be the time.

I think the problem is that everyone isnt talking about it :P

Originally Posted by Andreas

I'm kinda rolling my eyes at the camp that are getting excited over this. No one has been able to quantify this for me. Most are completely unable to even put it in laymans terms, never mind tell me what possible practical applications this could have. I've got the whole 'Dude you have no imagination' and 'Hoverboards!' thing several times from people already. Half the super excited people haven't got a shagging clue what this means for us. People need to chill. It's not even been confirmed that it is the Higgs boson, just a boson. It will take several weeks if not months to confirm that. People need to chill, 'specially those like me who have no idea whatsoever about what it actually means.

Dude seriously?

First of all here, this will help:

What is a Higgs Boson? - YouTube

Secondly...your admitting your ignorance on the subject, yet your boldly making an opinion. If you don't understand whats going on, just keep your comments to yourself.

If you don't understand whats going on, just keep your comments to yourself.

That's been my stance so far. I don't really know what's going on so I'll just be quiet and watch. :P It's fun watching everyone get excited though.

Even if it's the 'highly irrelevant to practical physics or understanding of the universe boson', it's still a big deal -- we haven't discovered a new particle in almost 20 years.

Originally Posted by Andreas

I'm kinda rolling my eyes at the camp that are getting excited over this. No one has been able to quantify this for me. Most are completely unable to even put it in laymans terms, never mind tell me what possible practical applications this could have. I've got the whole 'Dude you have no imagination' and 'Hoverboards!' thing several times from people already. Half the super excited people haven't got a shagging clue what this means for us. People need to chill. It's not even been confirmed that it is the Higgs boson, just a boson. It will take several weeks if not months to confirm that. People need to chill, 'specially those like me who have no idea whatsoever about what it actually means.

what it means is:

If they've found the Higgs Boson (they haven't claimed that yet, they've claimed to have found a new Boson, whether or not it's the Higgs is yet to be anounced), then it will have proven the standard model to be correct.

If the standard model is correct, it means many of the currently theoretical models which are hypothesized around the standard model being correct are likely to gain more ground, and therefor more funding and research, which means new waves of technology.

i hope this clears things up for you.

of course "what new technology" is a good question, and it's yet to be seen. it's interesting for sure.

Originally Posted by gsokol

Secondly...your admitting your ignorance on the subject, yet your boldly making an opinion. If you don't understand whats going on, just keep your comments to yourself.

I absolutely am saying I'm completely ignorant (or maybe just misinformed?) about the subject. That's not the bone I'm picking. I'm saying that there are tons of people just as ignorant, who are acting super excited for some reason. That was my point. I went looking to other people to enlighten me, but they just said 'hoverboards, dude'. You said that if I didn't know what was going on, I should be quiet. And I agree. That's exactly my problem with other people that have no idea what this means yet say it's the most important scientific discovery ever! Thanks for the vid, I'll watch it now Thanks to you and gir and anyone else who actually broke it down. I can hardly subtract (no joke) never mind fathom physics and the properties of the cosmos.

Part of that is because, for some people, it's cool to be a part of the current thing - whatever it is. Everyone is excited about A, so being excited about A allows you to talk about it at work and around the water cooler. That's all. Just humans being humans...

I agree to an extent, but it would be like someone talking shit around the water cooler about last nights football game, yet not knowing a single player or any of the rules of the game. You would just laugh at that guy and walk away.

So gir, does this mean that more tech that is purely hypothetical at this point will likely receive more credence/funding? Cause we seem to be on the right path with assuming what the cosmos is made of, and what is possible for us to achieve/produce?

I think dfacto and almighty_gir put it quite well.

Basically if this is a Higgs boson it will progress our understanding of mass and potentially how to influence it. Current model suggests a 'Higgs field' which gives mass to things in it. So if we could effect this field we could potentially alter the mass of things in it.

Think of Mass Effect for a sci fi view of this, as most of the technology in that is about increasing mass (eg. tiny flecks of metal given large mass when used as bullets) or decreasing mass (eg. spacechips; allowing for faster travel).

Being able to influence mass could be useful in so many areas, from transport to architecture, to just about anything really.

Anything that gets people thinking about science, asking questions and looking for answers is going to be better than what celebrity is naming their kid after obscure fruit or what politician was caught with their hand down someones pants.

Part of the reason America is in a new dark age is because people look at science shrug and say "yea but what has it ever done for me!?" Then they decide to diddle their smart phone some more and tune out the world around them.

Stupid NASA and Science eating up .5% of our National Budget, I could totally use the .5 cents I pay for it on something else... like a wishing well, that's like 5 wishes and dude one of those might come true!


20 million over 30 years spent on the shuttle program.
20 million per a year to AC tents in Iraq.

I don't know about anyone else but I would rather see amazingly cool shit like the space shuttle, over trying to cool something as drafty as a tent... BTW after 9 years they finally figured out that if they seal the tents in foam they are easier to keep cool. NASA would have had that shit figured out before a boot ever hit the ground.

Mind you I'm not trying to say that NASA or the US is to credit for this discovery but that the current anti-science climate in the US driving a giant boom in stupidity, that is contagious and will spread. So instead of being dismissive of science and advancements just button it and learn something.

Originally Posted by Andreas

No need for personal attacks dude, I'm certainly not calling out people in this thread for their opinions, because it's a nasty and shitty practice.

You've done exactly this multiple times in this thread, for really no reason other than to say "I'm too dumb to understand this, why should anyone else be allowed to get excited about it? For the record I'm too dumb to understand it too, but there's no need to talk down to people because of your own ignorance. So stop pissing in everyone's cheerios, its really petty.

Originally Posted by gsokol

Dude seriously?

First of all here, this will help:

What is a Higgs Boson? - YouTube

Secondly...your admitting your ignorance on the subject, yet your boldly making an opinion. If you don't understand whats going on, just keep your comments to yourself.

Thanks for that link. I've been reading stuff about it for the last week or so (because it's everywhere), and hadn't come across anything that defined it nearly as well as that video.