Place your bets: when will the Higgs Boson be confirmed?
July 25th, 2011 at 6:55:23 PM
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Odds shrank dramatically on whether or not the God particle will be found this year. Personally, I'd bet "never" but I'm not sure when I could collect on that.
I'll be in Vegas in a couple weeks ... wonder if there's a science book that will take this bet?
I'll be in Vegas in a couple weeks ... wonder if there's a science book that will take this bet?
July 25th, 2011 at 7:02:02 PM
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They will find it before my bankroll recovers from the NFL last year.
Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes." ~ William Gibson
July 25th, 2011 at 7:24:35 PM
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It's not a Viola! moment. They have to bump uglies for a very long time before they can say that they found something definitive. Here's a good article explaining how the "Discovery" will happen. I think that 2013 will be the year of the Higgs. They've already discovered it, they just need to brush away the garbage data that surrounds it.
Missing energy around 140GeV may or may not indicate the presence of the Higgs Boson.
Missing energy around 140GeV may or may not indicate the presence of the Higgs Boson.
Someday, joor goin' to see the name of Googie Gomez in lights and joor goin' to say to joorself, "Was that her?" and then joor goin' to answer to joorself, "That was her!" But you know somethin' mister? I was always her yuss nobody knows it! - Googie Gomez
July 25th, 2011 at 8:59:45 PM
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Quote: s2dbakerIt's not a Viola! moment. They have to bump uglies for a very long time before they can say that they found something definitive. Here's a good article explaining how the "Discovery" will happen. I think that 2013 will be the year of the Higgs. They've already discovered it, they just need to brush away the garbage data that surrounds it.
Missing energy around 140GeV may or may not indicate the presence of the Higgs Boson.
Well, yeah ... except for it hasn't been discovered. The science (as best we understand it now) is sound in that it makes a testable hypothesis and one day, it will either be found or particle theory discarded. It would be a pretty major shit-canning, but science is what it is. It's been postulated for, what, 50 or so years, but to be fair, the technology to find it has only been available for a few years. It may be found, and if they do, it should be in the 140 GeV or so range. But it hasn't been detected, "garbage data sweeping" or otherwise. Pop science media is not so disciplined as that, and I think you've found such an example.
If/When the particle is found, we will hear about it without a doubt. It would be the most significant scientific proof since Einstein's theory was proven. Simply put, anyone who tells you differently is either mistaken or lying.
FWIW, my Stanford buddies who study such things (and reconfirmed that, no, it hasn't been found, "garbage sweep" or otherwise, but who are more hopeful than I am that it will be found) hate the term "God particle" as sensationalist bullshit. Higgs theory only unifies weak and EM, massless photons and mass-y ... shit, can't think of it off the top of my head. But anyway, all the other unifications and origin theory will still be unanswered, Higgs Boson or not.
I'm not sure about the article you quote, but my buds probably know 10 times more about it than that. I would not doubt them on this subject. (Unless, of course, you're me and doubt the Higgs Boson will ever be found.)
July 25th, 2011 at 9:03:17 PM
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Your info from your buddies in Stanford is pretty much my understanding from the blogging science world too. It's another step along a long path.
"Then you can admire the real gambler, who has neither eaten, slept, thought nor lived, he has so smarted under the scourge of his martingale, so suffered on the rack of his desire for a coup at trente-et-quarante" - Honore de Balzac, 1829
July 25th, 2011 at 9:10:52 PM
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Quote: thecesspitYour info from your buddies in Stanford is pretty much my understanding from the blogging science world too. It's another step along a long path.
They really have to dumb it down for me, god love 'em. But Savy and Jay are patient fellows!
July 26th, 2011 at 1:43:02 AM
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Perhaps, but I think you would be better off at some Prediction Exchange or seek out a dynamic parimutuel market that will take your action. Florida based Crowdpark is one of the fasted growing betting games on Facebook so there is tremendous interest out there. Try Cantor's sportsbook at the M resort.Quote: ItsCalledSoccerI'll be in Vegas in a couple weeks ... wonder if there's a science book that will take this bet?
July 26th, 2011 at 10:47:05 AM
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THey'll find it when that giant Collider in Europe blows up the Earth...or Ewan McGregor steals it.
