So,
scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have announced that two
of their detectors have recorded high probability results for the
discovery of the theoretical particle that would give support to the
Standard Model of the Universe. This particle is the Higgs Boson.
Essentially the Higgs Boson is a sub atomic particle that
theoretically gives mass and allows for the operation of gravity, and
its discovery would bring scientists a signifcant step closer to
understanding how the Universe came into being, and how it operates,
and perhaps more importantly, where it is going. What is interesting
is the timing of this announcement, and the wording of the press
conference and subsequent press releases. A close reading reveals
that there have been two recordings at a five sigma level. This is a
measure of the probability that the recording is not a fluke. In this
case a probability of 1 in 1 million. This sounds very impressive,
but in reality all this is saying is that something has been
detected, but says very little about what that something is. There is
also a problem with the timing of this discovery. The LHC is located
in at CERN in Switzerland, and whilst Switzerland is not a signatory
to the European Union its geographical location requires that it is
funded by European Union countries, and perhaps more importantly
utilises electricity generated by European member states for power.
The cost of building CERN has been estimated at £3 billion but this
is nothing to the cost of running the facility given the phenomenal
power consumption.
There
has been increasing demand placed on CERN scientists to demonstrate
some return on the vast investment in the project, and three times in
the last two months there have been questions raised in the European
Parliament regarding future CERN funding. Now, CERN carries out a
tremendous amount of fundamental research, but the one area that is
guaranteed to generate media interest and reduce pressure from
political quarters, and that is the discovery of the Higgs, otherwise
referred to by the less scientific name the “God Particle”. The
name arose because there are some scientists who believe that
understanding and proving the Standard Model will remove the
possibility of a creator being at the start of the Universe by
demonstrating a scientific method for the entire process. This is a
nonsensical suggestion, since faith precludes the possibility of
scientific proof disproving God. It is already written in the
Christian and Islamic faiths that there can be no proof or disproof
of God, so what is the real reason for the name? Certainly it is
nothing to do with Professor Higgs, a committed atheist, but what of
some of his colleagues? As a name it certainly guarantees media
attention whenever there is an announcement.
Now,
as with any good science the secret is in the repetition. So far
there have been two results, the race is now on to find more,
confirmation being still some way off. My prediction? I fully expect
this story to be remarkably similar to the NASA story some years
about the discovery of bacterial fossils in a Martian meteorite.
Remember that one? Big press conference and then it all seemed to go
a little quiet? I strongly suspect that the same thing will happen
here until such time that it is considered safe to announce that the
recordings were in error. Why do I think this? Primarily because this
is all based on the Standard Model being correct, and for me this is
far from certain. There are several competing models, and they all
have holes in them currently. This suggests to me that we don't yet
understand the Universe well enough to create a complete model, and
that all of the existing options will be superseded before too long.
We will just have to see.
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