Milestone in Higgs quest

[Laurens]

Scientists at the home of the world's most powerful collider say they've found a subatomic particle that's never been seen before , a particle that could be the fabled Higgs boson.

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/04/12554487-milestone-in-higgs-quest-scientists-find-new-particle?lite

 

[Epiquinn]

Press conference is live now: http://webcast.web.cern.ch/webcast/play_higgs.html e: it's ended now

I didn't catch the names of the researchers, but the main guy gave an answer that as a layman he'd say they've now found it, but as scientists they still have some experiments to do.

EDIT: I guess it was Rolf Heuer as mentioned in the article above.

 

[Laurens]

 

[nemesiss]

On the day we reserve to tell ourselves America is great - July 4 - Europe reminds us that we suck at science. #HiggsBoson

 

[televator]

On the day we reserve to tell ourselves America is great - July 4 - Europe reminds us that we suck at science. #HiggsBoson

 

[Prolescum]

Higgs Boson - iPhone killer?

 

[Epiquinn]

By the way, is this discovery worthy of the Nobel prize in physics?

 

[Inferno]

If it is indeed discovered, then Peter Higgs will move up the list, yes.

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

If it is indeed discovered, then Peter Higgs will move up the list, yes.

I'm certain that he will absolutely adore the fact that he's finally getting recognized for his work - this has been quite a bit of idle-time. It's not like this was a "EUREKA!" moment of finding a cure for cancer. They had to build a giant ring to smash particles in simply so that his ideas could be tested and reviewed.

 

[DepricatedZero]

This is an awesome discovery. Even if it's not the Higgs, it's something new, and that's fantastic. But the fact that it was predicted to exist and now we're finding something where we expected to see it? It seems more than likely that it is. Gah, I'm so excited!

 

[Laurens]

Trying to explain what all the fuss was about to my dad was interesting...

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

​

 

[Dean]

To put a point to it, they have a very definite maybe ... I'll keep an eye on the progress of these events over time.

It's a shame that we do not have another gargantuan high-energy machine besides the Large Hadron Collider. The multi-channel correlation that revealed a "Higgs-like" particle could be replicated in a similar device. And if there were any instrumental deficiencies at the LHC, they would then become immediately obvious. It will be fascinating to see further corroboration over the coming months (and later).

And while we're on the subject, this article (PDF) shows fully and in brilliant detail the measurements taken at the LHC and so forth, and also explains in equal depth the methodology used to infer the existence of the Higgs-Boson,or something very like it:

• Statistical Combination of Several Important Standard Model Higgs-Boson Search Channels