Amazingly, the two topics are linked here.
In “Homing in on Higgs: Michigan researchers predict summer discovery” (Physorg,
June 1, 2012), Nicole Casal Moore tells us,
Whether the Higgs boson exists could be settled by the end of summer, say University of Michigan physicists involved in the search for the missing piece of particle physics’ Standard Model.
During the past six months, results from CERN as well as from Fermilab’s Tevatron particle accelerator near Chicago have provided some evidence that Higgs is real. But these results weren’t strong enough to claim a discovery. They weren’t statistically significant to five standard deviations, Kane said. He predicts that the new experimental runs that started in April will provide enough data to achieve that level of certainty by the end of summer.
“I’ll bet any amount there’s a discovery,” he said.
We will too, but …
Knowing whether Higgs exists is important in a deep sense, Kane said.
“When we understand our world, we function better in it,” he said. “One of the great historical analogies is that after Newton’s laws, you knew that the sun would come up every day whether you contributed to the church or not. It was a law of nature that people couldn’t tamper with. If we understand the universe better and better, our place in it will get more and more clear to us. And for me, there’s a huge dignity that comes with being able to understand. I find that wonderful and exciting.”
Okay, so what’s the point about “whether you contributed to the church or not?”
At this point, the problem isn’t whether these guys find a “Higgs” but whether anyone need believe them. And taxpayers who fund this stuff unthinkingly ….
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