Portent 0 Posted July 4, 2012 Fantastic news: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/jul/04/higgs-boson-discovered-live-coverage-cern It's astonishing how much progress has been made in science during my 43 years on earth. I wonder what we will discover in another 20 to 50 years? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Supercharged 2 Posted July 4, 2012 Yeah just been reading - probably the most important discovery of this century! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wullie 1 Posted July 4, 2012 I like the explanation for a seven year old, I can almost understand it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
guildmage 11 Posted July 4, 2012 I wish this Higgs Bosson particle would be an ultimate rust removal product. Something along the line of spraying it all over your car, leaving for 24hrs and then rinse and whoila, rust free Corrado :) That would really be something or at least if Higgs Bosson could be used to produce rain free summer in UK! But on a serious note, it is nice that so much money invested in LHC at CERN is starting to pay off :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_mat 0 Posted July 4, 2012 Pity the LHC worked so *quickly*. What will they do with it now?? Wonder what the used market is like for superconducting electromagents and a few hundred kilometres of cabling.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Portent 0 Posted July 4, 2012 There is an upgrade planned for the LHC which will significantly increase the power that it works at. So it will be able to look for far more "stuff" (no idea what that stuff is though). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_mat 0 Posted July 4, 2012 It's all about finding sub-atomic particles. You get more energy in, you smash things into smaller pieces when they collide .. you get a chance to find even smaller particles. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lewvw 10 Posted July 4, 2012 Is this going to affect our progress from this point? What can we do with this knowledge? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob_B 0 Posted July 4, 2012 Pity the LHC worked so *quickly*. What will they do with it now?? Wonder what the used market is like for superconducting electromagents and a few hundred kilometres of cabling.. We could never has those things here, the pikeys would have a field day! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tentonhammer 10 Posted July 5, 2012 New sub atomic Higgs Boson particles found @ CERN - Gotta love what they're doing here. Thing is unless they find out how to turn this new find into something useful - Like a new form of re-usable energy for instance (I've always felt our technological evolution will be held back by the energy resources available to us, we need something new and it's only a matter of time until we find it) it'll simply be another find that has no practical application. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_mat 0 Posted July 5, 2012 Energy sources are all around us, that's not really the issue they're trying to solve. "pure phsyics" like this work to prove the fundamental theories of matter is highly unlikely to produce any direct output that is "useful" for society, but it will allow other people to make modifications to other techniques, or provide better ways to do other things over the years. Let's face it - someone discovered the electron once. No-one had a clue what to do with it. Turns out it's kinda useful to transmit energy from place to place ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tentonhammer 10 Posted July 5, 2012 (edited) Ahh the electron - Where would we be with out it! Edited July 5, 2012 by tentonhammer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
boost monkey 0 Posted July 5, 2012 Higgs Boson is sitting in a Church when a priest wanders up and says "you can't be in here, you need to leave!" to which the Higgs Boson replies: "But without me, you can't have Mass..." Thankyou!!! I'm here all week! :-D :salute: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
craigowl 0 Posted July 5, 2012 (edited) Energy sources are all around us, that's not really the issue they're trying to solve. "pure phsyics" like this work to prove the fundamental theories of matter is highly unlikely to produce any direct output that is "useful" for society, but it will allow other people to make modifications to other techniques, or provide better ways to do other things over the years. Let's face it - someone discovered the electron once. No-one had a clue what to do with it. Turns out it's kinda useful to transmit energy from place to place ... I had 15 solar panels installed on roof in November. Some sunny days (remember them?) they have generated up to 24 kilowatt hours. (Accumulated total 1400 kw hours/£644? till today) We have had cheques from the electricity supply company to a sum of several hundred pounds already for the feed-in tariff (about 46p per kilowatt hour). Also, if you are at home during the hours of generation (ie retired, etc.) you can run stuff like washing machines, computers, battery chargers, etc for nothing from the power generated at the time. If you do not use it, it goes back down the grid, but you still get a few p per kwhr. This June (the wettest in our town since 1966) we have registered 328 kwhrs. I know the initial cost was as dear as a new car, but I love the fact that we get money back due to the simple fact that daylight on that common element silicon gives us electricity. Every month the technology of photovoltaic panels improves, so we can look forward to more efficient solar power generation. Of course things are not all positive in this $hitty world mismanaged by the human race, but thankfully, most scientists like to focus on what can be done to improve things. ---------- Post added at 11:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:19 AM ---------- Edited July 5, 2012 by craigowl Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davidwort 0 Posted July 5, 2012 personally, I wish someone would find the rather larger missing particles in the roads around here... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
craigowl 0 Posted July 5, 2012 Ha! ha! - back down to earth with a bang, as it were! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites