July 4 is Higgsdependence Day

Very early this morning, CERN*, the Organisation Européenne pour la Recherché Nucléaire (European Organization for Nuclear Research), announced a major discovery.  A major piece of the universal puzzle is now in place.  Scientists have observed an elementary particle that is consistent with predictions made by the Standard Model.  That elementary particle has been named the Higgs boson after Peter Higgs,** one of the theoretical physicists who predicted its existence.

What is the Higgs boson, and why is it important?

Every interaction (force) in nature is mediated by a gauge boson.  Here's an analogy: Suppose you want to interact with a friend, but you're both blindfolded and gagged.  You both have a large bag of Nerf® balls,  so you both start throwing.  You will know where your friend is when you get hit.  

There are only four fundamental interactions: electromagnetic, gravitational, weak, and strong.  The photon is the EM boson; the graviton is the gravitational boson; W-, W+, and Z0 are the weak bosons, and the gluons are the strong ones.  Where does the Higgs fit in?

The Standard Model, the theory behind the interactions excluding gravity, has been very successful at explaining most of nature.  It lacks the physics of dark matter, dark energy, and gravity, but physicists everywhere are working on expanding it through efforts such as string theory, superstring theory, and M-brane theory.  The model does predict the existence of the Higgs boson that causes all the other particles to have mass.

How does this happen?  Here's another analogy:  Imagine a large cocktail party of physicists.^† I walk into the room, and since I'm not well known, I can get through the room and to the bar rather quickly.  Then Peter Higgs walks in.  Being quite the celebrity, he attracts a large crowd of admirers. The interaction works similarly.  When an electron moves through the Higgs field^§, it attracts some Higgs bosons, but when a up quark moves through the field, it attracts many more, and hence, has more mass.

Some additional notes:

In 1993, Nobel Prize winner Leon Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi wrote the book "The God Particle: If The Universe Is The Answer, What Is The Question?"  Lederman joked that "the publisher wouldn't let us call [the Higgs Boson] the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing."

CERN and its American counterpart Fermi Lab can be thought as as time machines; that is, when experiments are being done, scientists are in effect recreating the conditions of the early universe.  Observing the Higgs boson brings us back to within a picosecond or so after the Big Bang. [A picosecond is 10^–12 seconds or one billionth of a second.]

Peter Higgs and the equation
describing the Higgs boson

Peter Higgs once suggested that the Higgs boson be named the ABEGHHK’tH "all the people who discovered it or rediscovered it," those being Phil Anderson, Robert Brout, Francois Englert, Gerald Guralnik, Dick Hagen, Peter Higgs, Tom Kibble, and Gerard ‘t Hooft.

Enjoy your 4th!

If you want to read more, some other discussions you might enjoy are The Higgs Boson, What Can We Do With The Higgs Boson? (courtesy of Matt Koutroulis), Physicists Have Found The Higgs Boson (courtesy of Frank Ybarra), Higgs Found (courtesy of my niece Kate Higgs), and Brian Greene Reacts To Today's CERN Announcement.

*You might be wondering why there is a C in the acronym for the lab.  In 1952, a committee was formed whose charge was to establish a physics research center. The committee's name was Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire.  When the institution officially came into being in 1954, the name was changed, but the acronym was not.  Another bit of trivia - the World Wide Web was invented at CERN.

**There is a persistent rumor in my family that the boson is named after my brother-in-law Gene Higgs.

^†I've adapted an analogy that I've seen and heard used by several sources, but with no attribution.

^§My brother-in-law Gene also has a Higgs field next to his house.

People Who Lack Critical Thinking Skills

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare, there were some who were so disgusted by the court's judgement that they tweeted. [Credit to BuzzFeed.]

A little education about Canada.

Canada's national health insurance program, often referred to as "Medicare", is designed to ensure that all residents have reasonable access to medically necessary hospital and physician services, on a prepaid basis. Instead of having a single national plan, we have a national program that is composed of 13 interlocking provincial and territorial health insurance plans, all of which share certain common features and basic standards of coverage. Framed by the Canada Health Act, the principles governing our health care system are symbols of the underlying Canadian values of equity and solidarity. 

... the system provides access to universal, comprehensive coverage for medically necessary hospital and physician services.

The federal government provides funding to the provinces and territories for health care services through fiscal transfers. 

Texas Politicians Oppose Critical Thinking

From the 2102 Republican Party of Texas - Report of the Platform Committee:

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority. 

They oppose critical thinking skills?  Really? 

Are Dragons Real?

Look at what the Creation Museum is touting.  Dragons existed 6000 years ago.

CREDIT: Creation Museum

No one I know believes this bunk.  Why does Ken Ham, creator of the Creation Museum, believe this?

Let's examine Job 41:1 (KJV) - "Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?"

What could the leviathan be?

Job 4:19-21 (KJV) - "Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.  Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.  His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth."

And sometimes it pushes Helen Reddy.

CREDIT: Walt Disney Productions

Are Mermaids Real?

CREDIT: Touchstone Pictures

This is just sad, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration feels it necessary to explain "No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found."

The 0.02%

I attended the graduation ceremony of a former student of mine. Jared earned his Bachelor's degree in physics from UCLA.  During one of the speeches, the speaker mentioned how few people actually attain the Ph.D. in physics.  He also said many nice things about those who do which swelled my head just a wee bit.

During the past year, there's been a lot of talk of the 1% and the 99% - those with the proverbial gold and those without.  So I began to think about with a doctoral hood and those without.

According to the American Institute of Physics, approximately 1200 students receive their doctoral degree every year since 1960 or so.  Therefore, there are about 60,000 of us  - some in academia, some in industry, some in the financial world, some in places you would never think of finding a physicist - like United States Secretary of Energy.

The U.S. Census estimates that the country's population is now almost 314 million.

Now I pull out my trusty calculator, and divide 60,000 by 314,000,000.

I am in the 0.02% of the country.  

<sarcasm> Don't I feel special? </sarcasm>

Home, Sweet Buggy Home

Do you realize that you are home to 100 trillion microbes?  That's 10 times more cells than are in your body.  Furthermore, they account for up to 6 pounds of your weight.

The Los Angeles Times has an excellent account of the Human Microbiome Project. You have to read what the treatment is for recurrent Clostridium difficile infections.  If you are so inclined, here is a link to the relevant reports.

Left: Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria (green) resides on skin. Right: Enterococcus faecalis lives in the gut.
CREDIT: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AN/VIA AP