Scientists who discovered the "God particle" receive Nobel prize.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to Britain's Peter W. Higgs and Belgium's Francois Englert, the Nobel Committee announced in Stockholm on Tuesday. 

They were jointly awarded the prize for their work on a theory that offers an explanation for how the fundamental particles of the Universe acquire mass. 

Last year, the pair's work was confirmed after the discovery of the so-called Higgs particle — known also as the Higgs boson and the God particle — at a laboratory in Geneva.

 I almost feel bad for referring to the Higgs boson as the "God particle' but since that is the way that it is universally known I thought it would  make more sense to my visitors.

The person who gave it that misnomer has explained why: 

This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I have given it a nickname: the God Particle. Why God Particle? Two reasons. One, the publisher wouldn’t let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing. And two, there is a connection, of sorts, to another book, a much older one… 

So now that we have discovered it, despite some early exclamations from the scientifically ignorant religious nuts, we have moved further away from a divine explanation for the universe rather than closer to one.

Perhaps, using religious logic (Does that even exist?), it would have been more appropriate to call it "Satan's Particle."

Personally I am just happy to be writing about something other than the government shutdown.

The discovery of Higgs-Boson (The God Particle) passes peer review. So now it is a little thing we call "science."

Large Hadron Corridor

Courtesy of Extreme Tech:  

CERN’s announcement on July 4 — that experiments performed by the Large Hadron Collider had discovered a particle that was consistent with the Higgs boson — has passed a key step towards becoming ratified science: Its findings have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Physics Letters B. 

Back in July, both the CMS and ATLAS teams — teams of scientists tasked with analyzing the data produced by the CMS and ATLAS detectors — announced that they’d discovered a new elementary particle. CERN did not say that this was the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle, but as the Standard Model of particle physics only has one undiscovered particle remaining, it probably is the Higgs boson. Following CERN’s announcement, both the CMS and ATLAS teams submitted their findings to Physics Letters B — and today, both of their research papers have passed peer review by the scientific community, effectively becoming… science. 

One more step into the bright light of discovery, and away from the darkness of superstition and ignorance.

With this discovery we can really begin to examine exactly HOW the universe, and all of its components, were  formed. And THAT nothing supernatural was necessary, or dare I say even possible.

I fucking love science!

Scientists at CERN believe they have discovered the "God Particle."

Courtesy of Fox News:

To cheers and standing ovations from scientists, the world's biggest atom smasher claimed the discovery of a new subatomic particle Wednesday, calling it "consistent" with the long-sought Higgs boson -- popularly known as the "God particle" -- that helps explain what gives all matter in the universe size and shape. 

"We have now found the missing cornerstone of particle physics," Rolf Heuer, director of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), told scientists. 

He said the newly discovered subatomic particle is a boson, but he stopped just shy of claiming outright that it is the Higgs boson itself -- an extremely fine distinction. 

"As a layman, I think we did it," he told the elated crowd. "We have a discovery. We have observed a new particle that is consistent with a Higgs boson." 

The Higgs boson, which until now has been a theoretical particle, is seen as the key to our understanding of why matter has mass, which combines with gravity to give an object weight. The idea is much like gravity and Isaac Newton's discovery of it: Gravity was there all the time before Newton explained it. But now scientists know what a boson is and can put that knowledge to further use. 

Yet another incredible step forward for science out of the darkness of ignorance. This is an amazing time to be alive, and one that I hope truly signifies a  new era of enlightenment.

Just imagine how much we can learn about our origins and the building blocks of the universe with this new knowledge to guide us?

Update: I think Neil DeGrasse Tyson is undoubtedly happy with the discovery but less happy about what it ways about our country.