On July 4, 2012, the world received confirmation that the infamous Higgs Boson particle, more commonly known to the general public as the God particle, does in fact exist.
The idea of the Higgs Boson is a relatively complicated one.
Often compared to a pool of molasses when being explained to non-scientists, it is said to be the reason why matter has mass.
The Higgs theory states that all matter has a certain amount of stickiness to the Higgs field that is evenly spread across the entire universe. According to Science News, this stickiness is measured by scientists as mass, the resistance of an object to change speed.
The existence of such a concept has been tested for decades primarily in the CERN research lab. To test the theory, scientists have collided particles together that are invisible to the human eye and tracked the pieces that break off. Since the Higgs Boson particle is so rare, the procedure had to be repeated many times in order to confirm its existence as has now been done.
Even though most students at Seminole don’t plan on becoming physicists in the future, this discovery is still very important and does in fact set a foundation for many scientific advances that will affect everyone in the world, far and wide.
However, despite the magnitude of its discovery, even some Seminole physics students do not know much about the concept.
Senior Anuj Mehta admits that he does not know what the particle is. Mehta says that Seminole physics teacher Ms. Morgan taught them about “hadrons, leptons, baryons, and mesons but [they] didn’t actually talk about the Higgs Boson,” though he has “heard of it.”
Others are more informed about the future implications of the Higgs Boson.
Sophomore Andrew Kwon believes that it is “certainly impressive that we managed to find evidence that [the Higgs Boson] exists,” and thinks that it will “lead us to a better understanding of what dark matter is.” Kwon explains that this is important because “dark matter has been one of the huge problems physicists have been trying to figure out.”
While results of this discovery may not be seen for many years to come, it is being seen as the missing element of the foundation of quantum theory, the advancement of which will lead to unprecedented developments in technology.
As senior Pegah Manesh puts it, the Higgs Boson “gives us new insight into the world of subatomic particles.”
Such “insight” will certainly cause dramatic changes both in the world of science and that of technology. Since technology is something important to the vast majority of the population in some way or another, this advancement could mean huge things for the future.
For further information on what the Higgs Boson really is, you can visit the Aspen Ideas Festival website.