I'm a little surprised I'm the first one here. It looks like the atom smasher has essentially found what it originally sought: evidence of the Higgs-Boson particle decaying. I don't believe they have formally announced, so is there anyone who can expand on the significance of this in greater detail?

Article from Fox:

If the find is true, it's a game changer for science, explained Dmitri Denisov, a physicist with Fermilabs in Illinois. "I would compare it to the discovery of electricity," he told FoxNews.com.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/...#ixzz1KaOmh91d

http://www.livescience.com/13853-hig...-lhc-cern.html

probably a rumor

You really think that FOX NEWS is a reliable first source for a potential breakthrough of this magnitude?

Critical thinking fail.

See the other thread

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/47...ation-1025582/

Also God particle is a ridiculous term lol. We are far from this ending / settling for life anything even if found as predicted which it wont as the rumors already suggest the signal has funny properties even if true.

How would these be a game changer like electricity? Electricity is ubiquitous and easily usable; I'm unclear how the discovery of the Higgs boson will have any impact on everyday life.

FYP FoxNews

Yes but the onset of serious deviations from Standard model will open the door to the revolution that is coming and which i promise you will dwarf electromagnetism by the time its over...I am more curious about how far this will go to settle some problem regarding super-symmetry though. This is a critical issue with implications to all physics and cosmology. If there are deviations from all available post standard model extensions the implications will be dramatic and will accelerate developments in the direction i am imagining . It would be the first time in like 40-50 years that something as dramatic happens. The future of string theory is in the balance as well up to a point. If all is found as predicted by the current theories i would be actually pretty shocked although i expect a lot of it will be along these lines and deviations will only progressively become ugly. However a rapid instant deviation will be most amazing news if no model anticipates it. That is exactly the best possible outcome one can hope for to thermalize things in the field.

It's a step closer to a complete particle model. It makes alchemy possible at some point in this species' developmental arc.

Being able to mutate matter at its most fundamental level is probably the most significant technological benchmark that is within reach in the 21st century.

To do that, everything needs to be found and particle physics needs to move from a theoretical position to a tautological position.

humanity isn't going to make any more huge discoveries.

It is already, with some limitations and huge expense. What does having experimental confirmation of the Higgs do that fusion and fission cannot?

You're right. I was thinking more along the lines of everyday uses at negligible energy and financial cost and that becoming an unremarkable, everyday technology. That's still a ways off.

The Higgs itself? Not a lot I'd imagine. A complete particle model would allow us to understand this universe a lot better.

Minimum or zero-energy solutions without quantum restrictions for transporting masses perhaps. I'm not necessarily saying this is possible, just that this line of inquiry is more viable with the complete model than it is with a partial model.

If it is possible to transport mass like that, the energy requirements of a civilization plummet. Whether we use the universal froth or not.

I hope this is a joke. Our understanding of the world will be vastly different than it is today in 50 years.

I stopped reading after this...

This is probably a ******ed question... if the existence of the Higgs would allow for some kind of tech breakthru, couldn't they have went along developing it 'as if' the particle existed? I mean, presumably not but why not?

It's hard to answer your question since it is so difficult to come up with some technology that requires knowing the Higgs mass or manipulating Higgs' bosons to being with. But alot of theoretical physics has just gone on assuming it exists.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/news/2011/...icle-discovery

CERN downplays the leak now? Who knows conservative position or demolishing the rumor?

Pretty much demolishing the rumor. This quote tells the story:

CERN won't want to announce **** officially until its cast iron. Like an 8 sigma event or something. I am expecting it to be several years before that would potentially happen.

Of course it's going to be difficult to speculate potential tech off a specific particle and its properties and variables.

Maybe none of this research manifests as useful advances in tech in the 21st century as there is a lot to be done in particle physics. It should become useful at some point though. That part of the equation does not have to occur right now or even 10 years from now. Build the map first.

What CERN is doing is very important because they are making progress in gaining a better understanding of how this universe functions.

If only for that alone, it matters.

It wouldn't have anything near the significance of electricity, at least not insofar as anyone can give a scientifically solid, i.e. no handwavy "futurism" allowed, prospective explanation for.

Would confirmation of existence of the Higgs further our understanding of gravity?

Ha! For those of you playing along at home, that's -33 Kelvin (assuming they left off a minus sign).

Unfortunately no. All of the theory that has led people to predict the existence and mass range of the Higgs completely ignores gravity. The most likely way in which the LHC can teach us anything about gravity is if it finds super symmetric particles. This is somewhere on the order of even money if you poll experts.

This isn't correct. Certainly, if one of the experiments at the LHC finds a 5-sigma Higgs boson, they'll publish immediately. And perhaps if both experiments have at least 3-sigma simultaneously, they'll both publish.

Someone is way too overly optimistic about the implications of such a discovery. Even if we do figure it out, some technology/knowledge is way too expensive to utilize. Hell we're yet to truly utilize relativity. Sure, scientists might become more knowledgeable about the universe but that's about it and it's a big might. IF this turns out to be true that is and I doubt it will. It's going to take a little more than a swiss lab and a rigged newspaper to dwarf electromagnetism my friend.