RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
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RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
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Re: RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
#2>to spend billions of taxpayer dollars in search of a particle that likely does not exist would have been wasteful
This is infuriating. A negative result is a successful experiment. Don't hamper efforts to fund science with the argument that science might figure out it was wrong.
Europe explored the universe where America did not.
Re: RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
#3Incorrect, exaggerated title.
They have 95% confidence that it's not in the 145-466 GeV range.
They haven't searched the 114-145 GeV range. There's still plenty of work to be done, and sensationalist headlines only serve to mis-inform.
Re: RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
#4"Congress may feel that even though its 1993 decision to cancel the American alternative to CERN—the Superconducting Super Collider—was generally met with chagrin by the American physics community, it may have been the right move one after all: to spend billions of taxpayer dollars in search of a particle that likely does not exist would have been wasteful."
I'm a little surprised by that comment. The SSC would have be almost 3x more powerful than the LHC. I still feel like particle physics has been set back decades.
Re: RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
#5I should place a long bet regarding dark matter...
Re: RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
#6Incorrect, exaggerated title. They have 95% confidence that it's not in the 145-466 GeV range. They haven't searched the 114-145 GeV range. There's still plenty of work to be done, and sensationalist headlines only serve to mis-inform.
I don't know how likely other accelerators are to have found the Higgs-Boson, but the article at least makes an attempt to back up its claim:
"Lower energy levels have been accessible to smaller accelerators, such as the Tevatron at Fermilab and the LEP—the LHC’s predecessor at CERN—and neither collider had found it. Perhaps the Higgs does not exist at all."
Re: RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
#7>to spend billions of taxpayer dollars in search of a particle that likely does not exist would have been wasteful This is infuriating. A negative result is a successful experiment. Don't hamper efforts to fund science with the argument that science might figure out it was wrong. Europe explored the universe where America did not.
> Europe explored the universe where America did not.
What did they get out of it? (Honest question.) Also, supposing the Higg's Boson did exist and this experiment found it, how much benefit would the average European derived? How much less benefit would people from other countries enjoy?
Re: RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
#8Incorrect, exaggerated title. They have 95% confidence that it's not in the 145-466 GeV range. They haven't searched the 114-145 GeV range. There's still plenty of work to be done, and sensationalist headlines only serve to mis-inform.
What about the >466 GeV range? Is that considered a possibility? Can the LHC explore that high?
Re: RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
#9>to spend billions of taxpayer dollars in search of a particle that likely does not exist would have been wasteful This is infuriating. A negative result is a successful experiment. Don't hamper efforts to fund science with the argument that science might figure out it was wrong. Europe explored the universe where America did not.
Indeed. Bean-counters are looking at things totally upside down.
A few billion to further the human understanding of the world around us vs the 1.4 trillion spent on the war effort. I know which I'd rather have backed.
Re: RIP Higgs Boson (with 95% confidence)
#10>to spend billions of taxpayer dollars in search of a particle that likely does not exist would have been wasteful This is infuriating. A negative result is a successful experiment. Don't hamper efforts to fund science with the argument that science might figure out it was wrong. Europe explored the universe where America did not.
> Europe explored the universe where America did not. What did they get out of it? (Honest question.) Also, supposing the Higg's Boson did exist and this experiment found it, how much benefit would the average European derived? How much less benefit would people from other countries enjoy?
Indeed. The question isn't, "Did this experiment advance scientific knowledge," the question is, "Was this a prudent and appropriate use of tax money, especially in light of the enormous opportunity costs inherent in any expenditure of tax money?"