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Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, has died

theguardian.com

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Re: Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, has died

#81

Post by dotnet00 »

wolverine876 wrote: post #80
dotnet00 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents had a hard time explaining my dad's job to me, so they just told me he was a scientist because he had a masters in physics (he was a diplomat). Like any little kid, my parents were my heroes, so of course this led me to becoming obsessed with scientists and reading up on science stuff, eg trying to read my sister's university textbooks. I developed a hobby of reading up on and sharing factoids I found onli…

> My parents had a hard time explaining my dad's job to me, so they just told me he was a scientist because he had a masters in physics (he was a diplomat). I'm just curious about when you found out what he really did, and if you had known earlier if you would have been a diplomat today rather than a scientist.

I was able to understand it roughly around when I entered my teens, in part because he was transferred to another country, where the embassy was a lot smaller and the country more insular, so it was common to get kids involved in embassy stuff to get the otherwise lacking sense of community.

It's hard to say if I would've been a diplomat if I had known earlier. I feel like being a diplomat is harder to innocently romanticize and turn into hobbies for a child in the way that 'scientist' can be.

Re: Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, has died

#82

Post by queuebert »

_ys5m wrote: post #51
cdelsolar wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how is ndt a fake/fraud?

He switched PhD programs from Texas to Columbia and some people thought he took too long or something

Normally PhD programs have a timeline of progress. If you don't make regular progress toward those very generous deadlines, you are kicked out.

Neil did not make sufficient progress at Texas. Then he did something weird, where he wasn't ready to defend yet got a postdoc at (iirc) Princeton. Princeton had to rescind the offer because you (ahem) need a doctorate to be post doctorate. Then he got into Columbia's program and finally finished.

He had a lot of hobbies and interests other than astronomy, and he is actually a very smart guy, but it took him a bit longer to get his shit together. I think he's found his calling and is quite good at he does.

Re: Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, has died

#83

Post by dotnet00 »

amelius wrote: post #78
dotnet00 wrote: post #12

The story of how Higgs predicted his mechanism was part of what got me into physics as a kid. It fit 10 year old me's obsession with the 'soft-spoken genius' archetype perfectly and formed a pillar in my belief that 'genius' was made through hard work (and some amount of luck) rather than being born with it. The announcement of the detection at the LHC is a core memory of mine, I still distinctly remember where I was…

Can you recommend any physics books that were of value to you as a kid and perhaps sparked your interest?

As a 5-10 year old, the books I remember liking the most were on the outer planets, with high quality full page photos of the planets and their moons. Closer to photobooks than books on the solar system targeted at children. One book was just images of the moons, mainly focusing on Saturn, I used to just look at the images and admire them even if initially I didn't quite understand the details. Most of my physics reading came from random sources on the early internet.

As a 12-13 year old, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and The Grand Design were by far my most memorable reads, although I already had my developing interest in physics by then.

Re: Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, has died

#86

Post by wavemode »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #85

Does the Higgs detection have any economic value, like room tenperature superconductors would? Or is it a scientific curiosity

It serves as an important confirmation of the Standard Model of particle physics, which is a foundational theory underpinning many other important discoveries. But the particle itself probably has no current practical application.

Re: Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, has died

#87

Post by sohkamyung »

I read "Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass" by Frank Close and I found it an excellent read on the elusive Higgs Particle and the elusive Peter Higgs himself (Higgs went for a walk to hide from people on the day the Nobel Prize was announced).

Re: Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, has died

#88

Post by _ys5m »

queuebert wrote: post #82
_ys5m wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He switched PhD programs from Texas to Columbia and some people thought he took too long or something

Normally PhD programs have a timeline of progress. If you don't make regular progress toward those very generous deadlines, you are kicked out. Neil did not make sufficient progress at Texas. Then he did something weird, where he wasn't ready to defend yet got a postdoc at (iirc) Princeton. Princeton had to rescind the offer because you (ahem) need a doctorate to be post doctorate. Then he got into Columbia's program…

I have some sympathy for that because I had a couple advisors quit my program on me and the program still tried to enforce time to degree deadlines on me without asking my then advisor (in a different department by then) and misstating factual information about credits expiring (which is determined at the school level not the department level). I had to get the deans involved.

Re: Peter Higgs, physicist who discovered Higgs boson, has died

#90

Post by openrisk »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #85

Does the Higgs detection have any economic value, like room tenperature superconductors would? Or is it a scientific curiosity

With the knowledge and technology of today there is arguably very little direct economic value to be had from this part of particle physics. One cannot preclude potential future implications though (it has happened many times in the past that understanding phenomena that were far removed from everyday experience created later the conditions for massive technological breakthroughs).

Particle physicists and other researchers in fundamental science are also typically keen to point out at indirect effects. E.g., building the massive accelerators to detect particles pushes forward more conventional technologies. The Web was famously invented to serve CERN collaboration needs.

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