Horizon & Jim Al-Khalili TV - Morgan Freeman TV - Brian Greene - Brian Cox - Leon Lederman - Frank Wilczek - Robert Winston - Big Bang - Jacobo Konigsberg - Particle Fever 2013 - Rolf-Dieter Heuer - Peter Higgs - Hubert Kroha -
The thing that is missing is the thing that gives the fundamental particles substance, that turns them into matter we can touch. It’s called Mass. Without mass the fundamental particles would all travel at the speed of light. The universe that we see simply wouldn’t have formed. Horizon: The Six Billion Dollar Experiment, BBC 2007
The Higgs Field is the missing piece in the standard model. It can explain how we can have a world of solid object from objects that appear to have no mass. ibid.
It’s been nicknamed the God Particle. So far the Higgs has eluded physicists. But they hope the Large Hadron Collider will reveal it by going back to a moment that has been hidden from view – the time just after the Big Bang. Perhaps what’s most striking about the search for the Higgs is where it may take us. Some scientists believe its discovery could lead to an extraordinary level of insight about the universe. Horizon: The End of God? A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion, BBC 2010
The most important particle of all – the Higgs Boson ... The Higgs is now Fermilab’s Number One priority. But they aren’t the only ones looking for it. They have competition. From the biggest particle accelerator of them all – the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. It is more than three times as powerful. Horizon: What is Reality? BBC 2011
In July 2012 the first glimpse of the Higgs Particle was announced. The Final Frontier: A Horizon Guide to the Universe, BBC 2012
Just before Christmas researchers working at Cern near Geneva announced that they’d caught a tantalising glimpse of the Higgs-Boson. Professor Jim Al-Khalili, The Hunt for the Higgs: A Horizon Special, BBC 2012
The one particle that is thought to give substance to everything in the universe. ibid.
It has proven spectacularly difficult to find. ibid.
The Standard Model is essentially an understanding of how all the pieces of the universe fit together, except gravity. ibid.
This paradox about symmetry lies at the heart of modern physics. And it’s crucial to understanding the significance of the Higgs itself. ibid.
Anti-matter may sound like the stuff of science fiction but since it was first proposed as a concept eighty years ago scientists have been creating it in experiments. ibid.
And symmetry breaking is at the heart of scientist’s understanding of how the Higgs came to give mass to everything in the first place. ibid.
The data plots had evolved significantly. ibid.
It will open a new chapter in our understanding of how the universe works. ibid.
Within a fraction of a second of the Big Bang physicists believe the absolute symmetry of the universe was shattered by a tiny fluctuation. The Forces split apart. ibid.
Higgs theorised that a vast field stretching to infinity runs through everything; when certain kinds of particles interact with the field that interaction is what gives those particles mass. If Higgs theory becomes fact we may finally understand what gives things mass. Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: What Are We Really Made Of? Science 2010
What exactly is The Higgs? ... The Higgs gives standard and form to everything. ibid.
Scientists have been hunting it for forty years: the key that will unlock the secrets of the universe. And now they’ve found it. Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: Is There a God Particle?
Is there something else underneath, something more mysterious? ibid.
1964: Peter Higgs suggested something about space so radical it almost ruined him. Brian Greene, Beyond the Cosmos, National Geographic 2012
What is mass and why does it exist? Brian Cox, The Big Bang Machine, BBS 2008
The Higgs mechanism works by filling the universe with a field – a Higgs Field ... Particles acquire mass by interacting with the Higgs Field. ibid.
It’s a law of quantum physics that all fields must have an associated particle. ibid.
[Leon] Lederman called it the God Particle. ibid.
Building an instrument capable of recreating the early universe and finding the massive Higgs Boson has taken decades. ibid.
All the particles that make up your body are heavy because they’re talking to the Higgs field. Brian Cox
The Higgs Phenomenon is a very satisfying way of simplifying our Standard Model. Professor Leon Lederman, FERMI
If we don’t find anything that has the properties that are expected of this Higgs Boson, or some combination of things that can do the job, we’ll really really really have to re-think a lot of what we thought we knew. That won’t happen. Professor Frank Wilczek, MIT
One of the most strange and enigmatic of the particles is the Higgs-Boson (not yet found). And that’s what scientists here at Cern are trying to do. According to scientific theory, the Higgs particle ought to be there, somewhere in the sub-atomic soul of the atom. Without it, atoms would have no substance. The universe would have no substance ... One scientist has called Higgs the God Particle. Professor Robert Winston, The Story of God, BBC 2005
Higgs suggested that an invisible forcefield swept the universe in the first second, giving particles their mass: it’s become known as the Higgs Field. When particles interacted with it they gained mass ... Scientists think the Higgs Field is carried by its own special particle. What journalists refer to as the God particle scientists call the Higgs Boson ... In Geneva, Switzerland, is mankind’s more expensive experiment, the large Hadron Collider or LHC. The world’s biggest particle accelerator, and the best chance of finding the elusive Higgs Boson ... It took forty billion dollars, took ten years to build and involved the work of seven thousand scientists. Big Bang
The Higgs particle was introduced to explain why different particles have different masses. So it is important because it answers one of the most fundamental unknowns in Reality, in Particle Physics – Mass makes Reality. And we don’t know where it comes from. Professor Jacobo Konigsberg, University of Florida
‘The Large Hadron Collider – the biggest machine ever built by human beings – is finally going to turn on.’ Storyville: Particle Fever – The Hunt for the Higgs Boson, David Kaplan theoretical physicist 2007, BBC 2014
‘10,000 people, over 100 nationalities.’ ibid.
‘The Higgs is unlike any other particle – it’s the lynchpin of the standard model.’ ibid.
‘We have observed a new boson with a mass of 125.3 +- 0.6 GEV at 4.9 significance!’ ibid. lecturer
We have made the discovery of a new particle – a completely new particle – which is most probably very different from all the other particles. It’s nearly a once in a lifetime experience, I would say. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director of CERN
I am quite surprised that it happened during my lifetime. It is nice to be right about something sometimes. Peter Higgs
That name was a kind of joke, and not a very good one. An author, Leon Lederman, wanted to call it ‘that goddamn particle’ because it was clear it was going to be a tough job finding it experimentally. His editor wouldn’t have that, and he said, ‘OK, call it the God particle,’ and the editor accepted it. I don’t think he should’ve done because it’s so misleading. Peter Higgs
There are still many open questions that need to be answered. We have every possible idea – but the final answer can only come from experimentation. And the only experiments that can provide answers are those taking place at the Large Hadron Collider. Which makes this an exciting moment – we may get new clues from outside the Standard Model to answer the questions we still have. Hubert Kroha, Max Planck Institute for Physics