Higgs Boson theory

[deleted-32771]

I am a bank teller from Fort Wayne, Indiana I have been searching the internet for information on the higgs boson theory. I can't help but be a bit frighten that if they do find these phantom partials the earth might be wiped from existence. If this higgs boson really is how the universe was formed, how was it first brought into that form, that instant where it was formed? Was it a planet such as earth poking around with an atom smasher when they blew themselves into more than a million pieces? I have searched the internet for any other person that has questioned this, I have not found any yet. Is this something to be concerned about? Will the discovery of a higgs boson destroy our universe?

[deleted-2574]

Hi drinlizard,

Two observations:

1. From my son who is graduate school studying Physics:

This line of logic is more philosophy than science. If anyone had the answers to the questions you are posing then surely religion would disappear and a golden age of science would begin. Any arguments you find on the internet are probably the wild speculations of a few creatively minded individuals. In general, don't trust scientific theories posted on websites unless they are backed up by peer-reviewed, published papers.

All particles in the universe were formed at its creation, and although we understand the concept of conversion of energy to mass (possibly governed by the Higgs), the exact mechanism is unclear. These are the questions scientists searching for the Higgs hope to answer. As to the idea of obliterating the universe, the energies achieved by the LHC (the collider at CERN) are minuscule compared to those of high energy cosmic rays that bombard the earth on a daily basis. Science is the process of turning observation into hypotheses, then testing those hypotheses and throwing out those that are not valid. I am sure, however, that when the real experiments begin your interest will be rewarded with some fascinating revelations about our universe.

2. The scope of this bulletin board is to help students doing science projects. It doesn't appear your post is within scope.

[deleted-71712]

Hi drinlizard,

Just to add a little to David's excellent response (I don't think anyone here is a particle or high-energy physicist, not to mention that we focus on K-12-level science projects), I looked at CERN's website and found that they have their own Ask an Expert program:

http://askanexpert.web.cern.ch/AskAnExpert/

Your question is certainly more within their scope than within ours. It looks like they're temporarily not accepting questions, but there are archives you could look through in the meantime.

I would reiterate the caution against getting worried over these types of theories proposed and/or explained by non-scientists. Unfortunately, with a topic this complicated, this includes the vast majority of science journalists. For example, I have a BS in physics from a great program, but I never got as far as learning where the masses of particles predicted by the Standard Model come from -- there's so much fundamental, basic physics (not to mention advanced math!) that these ideas are based on that really only people at or working toward the PhD level in certain subfields can speak with authority.

Best wishes,
Amanda

[deleted-33850]

Think of it this way, drinlizard: If the world ended in the next minute, would you know it?