One of my many online friends (I guess that's a topic for another blog...can you call someone who you've barely or maybe never met in person a friend?) writes a blog that I follow regularly. You might even say religiously but that could be considered an awful pun. Anyway, yesterday Danny Clayton wrote about the recently energized "Large Hadron Collidor" and the search for the "God Particle". You can read Danny's thoughts here:
http://dannyclayton.blogspot.com/2008/09/switch-got-flipped.html.
My initial reaction was to post a comment. But, recently Danny gently reminded me that I have this space and should make better use of it. So, here goes.
I have followed the stories about the LHC "loosely". I knew they were building it and I even spent a few hours on-line researching that "Higgs Bosun" thing. However, I lost track of it until Monday when I stumbled across an article on cnn.com about Tuesday's flip-the-switch event. The bit about creating a black hole and having earth implode on itself got my attention. Well, I have to admit that I'm glad that the first crash after power-on (how long does it take two particle beams to each travel 17 miles at nearly the speed of light anyway?) did not lead to our immediate and ultimate demise, as some had feared. That sure would have been something to see.
I'm not sure what they're going to find with this new tool. Surely they found out how to spend a lot of money. The research may help Mmsers. Higgs, Brout, Englert, Guralnik, Hagen, and Kibble to finally get a good night's sleep after searching for over 44 years. I don't think that they're ever going to find a "God Particle" though. I'm pretty sure we're not meant to be able to understand at that level. I've got a related theory that I'd like to share. It can be summed up in just a few words.
"In the beginning, God said BANG!".
And, with apologies to Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.
Steve K
