God Almighty, where's that particle?



(Standard Model of elementary particles)



Not all scientists believe in God, yet many believe in the existence of a “God particle.”  According to Steve Connor of The Independent, this “God particle” (aka “Higgs boson”) “is thought to be one of the building blocks to the universe.”  Not only that, it is also thought to be that which “confers mass on matter.”

If words such as “boson” don’t mean much to you, then it’s time for a crash course on sub-atomic particles.   Wikipedia defines the “Higgs boson” as “a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics.”  Still confused?  Then how about this explanation by Norbert Cunningham of Times & Transcript:  …the Standard Theory is almost complete.  It explains how the universe works, by which we mean how all particles function and interact to make atoms and matter.  Particles have mass.  If particles had no mass, they’d never come together to form other things, ranging from stars to galaxies to us.

The term “mass” comes from the Greek word for “barley cake” or “lump of dough.”  Cunningham theorizes that without mass “our home would just be a massive space full of tiny particles flying around everywhere.”  So what makes these particles clump together like snowflakes that form snowmen?  Logic would dictate these prerequisites:  a “sticky factor” that draws the individual flakes together, plus an “intelligence” that “shapes” these sticky flakes into an entity.

The “sticky factor” is what scientists are calling the “Higgs field.”  Theoretical physicist Peter Higgs, as well as others, proposed back in the 1960s that “the universe must have a ‘field’ that runs all through it and particles gain mass by interacting with the field.”  Cunningham compares this field with a snowy field that slows objects down as they try to move through it.  These decelerated objects would then have a much greater chance of interacting and connecting with one another.

And what about the “intelligence” that somehow shapes these “sticky” particles into that which we call matter?  The name “God particle” might just contain a clue…

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Particle:_If_the_Universe_Is_the_Answer,_What_Is_the_Question%3F

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/1464557

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/has-science-found-the-god-particle-6276634.html

Copyright December 18, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved