We Found God

The world has changed since the Higgs-Boson particle was discovered. The idea that this little guy exists first arose all the way back in 1964 via British physicist Peter Higgs. You may have heard of it, but what exactly does this mean for us? Well for starters, if this particle didn’t exist, neither would you. The Higgs-Boson gives other particles mass, thereby creating matter. It’s a hard concept to grasp since it is something just as invisible as a proton or electron – but the same idea. Have we found our creator? Is the spirit of God inside this particle?

Thanks to CRN and  $10 million dollar particle collider in Switzerland, the Higgs-Boson particle was detected and proven to exist. This is something deserving of parades and drunken celebrations all over the world. This is the discovery of a century, because it provides evidence towards many key theories in the world of physics that were based off of this yet-to-be-found particle. Most important of these is the theory of “supersymmetry” which states that all particles have a super partner with similar properties and dimensions, only a larger mass. Whilst the existance of H-G correlates with the theory of supersymmetry, some of the estimated numbers and dimensions don’t quite add up. Right now, it is unknown if this was because of a statistical error or if supersymmetry doesn’t work how we originally predicted. Supersymmetry might be completely down the tube after this, but disproving a theory can be just as, if not more, exciting than proving one. We’re still one small step closer to unlocking the secrets of the physical world.

Well, how did we find Higgsy? Did he just show up and say “hey, guys, here I am?!” A collider is exactly what it sounds like. It is a really large, underground, expensive machine that smashes protons together at JUST under the speed of light (hopefully one day we will catch up.) Colliders are meant to answer questions about what makes up our universe and hopefully detect more awesome unknown stuff – who else is hiding out there? Scientists are excited about the possibility of H-B to answer questions about dark matter and how our universe was formed.

How does the Higgs-Boson create matter? This particle has a field surrounding it named the “higgs field,” naturally. When other particles interact with this field energy is produced and mass is created, thereby creating matter. In the standard model, the higgs particle does not interact with all particles, but select ones that have the right properties.

I am a science obsessed freak of nature that spends her time researching stuff like this over college breaks, however physics is not my forte. BUT the discovery of the Higgs-Boson completely reshapes the scientific world. A creater of matter has been pinpointed with accurate proof, and that is something that everyone should be excited for – no matter what you’re interested in.

Surrounded By Nothingness

What is that black stuff we see when we look at the stars in the sky? Empty space? Nothingness? It is not always what’s seen in the light, but what hides in the dark. Apart from black holes, one of the most interesting things about our universe is something called “dark matter.” In theory, dark matter is that black stuff you probably never thought about before. The catch is, we aren’t exactly sure what it is, we just know it is there and it is .. something? That is why it is so awesome! It cannot be seen with the naked eye or telescope, and it neither reflects nor emits light. Observing something you can’t see is not an easy task. For something that we know next to nothing about, it constitutes a large portion of space; estimated 84% of the universe.

Proof that this is something real? We have no solid evidence, just hints. Everything is supposed to be made of atoms or particles right? Well, we have yet to find any dark matter particle. If there is no real proof then, why does the dark matter theory exist? The idea first came about when cosmologists started to estimate the masses of certain galaxies about a decade or go. When this mass was compared to the mass of all the objects we can see, there is still some left over.  Personally, I’m not convinced based on just an estimate of a galaxy’s mass, one can never know this measurement truly. However, according to Einstein and the laws of physics, gravity causes objects closer to be exposed to more gravity than objects farther away. Now, for planets that would mean Mercury orbits the sun slower than Venus. The crazy thing is this does not actually happen. All the planets in our galaxy orbit at a constant speed. There is something else emitting a gravitational pull to cause this to happen. If not, our home galaxy would fall apart and be flying all over the place. So, according the indisputable rules of mother nature, there has to be more mass in our galaxy than what we see. Actually, about 10x more matter we cannot see versus what we can.

If that isn’t convincing enough, a technique was developed called “gravitational lensing.” Simply put, every type of matter bends light. Using this science, researchers found that light was being bent off of nothing. But.. light does not just bend by itself, that is literally impossible. Matter must exist within that dark space. There is an endless amount that one can write about dark matter, and believe me I plan on it, so consider this an introduction.

There is more than meets the eye.