September 11 2008

Part of the LHC

Higgs boson

The Higgs is named after British physicist Peter Higgs

He postulated its existence more than 30 years ago to explain how matter has mass

Theory suggests the Higgs gives rise to a field through which all other subatomic particles, such as quarks, gluons, photons and electrons, must pass

As they interact with the field, the particles experience a drag; the more drag, the more massive the particle

September 10 2008 — On a day that the media dubbed ‘Big Bang day’ scientists kicked off their experiments with the LHC, Large Hadron Collider, in Switzerland.

They are in pursuit of Higgs Boson, the so-called “God particle“, an assumed fundamental aspect of material nature present at the very beginning of the universe.

According to  an article written in December 2001 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1695390.stm] the most sought after object in particle physics, the Higgs boson, may not even exist:

This is the astonishing conclusion of researchers at the Cern nuclear physics lab near Geneva who have just reviewed five years’ worth of data from experiments they thought would confirm the legendary particle’s role in the construction of the Universe. The Higgs, according to the Standard Model of particle physics, is the particle that explains why all others have mass. Its importance is so central to current thinking that some have even dubbed it the “God particle”. But the Cern researchers have told New Scientist magazine that studies in its giant accelerator which should have shown up the presence of the Higgs found absolutely nothing – and this could mean particle physics having to revisit some of its most cherished ideas.

Higgs ‘shadows’

If there is no Higgs, science will be left totally unable to explain mass.

Physicists at Cern used what was then the largest atom smasher in the world, the Large Electron Positron (Lep) collider, to search for the Higgs boson. The theory was that if atoms were hurtled into each other at high enough energies, the Higgs would eventually reveal itself in the sub-atomic rubble.Just before the Lep was due to be closed down and scrapped, one team declared last year that it was within a hair’s-breadth of identifying the Higgs – it had seen tantalizing “shadows” of something which could be the sought after particle.” 

It seems that despite this admittance the clever scientists managed to convince the governments of Europe to fork over the cash to build an even bigger collider than the LEP so that they could chase these shadows.

Thus, yesterday news reports featured leader of the project Dr. Lyn Evans launching the project with a click of his mouse button. Evan called the LHC “a discovery machine, the most sophisticated scientific instrument of our time,” that will “smash two beams of particles head-on at super-fast speeds, recreating the conditions in the Universe moments after the Big Bang.” 

According to the BBC:

“Scientists hope to see new particles in the debris of these collisions, revealing fundamental new insights into the nature of the cosmos.

Dr. Evans said while it was hoped it would give clues to the origins of the universe, they did not know exactly what results the £4.4bn experiment would provide.”

Note that: $10 billion and they don’t know what they will get.  Its not a bad job, chasing shadows…

Srila Prabhupada of course, was expert in exposing these masters of illusion.

In New Vrindaban in 1976 he told us a humorous story to illustrate the cheating of the scientists:

They are writing Gopal Bhan’s Mahabharata!

[TD3] June 28 1976

We began discussing the scientists and their bluffing again and Prabhupada told us a funny story about Gopala Ban, a court jester in West Bengal during the reign of Raja Krsnacandra. By it, Prabhupada cleverly illustrated how scientists obtained their grants. “The Mohammedan Governor of the day had asked him, ‘Now, Gopala Ban, I have heard you are very expert. Can you write a similar book as the Mahabharata about my kingdom?’
“‘Oh yes, why not? That is not difficult.’
“So he took with him some hundreds of thousands of rupees and again came. ‘Give me another ten thousand,’ and another ten … in this way.
“‘When will the book be finished? You have taken so much money.’
“‘It is just on the verge of being finished.’
Then when he saw that no more money can be taken, ‘I have taken so much money … ‘ he said, ‘Now sir, one information is very essential. Give me and Mahabharata will be finished. Everything is there.’
“‘What is that information?’
“‘Now, your wife, how many husbands she has got?’
“‘This is nonsense!’
“‘Eh? Well, that is the main subject matter of Mahabharata. Draupadi had five husbands [the Pandavas], and you are such a great person your wife must have at least one dozen. Otherwise, how Mahabharata will be written?’
“‘It is the subject matter of… ?’
“‘Yes, that is the only subject matter — that Draupadi had five husbands. So you are such a big Nawab, your wife must at least have one dozen. So give me their names.’
“So he became very angry. ‘Don’t talk this nonsense!’
“‘Then I cannot finish your Mahabharata. I have already invested!’
“So he took another ten thousand rupees and [the Nawab] he said, ‘Stop all this nonsense. That’s all right.'”
Srila Prabhupada was laughing all the way through his telling of it, making comical gestures as he relayed the foolishness of the Nawab and the sharp wit of Gopala Ban in taking advantage of his combined ignorance and pride.
“So these rascals,” Prabhupada said, meaning the scientists, “they are writing Gopala Ban’s Mahabharata, and the rascal government is paying them. They will never be able to produce anything. Challenge them. As soon as you say, ‘Make an egg’ — ‘That we cannot say!’ And they’ll chant ‘Chemical evolution, chemical evolution’ and get Nobel Prize. Rascals. But how the people are so foolish that they believe in this?
Prabhupada repeated his challenge to the scientists to make an egg and produce life. It is something he has said many times. “This is very simple. You see everything, white and yellow. Produce. Chemicals are white. Some chemicals are yellow also. Just like hydroform … It is yellow. And soda bicarb, white, or potash cyanide is white. So you have got so many chemicals, combine and pack it in a cell, and put underneath the incubator. Why rascal do not do this?”
He emphasized the great fraud they are engaged in. “Beat them with shoes. ‘Rascal, you are cheating in this way.’ Beat them with shoes. That’s all. That is the only punishment. Hundreds of men demand them, that ‘Do it, otherwise don’t talk nonsense. If you talk nonsense, then we will beat you with all our shoes.’ Then they’ll stop all this nonsense talk. There is no punishment for their cheating and taking money.”

So there you go. Not a bad job, writing Gopal Bhan’s Mahabharata.

The public can be forgiven for wondering whether they are getting enough ‘bang’ for their bucks. “Big Bang” day, or “Big Bluff” day?

Footnote: I saw an on-line poll which asked three questions:

1) Will the LHC experiments reveal the so-called ‘God particle’

2) Is it a colossal waste of money

3) Will it bring about the end of the world?

Amazingly 37% voted for 1. Encouragingly, 50% of the respondents voted for item 2. Nothing to be said about the 13% that voted for item 3.

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