Still Playing the unCERNtainty Card

1. The scientists at CERN's LHC have made the momentous announcement that they may have an announcement to make next year.
2. They've detected what might be a particle at what might be the correct energy for the Higgs boson - the so-called God particle.
3. Other commentators seem unwilling to take CERN's uncertainty at face value, preferring to trumpet solid evidence for the Higgs boson.

These fine folks seem to have bracketed the Higgs boson's expected energy range, seeing "something" at 124 and 126 GeV - the currently bandied-about mass of the Higgs is 125 GeV.
While they tell us that statistically, they don't feel justified in claiming to have found the particle, they feel this means that they will find it next year. While this may be little more than a way of assuring another year's funding for the experiments, it may also be yet another go at sending competing investigators on a wild-goose chase after yet another energetic red herring.
Or it may not.

I for one will be happy when this hunt is over - with its attendant sniping and misdirection - and we can all once again find ourselves in a universe which is permeated with aether.
The supposed emptiness of space would be most happily replaced by that aether, and then work can begin on Higgs field generators.

That, my friends, would be the most important next step coming from any such discovery. The generation of a Higgs field would mean the eventual achievement of faster-than-light travel. By creating the analogue of a noise-cancelling field, mass could be negated.
Imagine the possibilities - they seem nearly limitless.

I know I've been (and continue to be) suspicious of the folks at CERN and the LHC, but if they actually come through with this discovery - or even if one of their competitors manages the feat despite the false starts and red herrings thrown in their various paths - this could be the beginning of something truly wondrous.

Posted by Procrustes 17