Wednesday, April 09, 2008

His name is Higgs, not God

[LINK] When the particle collider at CERN begins operating next year, Peter Higgs is hoping that it will find a particle (the "Higgs boson") that originates from a force (the "Higgs field") that gives mass to the universe and makes life possible. Many scientists believe that it exists, and that it came into being milliseconds after the Big Bang.

Higgs is an atheist, and it bugs him that they like calling it "the God particle". He is 78 years old and has been hoping to be able to prove the existence of this particle for over 40 years, so I hope that if it does exist that he will live to see the evidence, and know that they did name it after him, not Him (not to mention being able to collect his Nobel Prize).

3 comments:

Tom Heneghan said...

Peter Higgs told journalists in Geneva he doesn't like the term "God particle" because it might offend believers -- even though he is not one himself. More on the Reuters religion blog FaithWorld at http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2008/04/09/is-god-particle-the-right-term-for-massive-mystery-in-physics/

Blueberry said...

I agree with him. The word "god" means so many different things to so many people.

Mando Mama said...

What a cool story. Must show to Son of Mando.

It would be cool to see Higgs get the prize and see his work acclaimed. Meanwhile I can't see any other Him showing up to claim a Nobel. Imagine the security issues.