[sigtau]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/large-hadron-collider/9374758/Higgs-boson-scientists-99.999-sure-God-Particle-has-been-found.html

It's a five-sigma result, meaning there's 99.999% certainty that the Higgs boson does, indeed, exist.  Apparently, this stitches a together a gaping hole that was once found in the standard model.

[Mikes]

ah boson... not bosom, misreading one letter makes all the difference.

[headdie]

very cool, be interesting to see what the *Actual* properties of the particle are

[watsisname]

4.9σ result right in the range where the Higgs is 'supposed' to be, so that's pretty exciting.  Future updates on its properties should indeed be interesting.  I wonder what this will do for the future of Physics and the Standard Model.

[FlamingCobra]

Funny how Herra hasn't commented on this yet.

[Flipside]

The news is brilliant, however, the comments sections of most articles on it are pretty depressing.

To quote one poster on the BBC website, sometimes I wish I could find whoever called it the 'God Particle' and kick them in the throat...

[Scourge of Ages]

The headline on Yahoo! News read:
"Scientists Find Proof of God Particle"

Shocking if you don't parse the last word immediately

[watsisname]

The news is brilliant, however, the comments sections of most articles on it are pretty depressing.

To quote one poster on the BBC website, sometimes I wish I could find whoever called it the 'God Particle' and kick them in the throat...

It really is a poor choice of a nickname IMO.  Aside from the religious considerations, it's not even that significant of a particle.

Wikipedia has an illuminating piece about it:

The Higgs boson is often referred to as the "God particle" by the media,[68] after the title of Leon Lederman's popular science book on particle physics, The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?[69][70] While use of this term may have contributed to increased media interest,[70] many scientists dislike it, since it overstates the particle's importance, not least since its discovery would still leave unanswered questions about the unification of quantum chromodynamics, the electroweak interaction, and gravity, as well as the ultimate origin of the universe.[68][71] Higgs is an atheist, and is displeased that the Higgs particle is nicknamed the "God particle",[72] because the term "might offend people who are religious".[73]

Lederman said he gave it the nickname "The God Particle" because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive,"[68][69][74] but jokingly added that a second reason was because "the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing."

[Mongoose]

I had a friend link me this gem on Facebook.

[Dragon]

So, it's confirmed. Frankly, I'm not surprised at all. It was just a matter of confirming the previous, much more vague traces. Good to be (relatively) certain though.
BTW, when I was at CERN, about a month ago, I've seen a new accelerator cycle start up. I wonder if it was the same one that gave the final confirmation (or rather, if it was the last one which had it's data included into the statistic from the article). While it might've not seemed exciting for a layperson (and indeed, most of my class ), if you know how to read the monitors, it's very interesting to watch the status readings as the LHC went through it's starup cycle.

[IronBeer]

So, it's confirmed. Frankly, I'm not surprised at all. It was just a matter of confirming the previous, much more vague traces. Good to be (relatively) certain though.
BTW, when I was at CERN, about a month ago, I've seen a new accelerator cycle start up. I wonder if it was the same one that gave the final confirmation (or rather, if it was the last one which had it's data included into the statistic from the article). While it might've not seemed exciting for a layperson (and indeed, most of my class ), if you know how to read the monitors, it's very interesting to watch the status readings as the LHC went through it's starup cycle.

Wait, what were you doing at CERN? PLEASE TELL ME; I'M NOW VERY INTERESTED.

My uncle is a technician at Fermilab, and I get occasional tidbits about their work and some insider stories about some other accelerators, CERN naturally included. It'd be awesome if you could elaborate on your experience there a little more, Dragon.

[Nuke]

i guess they can reallocate the lhc to more productive tasks now, like giving helicopters cancer.

[watsisname]

They still haven't destroyed the earth with a micro black hole, they should stop slacking.

[yuezhi]

They still haven't destroyed the earth with a micro black hole, they should stop slacking.

...and it's still 2012

I had a friend link me this gem on Facebook.

42. it answers everything.

[S-99]

They still haven't destroyed the earth with a micro black hole, they should stop slacking.

...and it's still 2012

42. it answers everything.
[/quote]
Well, a black hole could be created one day before new years. People could still then conclude that the world ends in 2012, but however, not "on".

[666maslo666]

4.9σ result right in the range where the Higgs is 'supposed' to be, so that's pretty exciting.  Future updates on its properties should indeed be interesting.  I wonder what this will do for the future of Physics and the Standard Model.

According to this blogpost, Higgs at 125 GeV strenghtens the case for supersymmetry:

http://motls.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-125-gev-higgs-boson-isnt-quite.html

[Dragon]

Wait, what were you doing at CERN? PLEASE TELL ME; I'M NOW VERY INTERESTED.

My uncle is a technician at Fermilab, and I get occasional tidbits about their work and some insider stories about some other accelerators, CERN naturally included. It'd be awesome if you could elaborate on your experience there a little more, Dragon.

I was there on a trip with my class. We spent two days in Geneva, and the first day was pretty much entirely spent at CERN. The tour was pretty much a standard tourist fare, but there were some really interesting parts. We've seen LINAC 1 and LEIR, magnet testing hall, the control room, the computer center and the ATLAS control center. Among other things, there was a small exhibition with a computer which was the very first WWW server (a small black cube with a plaque on it "This computer is a server. Do not turn off." ). Unfortunately, aside from seeing the startup process from the control room, this exhibition, and the CERN newspaper I picked up, there were few things I didn't already know from other sources. The trip could've been better if they gave us any hard data instead of generic statements you usually see in newspapers, but it was still a very interesting experience.
On a side note, I found that despite hiring over a thousand people from Italy, what they call "pizza" in their cafeteria is little different from what is served in "fast food" pizzerias here in Poland. It costs as much as a real pizza in a gourmet restaurant over there, but that's it. I don't know how they get away with that, considering how close they are to Italian border.

[Wobble73]

Wait, what were you doing at CERN? PLEASE TELL ME; I'M NOW VERY INTERESTED.

My uncle is a technician at Fermilab, and I get occasional tidbits about their work and some insider stories about some other accelerators, CERN naturally included. It'd be awesome if you could elaborate on your experience there a little more, Dragon.

I was there on a trip with my class. We spent two days in Geneva, and the first day was pretty much entirely spent at CERN. The tour was pretty much a standard tourist fare, but there were some really interesting parts. We've seen LINAC 1 and LEIR, magnet testing hall, the control room, the computer center and the ATLAS control center. Among other things, there was a small exhibition with a computer which was the very first WWW server (a small black cube with a plaque on it "This computer is a server. Do not turn off." ). Unfortunately, aside from seeing the startup process from the control room, this exhibition, and the CERN newspaper I picked up, there were few things I didn't already know from other sources. The trip could've been better if they gave us any hard data instead of generic statements you usually see in newspapers, but it was still a very interesting experience.
On a side note, I found that despite hiring over a thousand people from Italy, what they call "pizza" in their cafeteria is little different from what is served in "fast food" pizzerias here in Poland. It costs as much as a real pizza in a gourmet restaurant over there, but that's it. I don't know how they get away with that, considering how close they are to Italian border.

The bit in bold reminds me of the episode of the IT crowd where they convinced her that she held the internet in her hand, (a small black box with a blinking red light on it)

"How come there are no wires?"

"Duh, it's wireless internet!"

[Dragon]

Yeah, it indeed made me laugh. The box wasn't that small (about as wide as a printer), but it was unbelievable that internet as we know it begun on two such cubes with hand-written plaques on them. Ah, and I heard that the janitors at CERN tend to be French, and thus rarely understand English. Which means the thing occasionally got turned off anyway.

[BritishShivans]

Is anyone disappointed they've found the Higgs Boson, but not the Higgs Bosom?