More stuff I think about ...

Recently, you may have seen a scientific community all in a twist about something called the Higgs Boson - and the fact that its existence had finally been confirmed.

Actually, I thought all of the celebratory stuff had fallen a bit flat - it was almost like, "Oh.  yeah.  We found the Higgs."  I had expected something like headlines that screamed "Scientists Find The God Particle!!!!" 

It was all rather ho hum.

Anyway.

Most people don't understand what the hullabaloo would have been all about, so maybe the understated celebrations make sense in that regard.

Anyway.

The Higgs Boson is a very important discovery - its discovery verifies the Standard Model and solves a problem that particle physicists have had for a long time.  Scientists could not account for the mass of  all of the elemental particles they had managed to identify.  They knew the particles could NOT have intrinsic mass, or else the predictions regarding particle interactions, which had been tested and proven time and again, would not, COULD not, have been as reliable as they had been.  The Higgs was predicted 50 years ago, but no one had ever seen one, yet they knew that the Higgs, or some other particle, had to exist and had to be the source of mass.

As it turns out, we live in a "Higgs Field", where the presence of particles attracts the Higgs.  Think of it this way:  There's a huge ballroom and there are people scattered about, evenly, throughout the whole ballroom.  Suddenly, Julia Roberts enters the room.  People immediately gather around her.  She has gained mass.  Just as particles in the Higgs Field gain mass.  It's simple, really - and rather elegant.

And now you know, too.

Ndinombethe.