From CERN:
CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson
Geneva, 4 July 2012. At a seminar held at CERN1 today as a curtain raiser to the year’s major particle physics conference, ICHEP2012 in Melbourne, the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented their latest preliminary results in the search for the long sought Higgs particle. Both experiments observe a new particle in the mass region around 125-126 GeV.
“We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV. The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS and the huge efforts of many people have brought us to this exciting stage,” said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, “but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication.”
"The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. “The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this CERNreason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks."
“It’s hard not to get excited by these results,” said CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci. “ We stated last year that in 2012 we would either find a new Higgs-like particle or exclude the existence of the Standard Model Higgs. With all the necessary caution, it looks to me that we are at a branching point: the observation of this new particle indicates the path for the future towards a more detailed understanding of what we’re seeing in the data.”
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Nope, it would have saved nothing since you'd still have to spend enough money to invent a time machine to go back and ask moses if he really said that.
I find this thrilling. Every time science discovers a little more about the nature of our universe, we get a little farther from denying a Creator. One day perhaps we'll have all the pieces of the puzzle, all the natural laws and standards, and we'll stand back and say, Wow this is an awesome picture we've put together. Now WHO made the puzzle? A puzzle doesn't make itself. Some may think they themselves made it, having touched each piece and placed it. But others will ask, where did the pieces come from and who made them fit together? And millions of purely "rational" people, if they can put pride aside, will fall to their knees in awe.
Right from the Big Bang (let there be light...), there were laws, formulas, patterns in nature, perfectly formed and not the least bit "random." From dust, which we have now named "Higgs boson" and light, He formed everything in the universe. Had God said "molecules" to Moses, He would not be speaking in a way that nomads in the desert could have understood. But slowly He is raising us up, revealing more about Himself, often through science. He pursues us each according to how He designed each one of us. Some hear Him through music; others through His word; others through creating things, like architects who employ the Divine Proportion; others through nature, the environmentalist (the Noahs of our time); and others through the laws of physics.
Bravo! I thank you scientists who have been uniquely gifted to perceive the majesty of the universe and put it into terms others can understand. As for the name "God" particle, let's not reduce God to dust... Go with Higgs boson. After all, one of the ways we are created in His image is that we name things. First thing that the first man did was name his companion (Whoa man!) and the creatures.
About the money, anything that reveals God to us is well spent. And we cannot serve two masters--it's either God or money. This time God was served whether anyone involved knows it or not. Remember, "What man intends for evil, God uses for good!"