2008-09-10

In search of God (particle form only)

Today the Large Hadron Collector "went online" (though powerless tests and powered tests with this machine aren't fundamentally different).

All of the cool experiments are still to come, as power is ramped up. And, well, the possible side effects include the destruction of the Earth. Though that is extremely unlikely (though the LHC death toll is now greater-than-zero).

The big question is "Will it find the Higgs Boson?" I have said no since I first saw the specs of this experiment. Stephen Hawking agrees with me (though I admit its ultimately unclear which of us came to the conclusion first). Hawking says no in the hope that there will be some revolutionary need for Higgs-free theories. I say no because I don't think the theoretical Higgs is as heavy as people think.