How the Higgs Boson Particle Ruined Peter Higgs's Life (scientificamerican.com) 53
93-year-old Peter Higgs was awarded a Nobel Prize nine years ago after the Large Hadron Collider experiments finally confirmed of the existence Higgs boson particles he'd predicted back in 1964. "This discovery was a seminal moment in human culture," says physicist Frank Close, who's written the new book Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass .
But Scientific American reports there's more to the story: For years, the significance of the prediction was lost on most scientists, including Higgs himself. But gradually it became clear that the Higgs boson was not just an exotic sideshow in the particle circus but rather the main event. The particle and its associated Higgs field turned out to be responsible for giving all other particles mass and, in turn, creating the structure of galaxies, stars and planets that define our universe and enable our species... Yet the finding, however scientifically thrilling, pushed a press-shy Peter Higgs into the public eye. When he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics the next year, Higgs left his home in Edinburgh and camped out at a pub across town on the day of the announcement so the prize committee wouldn't be able to reach him.
Physicist Close shares more details in an interview with Scientific American: Close: One of the biggest shocks I had when I was interviewing him was when he said the discovery of the boson "ruined [his] life." I thought, "How can it ruin your life when you have done some beautiful mathematics, and then it turns out you had mysteriously touched on the pulse of nature, and everything you've believed in has been shown to be correct, and you've won a Nobel Prize? How can these things amount to ruin?" He said, "My relatively peaceful existence was ending. My style is to work in isolation and occasionally have a bright idea." He is a very retiring person who was being thrust into the limelight.
That, to my mind, is why Peter Higgs the person is still elusive to me even though I've known him for 40 years...
Higgs had spent two to three years really trying to understand a particular problem. And because he had done that hard work and was still trying to deepen his understanding of this very profound concept, when a paper turned up on his desk posing a related question, Higgs happened to have the answer because of the work he'd done. He sometimes says, "I'm primarily known for three weeks of my life." I say, "Yes, Peter, but you spent two years preparing for that moment."
Q: The discovery of the Higgs boson came nearly 50 years after Higgs's prediction, and he said he never expected it to be found in his lifetime. What did it mean to him that the particle was finally detected?
He said to me that his first reaction was one of relief that it was indeed confirmed. At that moment he knew [the particle existed] after all, and he felt a profound sense of being moved that that was really the way it was in nature — and then panic that his life was going to change.
But Scientific American reports there's more to the story: For years, the significance of the prediction was lost on most scientists, including Higgs himself. But gradually it became clear that the Higgs boson was not just an exotic sideshow in the particle circus but rather the main event. The particle and its associated Higgs field turned out to be responsible for giving all other particles mass and, in turn, creating the structure of galaxies, stars and planets that define our universe and enable our species... Yet the finding, however scientifically thrilling, pushed a press-shy Peter Higgs into the public eye. When he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics the next year, Higgs left his home in Edinburgh and camped out at a pub across town on the day of the announcement so the prize committee wouldn't be able to reach him.
Physicist Close shares more details in an interview with Scientific American: Close: One of the biggest shocks I had when I was interviewing him was when he said the discovery of the boson "ruined [his] life." I thought, "How can it ruin your life when you have done some beautiful mathematics, and then it turns out you had mysteriously touched on the pulse of nature, and everything you've believed in has been shown to be correct, and you've won a Nobel Prize? How can these things amount to ruin?" He said, "My relatively peaceful existence was ending. My style is to work in isolation and occasionally have a bright idea." He is a very retiring person who was being thrust into the limelight.
That, to my mind, is why Peter Higgs the person is still elusive to me even though I've known him for 40 years...
Higgs had spent two to three years really trying to understand a particular problem. And because he had done that hard work and was still trying to deepen his understanding of this very profound concept, when a paper turned up on his desk posing a related question, Higgs happened to have the answer because of the work he'd done. He sometimes says, "I'm primarily known for three weeks of my life." I say, "Yes, Peter, but you spent two years preparing for that moment."
Q: The discovery of the Higgs boson came nearly 50 years after Higgs's prediction, and he said he never expected it to be found in his lifetime. What did it mean to him that the particle was finally detected?
He said to me that his first reaction was one of relief that it was indeed confirmed. At that moment he knew [the particle existed] after all, and he felt a profound sense of being moved that that was really the way it was in nature — and then panic that his life was going to change.
Let my life be ruined like that, please. (Score:3)
https://youtu.be/aBBOTC0xg4s [youtu.be]
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question.
is there enough knowledge to modify photons to matter.
and yes.
it is not that simple.
but.
given what is known.
is there a path
Ruined by dyslexia (Score:4, Funny)
Re: Ruined by dyslexia (Score:1)
Gay. I mean literally, that is gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Re:Ruined by dyslexia (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ruined by dyslexia (Score:5, Funny)
Too many people misread it as the Large Hardon Collider, and have themselves a chuckle.
Misread? Misread?!? Oh man, too many people published peer reviewed articles [google.com]. We’re past dozens of peer reviewed citations at this point, I can only assume it’s some kind of rite of passage.
Amazing what you can achieve... (Score:5, Interesting)
...when you're left in peace to do your work. Many modern managers could learn from his example. It is also, I believe, another reason why we will probably never get any close to the level of greatness our fathers and grandfathers achieved in their time, because today we are constantly pushed for continuous level of mediocre delivery, rather than investing time to get things done properly. Great discoveries and achievements require peace, quiet, time and many times luck - factors that most modern employers are vey uncomfortable with.
If I ever won enough money to retire instantly, I would buy a castle on a lonely island, away from from people, so that I can immerse myself in whatever field of study I fancy at the time without being disturbed, until the end of my days.
Re: Amazing what you can achieve... (Score:2)
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Excepts the Higgs mechanism wasn't uncovered in a vacuum in some monastery by one guy, it was uncovered by many people who collaborated and built on each others ideas, each taking an important step. Read the history of the Higgs Boson. Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: Amazing what you can achieve... (Score:2)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
We know some of the story, just not all of the details.
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...when you're left in peace to do your work. Many modern managers could learn from his example.
Don't generalise. Different people work in very different ways. Some need to be pushed and managed, some (including myself, and I'm willing to bet a lot of Slashdot**) most probably work better with autonomy and isolation.
**Why Slashdot? Well from what I see this trend tends to follow introverts which also make up a large portion of the programmer / engineering pool. But that could just be my observer bias.
we are constantly pushed for continuous level of mediocre delivery, rather than investing time to get things done properly.
This irks me as you use a very narrow definition of "great". The opposing common statement is: "Never
Recognition (Score:2)
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If I ever won enough money to retire instantly, I would buy a castle on a lonely island, away from from people, so that I can immerse myself in whatever field of study I fancy at the time without being disturbed, until the end of my days.
Who do you think you are? Michel de Montaigne? [wikipedia.org]
Seriously? (Score:1)
I respect the dude, but privacy is easy. Just change your number and tell people to fuck off. Plenty of people who ought to be famous done that. I am talking about people like Grigori Perelman who solved the Poincaire conjecture. You do not see fool journalists trying to bug him, not unless they want a cap in they ass.
Re:Higgs' childhood, perhaps? (Score:5, Insightful)
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> Privacy isn't strange; it's a choice.
Don't you mean, it's a charm?
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Re: Higgs' childhood, perhaps? (Score:2)
Fragile for not wanting to waste time with idiots when there are much more exciting pursuits?
Re:Higgs' childhood, perhaps? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd say the same of the people who freaked out during the lockdowns, questioning their life choices, and willing to risk prolonging the whole ordeal for a little socializing.
Emotionally fragile.
Different when it's on the other foot.
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The attention-seeking, affirmation-begging attitude that is so prevalent in public life is the pathological condition. A deeply revolting spectacle.
Let me help (Score:4, Funny)
Feel free to rename that particle the "93 Escort Wagon boson".
Enough people think I'm a bozo already... it might catch on!
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Make it the "Sports Utility Boson" to up the Karen Acceptance Factor...
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Boson? More like a bosOFF, amirite?
Feynman felt somewhat the same way (Score:2)
Richard Feynman won the Nobel prize in Physics for his work on quantum electro-dynamics.
He disliked the celebrity that came with it.
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I've often thought about this (more in the context of para-social relationships) and if maybe the way we do "celebrity" isn't at the heart of it.
Take influencer culture. This isn't because these people are better informed, have more insights, or experts in their field, but mere celebrity gives hem authority.
I can easily see that rubbing Feynman the wrong way.
Re:Feynman felt somewhat the same way (Score:5, Insightful)
Feynman loved being a celebrity.
He just loved to complain, be snarky, and affect false modesty.
Re:Feynman felt somewhat the same way (Score:4, Interesting)
Richard Feynman won the Nobel prize in Physics for his work on quantum electro-dynamics.
He disliked the celebrity that came with it.
So much that he wrote multiple popular books [wikipedia.org] and even had an acting credit [imdb.com]?
I'm sure there were aspects of celebrity he disliked, but he certainly courted the attention.
Peter Higgs on the other hand seems to have a genuine disinterest in people treating him as anything other than an ordinary person.
That's not to criticize Feynman by any means, in becoming a celebrity he did a lot of good in educating and inspiring the public. Of course, Higgs being driven by science and not fame is inspiring in its own way.
NOT most mass of galaxies or even stuff (Score:3)
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Without the Higgs mechanism all bosons would be considered massless. "Higgs mechanism" refers specifically to the generation of masses for the W±, and Z weak gauge bosons through electroweak symmetry breaking that occurs when temperatures reach about 159.5±1.5 GeV.
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Good one. We should believe a sensationalist science writer who doesn't even have a bachelor's degree in physics over an army of physics PhDs?
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No. Belief is always a mistake. Models are about prediction, not Truth. If you want Truth, that's next to Argument, three doors down on the left.
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If we can't believe qualified physicists, how can we believe Unzicker?
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That's not what I am saying at all is it? I don't have access to the LHC to run my own experiments, nor have I read all the literature. However, at some point, we have to trust opinions based on the large consensus of those who have spent their lives objectively learning. Not every opinion has to be based on first-hand knowledge and analysis. If that is the bar you wouldn't be able to do anything. I guarantee you yourself have beliefs based entirely on other people telling you the "facts." Can scientists b
Re:The Higgs Fake. (Score:4, Informative)
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Seconded.
long before it was called Higgs boson, (Score:1)
it was called Kalapa.
Well... (Score:2)
In 21th Century Geniuses don't work alone. (Score:1)
Certainly, Peter Higgs is an exception, and exceptions break rules.
More over, Einstein did something similar and I'm sure the list can be very long.
The common thing among them is that they were doing base science, they were buildin