Sunday, August 07, 2016

Nope. It's a blip, not the god particle

remember all those stories last year insisting that that expensive European machine found the god particle and now can explain the universe? from USA today, in 2013:

Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago, which will go a long way toward explaining what gives electrons and all matter in the universe size and shape. The elusive particle, called a Higgs boson, was predicted in 1964 to help fill in our understanding of the creation of the universe, which many theorize occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang. The particle was named for Peter Higgs, one of the physicists who proposed its existence, but it later became popularly known as the "God particle.

fast forward and.... uh oh:

Tech Times 2014:
they found a new particle that made them want to rewrite the science books

And voila today, NYTimes report on the Particle that wasn't. It was a blip.

One of the dirty little secret about this is that many of the theories floating out there are more in line with philosophical speculation than with hard data.

David Warren calls these "zombie theories": Instead of observing something and then trying to figure out how it could be explained we have big complicated theories that are based on nothing and scientists claim they are true before there is evidence to prove they are real.

this is not science: This is philosophy.

Video discussions on the problem HERE.






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