This is by far the most exciting thing that has happened in particle physics over the last three decades. If this hint of new physics is confirmed—something that could happen within just a few weeks, or possibly even within days—it is difficult to state the importance of such a discovery. It would be bigger than the detection of the Higgs boson, which was just confirmation of what was already known.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/is-particle-physics-about-to-crack-wide-open/

 

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This is by far the most exciting thing that has happened in particle physics over the last three decades. If this hint of new physics is confirmed—something that could happen within just a few weeks, or possibly even within days—it is difficult to state the importance of such a discovery. It would be bigger than the detection of the Higgs boson, which was just confirmation of what was already known.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/is-particle-physics-about-to-crack-wide-open/

It could just be a rat turd.

 

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"ATLAS has seen the bump too..."

 

It could just be a rat turd.

The last time it was pigeon guano that was the suspected culprit.

 

The last time it was pigeon guano that was the suspected culprit.

Mmmhhh... are you referring to how the cosmic background radiation was discovered?

 

Decay fragments is a possibility.
http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.151805

 

Or it could be whole new set of questions, and I get left behind even further.

 

This is by far the most exciting thing that has happened in particle physics over the last three decades. If this hint of new physics is confirmed—something that could happen within just a few weeks, or possibly even within days—it is difficult to state the importance of such a discovery. It would be bigger than the detection of the Higgs boson, which was just confirmation of what was already known.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/is-particle-physics-about-to-crack-wide-open/

See what I mean, just this one article will give me all the fodder I need to turn in an assignment over the holiday. Keep up the good work buddy.

I got 2 more articles because of it as well. They will lend some interesting additions to it.

http://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/201...ng-theory-is-inspiring-practical-applications

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblo...eil-unknown-dimensions-of-the-universe-1.html



kv

 

It could just be a rat turd.

Hate to say it, but your assumption was about right:

...diphoton bump started disappearing. Now, after analyzing nearly five times the amount of data that they had last year, ATLAS and CMS physicists have watched the bump diminish to statistical insignificance

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hope-for-new-particle-fizzles-at-the-lhc1/

It's really sad to see this possible discovery sink into oblivion... but in science, a negative result is just as valuable as a positive one. The only things that matter are facts and truth... dreams be damned...

 

Sure, and how many billion Euro do they need this time to investigate something that has no application in the real world. What properties does this new particle supposedly have?
Finding the Higgs Boson was supposed to prove our Standard Model and show we knew what we were talking about. Now we have a new particle that proves our Standard Model is really a bunch of fantasies?
Why don't we just admit we don't know what we are talking about and get back to physics that solves real problems. We wrap up a lot of problem solving brain power in stuff that solves no real world problem.

 

Why don't we just admit we don't know what we are talking about and get back to physics that solves real problems. We wrap up a lot of problem solving brain power in stuff that solves no real world problem.

You just never know what might be really useful someday.

 

You just never know what might be really useful someday.

Exactly the way I feel too... it's not practical or useful until *voilá* someone discovers something practical or useful!
Scientific research should, and must be done, for knowledge's sake only. Leave it to the engineers and creative individuals to do something practical with those discoveries.

Of what use are Van Gogh's paintings? Or Mozart's music? Or the breaking of an Olympic record? Or climbing Mt Everest?
What's more, when Maxwell developed (discovered?) his famous field equations, of what possible use were they at the time?

 

We wrap up a lot of problem solving brain power in stuff that solves no real world problem.

We also wrap up a lot of our resources into solving "real world" problems, only to discover decades later that we've made things worse. I'd rather spend money to encourage smart people to keep doing smart things out on the frontier. It's our future, our only hope.

We cannot see farther by standing on the shoulders of giants if we don't climb up there and look.

 

Exactly the way I feel too... it's not practical or useful until *voilá* someone discovers something practical or useful!
Scientific research should, and must be done, for knowledge's sake only. Leave it to the engineers and creative individuals to do something practical with those discoveries.

Of what use are Van Gogh's paintings? Or Mozart's music? Or the breaking of an Olympic record? Or climbing Mt Everest?
What's more, when Maxwell developed (discovered?) his famous field equations, of what possible use were they at the time?

Of what use are Van Gogh's paintings? Or Mozart's music? Or the breaking of an Olympic record? Or climbing Mt Everest?

What makes Van Gogh's paintings worth millions? Nothing!
Olympic records are meaningless. Climbing a mountain? Worthless. Mozart I like.
Will this pure research one day prove useful? Maybe, but at what cost today? With all the real problems in the world to be solved how much should we invest in this stuff? These billions of Euros would house and feed a lot of refugees.
So should we just let them suffer so the upper class can investigate curiosities?
Yes, investigations into electricity 150 years ago paid off in future generations. did anybody have to suffer so this research could get done? It didn't cost billions.
I guess that is good for the economy to pump billions of Euros into the nations that contributed to building the LHC. How many other jobs cab theoretical physicists be employed in?

 

we invest in this stuff?

"We" should not be "investing" in anything unless we voluntarily choose to. Anything else is large scale theft -- no matter how good the intentions.

 

"We" should not be "investing" in anything unless we voluntarily choose to. Anything else is large scale theft -- no matter how good the intentions.

Elected officials claim the authority to spend on our "behalf". In theory the spending reflects the will of the people. Yeah right.

 

It didn't cost billions.

It did... just look at the story of quantum mechanics, and nuclear energy, and see how it paid off.

 

just look at the story of quantum mechanics, and nuclear energy, and see how it paid off.

Okay, I can see that. Maybe this new particle will lead us to artificial gravity or something. Warp drives, Time machines? Negative energy, flux capacitors???

 

Okay, I can see that. Maybe this new particle will lead us to artificial gravity or something. Warp drives, Time machines? Negative energy, flux capacitors???

The point is, you never know... and if you don't look into it, then someone else will...
Just out of curiosity, what do you think about current nuclear fusion research?