What Is the “God Particle”?

“The God Particle” is a sexy name, but many physicists absolutely hate it. It’s also led people to think that maybe the discovery of the Higgs boson has something to do with the search for God, but it doesn’t. Its discovery isn’t evidence of any sort of higher being and that’s not why scientists were searching for it. In Part 1 of this series about the Higgs boson, Julian takes an in-depth look at this discovery.

The particle’s discovery may not resolve the debate about God, but it was nonetheless a huge advancement of our understanding of the universe. The Higgs Boson made the behavior of other particles we’ve discovered make sense, it explained how atoms could exist and stars could shine. It was the last big piece of a fantastically complex jigsaw puzzle, and it’s not like scientists had a picture on a box to guide them.

The Higgs Boson was the last piece of a puzzle, and in a literal sense that’s true. It was the last particle predicted by the Standard Model of Particle Physics, which is our framework for organizing and describing elementary particles.

The Standard Model is split into two main groups. One group is the fermions, which are particles like electrons and quarks, the building blocks of protons and neutrons. The other group is the bosons, which particles use to exchange energy.

Photons, Gluons, and the W and Z bosons are called gauge bosons. Then there’s the Higgs boson, which is special. It’s not the boson itself that’s so important, but its existence points to something larger that solves a big problem with the standard model.

#GodParticle #ParticlePhysics #Physics #Seeker #SeekerPlus

Read More:
The Man Who Coined 'The God Particle' Explains: It Was A Joke!
“We've explained it many times: Physicists are irked when we in the media call the Higgs Boson, "The God Particle." The Higgs is important because the elusive subatomic particle is believed to give everything its mass. But as Marcelo Gleiser — of NPR's 13.7 — explained, the nickname doesn't quite explain the particle because while it "does have something of a centralizing influence," it's "nothing quite divine."”

DOE Explains...the Standard Model of Particle Physics
“The Standard Model of Particle Physics is scientists’ current best theory to describe the most basic building blocks of the universe. It explains how particles called quarks (which make up protons and neutrons) and leptons (which include electrons) make up all known matter. It also explains how force carrying particles, which belong to a broader group of bosons, influence the quarks and leptons.”

The Higgs boson
“A problem for many years has been that no experiment has observed the Higgs boson to confirm the theory. On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider announced they had each observed a new particle in the mass region around 125 GeV.”

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Seeker+ is your home for deep dives, fun facts, rabbit holes, and more. Join host Julian Huguet as he unapologetically nerds out on the oddball history, astounding science and intriguing future around topics that will make you the smartest person at your next trivia night.
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Seeker empowers the curious to understand the science shaping our world. We tell award-winning stories about the natural forces and groundbreaking innovations that impact our lives, our planet, and our universe.

[ponyote]

A joke. A Higg's Boson walks into a church, causing an uproar. "You can't come in here, calling yourself the God Particle!" Calmly, it responds "Then how do you have Mass?"

[eyelnne]

Oh man, he had the perfect chance to say "smash" that like button at the end, right after he said smashing particles.

[avrenna]

This is the first video of yours that I've seen, and I'm so glad I did. Great content and pacing, love how you pulled everything together with its history and context. I hit subscribe half-way through, and clicked the bell too at the end. Thank you!! ♡

[robotaholic]

I have studied quantum physics I have listened to lecture after lecture after lecture of the entire particle zoo and your explanation breakdown is the best one I've ever heard to help you actually remember it and keep that knowledge. I still need to hear it a few more times lol

[missheartagram]

My life would be so different if I understood all these things. :-( I’m envious of all the people that are good at Science and Math. Much love and admiration to you all!

[hacked]

Still think that the Higgs Boson also binds matter to time. And that also contributes to the existance of gravity, which is an acceleration of matter through time, not exactly a force that pulls matter towards it as we perceive it.

[gourdone]

Wow - I was historically poor at Math and Science growing up (I always thought due to my ADHD), but that explanation just made absolute perfect sense. Wow! Well done! You have my subscription.

[VikingTeddy]

I wouldn't mind you delving a bit deeper in to the nitty gritty details of particles and forces, as much as is possible without math. These videos always end too soon :)

[BusterDarcy]

“Because a neutron, which, as the name suggests…”

Me: *nodding because everyone else is nodding*

[sinebar]

I think, and this is just my own theory, the graviton is locked up in spacetime itself. If you could produce gravitational waves of high enough frequency or energy, I believe spacetime itself would radiate gravitons the way electromagnetism radiates photons. Probably other Particles would radiate as well like perhaps and this is my term: Chronotons or particles of time. So perhaps spacetime itself is a field in which some kind of particles are hiding and waiting to be discovered. I plan on writing a paper as soon as I work out some details.

[billnye]

Science like this actually strengthens my belief in God. The way the universe operates, the wonders of how it all functions. Love it.

[The_Cyber_System]

Clearing up the clickbait title first does count for something, and to be honest most of us are watching the video because of that so it worked. I don't count it as clickbait if it works and the content is good.

[geoffmalone]

I’ve been watching quantum physics videos on YouTube for years and this one is by far the best one I’ve seen. It helped me connect things together much more clearly.

[zillibran]

the "goddamn particle"😂, thanks man for the hard work and accurate explantions you try to pass onto us simple beeings.

[Sybil_Detard]

I swear, at the end the discussion jumped from speaking of the W to the Z, but perhaps that's just the nature of the particles. Or maybe the W proves the mass of the Z or, damn, I have to watch this eleventy more times just to get it to stick.

[ericrasputin]

When he said "but first..." I was expecting a sponsor read. I'm glad I was wrong.

[nbonasoro]

"The god particle a name physicists hate" This is the problem with science. I am so sick of scientists' jargon, their refusal to participate in public communication and just the general elitism in the field. Scientists should be required to spend pro Bono hours communicating science to the public in order to get research grants and jargon should be eliminated from all of science and replaced with layman speak. Maybe then we would t have a public so distrustful of science and disengaged with the field.

[johnrivera]

*Think of how fun you’ll be at parties*

Me at parties using nuclear physics: Hey girl, are you a proton? Because I’m going crazy all around you…get it? I’m an electron _gets slapped in the face_

[kaywaltzer]

Enjoyed the enthusiasm of the speaker. Was somewhat confusing for my Brain, but I stayed with the lecture and feel I learned a lot, somewhere! I am not giving up on learning more, I am fascinated with this area of Thanks!

[ShannonMcDowell]

Your Seeker+ videos are always informative, thanks! :-D But I'm not clear if the Higgs Boson is particle or a field - I've heard a lot of conflicting explanations regarding this; not from you but from other articles and videos. Perhaps Higgs is the field and the Boson is the particle? At any rate, thanks for all your work! :-D