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David Barnett

British Council

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After the alleged discovery of the Higgs-Boson particle, what does this mean for the improvement or furtherment of mankind?

After the billions poured into the building of the hadron collider, we have now supposedly discovered that elusive God particle. So what now? Wouldn't it have been better helping the poor or ousting the murderous Syrian government?

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    Henk Mulder 10+

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    Jul 25 2012: The people that have found evidence for the Higgs boson are the same people that brought us the world wide web in 1990 when they (Tim Berners-Lee) were building an information sharing system to support the physics research of that billion dollar tool (LHC) to discover the Higgs boson.

    Facebook is the 4th largest human population in the world. Twitter was used to bring down bad regimes. So, as it happens, those billions poured into the Higgs boson discovery led directly to the ousting of murderous regimes!

    Should we pour billions into such research? You bet!

    • paul Ashton

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      Jul 25 2012: True that! Thank you! Game over. Case closed! Now just imagine the advancement that will spring forth from the invention of the over the net kissing appendage!

  • paul Ashton

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    Jul 24 2012: The discovery of the Higgs is the physical manifestation of a metaphysical theory. That the separateness we experience is an illusion and that we are all relective of a whole. The Higgs field is everywhere connecting everything ( sound familiar). All matter exists only in relation to other matter and acts as if it has an inherent knowledge of the whole. The Higgs is a possible connectome for the fabric of the universe. If the universe was on a holodeck (holographic universe theory) the Higgsfield may be the backlighting.

  • Efrain Torres

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    Jul 24 2012: I agree it was a lot of money and also argue that "The curiosity kill the cat" but I think this project was not reponsible for the european crisis.

  • walter crockett

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    Jul 24 2012: Not a thing,but for the military.... All those billions weren't spent to find a particle that only a few thousand even think about much less care
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    Gail . 50+

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    Jul 16 2012: There are two different answer flows that can come from your question, and available characters prevent a complete answer, so here's my take on it all.

    The discovery of the possibility of a Higgs Bosun is rather meaningless in your day to day life. It hasn't been discovered yet. A previously undiscovered particle that bears a similarity to what would be expected of a degraded Higgs Bosun has been discovered. Even then, it means little to your current day-to-day life.

    As to helping the poor with the money we spent/invested (depending on your take). That doesn't work. Our global economic model CREATES poverty/hunger in order to create a wealth class. (This is fact) Now to relate this to the Higgs Bosun:

    There is another worldview that is now being articulated by science. It says that you create your own reality. Right now, most of the world doesn't believe this, so they don't know that they are doing it already, or that they can create different circumstances. This leaves them creating lives of despair.

    My hope is that more science will show us that this is more than just a valid theory, but is fact. (Provable to all who use the techniques) If we would learn this and tell our neighbors about it, we could not only have better lives, but we could end poverty, political corruption, bad educational institutions, war, crime/violence, energy shortages, and social injustice while improving life for humankind.

    If finding the Higgs Bosun contributes IN ANY WAY to this, then it's an investment. I don't see the link yet, but then, I don't see the value of an economic system that creates poverty in the first place.
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    Gabo Moreno 100+

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    Jul 16 2012: The amount of money going into science, even the collider, is ridiculous compared to what goes into the military. Poverty is a political problem. A problem with how society works. Not a problem that would be solved by taking money away from science, but a problem that to be solved requires social conscience and will.

    What have we gained? We have demonstrated that we humans can still organize to get into deeper and deeper understanding of how our universe works. We have shown that we can put lots of brilliant minds together and get the equipment, the resources, and the experiments to find these particles. Oh, but there's more. The collider was not built to find this particle alone. Much more knowledge will come from this equipment. Many will find their inspiration on these basic results and perhaps pursue further and better scientific challenges. Often applied, often more basic knowledge. Our humanity includes both, our curiosity, our hunger for just more knowledge, as well as our wanting to solve problems. Let's enjoy our humanity and stop pretending that curiosity is a waste of time. It's part of being human. If you don't believe it, you have never observed a baby.
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      Stewart Gault 30+

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      Jul 16 2012: The last US bailout of the banks, was more money than NASA has received in the past 50 years put together. I think Neil Tyson said the money spent in 3 months in Afghanistan would be enough to get man to Mars.
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    peter lindsay 30+

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    Jul 15 2012: MRI. We knew about superconductors for 70 years before we found a use for them. Now every major hospital in the world has superconductors in their MRI and they save millions of lives every year by accurately imaging medical problems that are otherwise undetectable.
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    David Hamilton 50+

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    Jul 15 2012: http://youtu.be/JTTWSE4Qhx0
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    edward long 100+

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    Jul 15 2012: I read that no scientist calls Higgs Boson the "God Particle". It was a casual remark regarding a theory about the CREATION (thus the name "God") of mass.The press adopted the dramatic term and has taught the public to recognize it. Science made the prediction and the alleged discovery of the particle. Science does not prioritize study based on the "improvement or furtherment of mankind." Science simply tries to explain the world around us by establishing theories, facts and Laws. The debate about funding CERN was over long ago. In Europe the Yes votes won. In America the No votes won and the money was used elsewhere, maybe on ousting the Syrian government.
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      Fritzie Reisner 100+

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      Host
      Jul 15 2012: I little caveat is that both the USDepartment of Energy and the National Science Foundation continue to fund research activity at the LHC and spent a total of over $500 million for development and construction of component parts.
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        edward long 100+

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        Jul 15 2012: Thank you. I was wrong to imply that America had no part in the LHC. We made valuable contributions as one of many contributing sub-contractors. What we did not do was choose to continue to completion the effort to be the prime contracting agency. The facility was planned to be built in Texas but was scrapped. Thank you, Mr. Reisner.
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      Stewart Gault 30+

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      Jul 15 2012: I read it was called the god particle because someone wrote an article on the higgs boson and was going to call it the god dam particle because of how hard it was to find and the editor due to political correctness dropped it to just the god particle, and then it just so happened that this particle coupled with the word god was a nice fit to help explain how a quantum flux could cause the universe etc
      Here's an article which uses the original term. http://hanlonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2012/07/the-goddamn-particle-and-the-prophets-of-cern.html

    • robert hensley

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      Jul 16 2012: The name the "god particle" came into effect because Leon Lederman's editor wouldn't allow him to call it the "the goddamn particle" -- which was a reference to how hard it was to find.
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    Fritzie Reisner 100+

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    Jul 14 2012: This conversation is still open on this question:
    http://www.ted.com/conversations/12424/cern_just_announced_the_discov.html

    But in terms of the specific issue of the wisdom of expenditures on basic research versus immediate purchases for goods and services or military expenditures, we cannot predict the future well enough to know what is going to develop from basic research. We only know that basic research has been at the foundation of many of the technological and medical advances that have greatly improved our quality of life. It is therefore important not to be short-sighted and to keep the longer term view in mind.
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