\u00a0<\/p>\n
Particle man, particle man
\nDoing the things a particle can
\nWhat\u2019s he like? It\u2019s not important
\nParticle man
\nIs he a dot or is he a speck?
\nWhen he\u2019s underwater does he get wet?
\nOr does the water get him instead?
\nNobody knows, particle man
\n~ \u201cParticle Man,\u201d They Might Be Giants<\/p>\n
As much as I love having TMBG as the soundtrack to my understanding of science, that last line is not quite so true today, at least when it comes to one particular\u2014and particularly elusive\u2014particle. After a massive Armageddon of particle collisions (\u201cwe must destroy the particle to discover it\u201d), physicists in Geneva today announced that they have, just in time to meet their self-imposed deadline of July 4, recorded evidence of the existence of the heretofore theoretical subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, which may account for matter\u2019s having mass, or weight\u2014and therefore physical existence.<\/p>\n
Having given up my childhood dream of becoming a physicist when I learned that there was no way to use physics to achieve time travel (my real goal) that didn\u2019t involve math, I now cheer for scientific breakthroughs like this one the way I cheer for most sports teams or individual athletes: when it counts, in the Masters or the Superbowl or the Olympics or the NCAA Tournament. With the exception of UD men\u2019s basketball and the Dodgers, I don\u2019t follow anybody in sports closely through the year, but I\u2019m right there screaming on the sidelines when the final goes to overtime or extra innings. In both science and sports, though, I\u2019m more into the color commentary than the play-by-play.<\/p>\n
If you want the play-by-play on this morning\u2019s score out of Geneva, I\u2019ll send you to our in-house expert, Leah Libresco<\/a><\/strong>. I can sense and share the pure joy in Leah\u2019s post, even though I have no idea what most of it is about. (She had me til statistics. ) The color, though\u2014that\u2019s the real draw. In fact, the news was enough of a particle collision to knock me out of a 5-day slump that started as Too Much Else Going On (deadlines for bishop and Botox, storms full of flying trees and downed power lines, helping to get The Merchant of Venice<\/em> on its fabulous feet in time for the opening of the tour on the 19th, this damned insufferable heat) and progressed rapidly to OMG I Have Nothing to Say. I love this Higgs boson, even though before today I would have said a boson was the guy on the ship who sings \u201cHeave away! Haul away!\u201d I love it even though when I first heard, on NPR, that scientists were getting close to answering the question of what makes things weigh, I suggested they might want to watch Supersize Me<\/em> instead of a supercollider.<\/p>\n See, I love the Higgs boson\u2014which physicists, including Higgs himself, agree they just might have caught \u201csight\u201d of, oh so briefly, even though it didn\u2019t quite exceed the 5-sigma standard deviation, whatever that is when it\u2019s at home\u2014because of what the color commentators have nicknamed it. They\u2019re calling it \u201cthe God particle.\u201d Leah, of course, eschews such nonsense, whether because she is a scientist, or because her transition from atheism to Catholicity is still several innings short of a full game, or both, or neither. Play-by-play callers almost never fall into the nickname trap that color commentators do, in any case. But it\u2019s an irresistible headline: SCIENTISTS FIND GOD.<\/p>\n And there are some lovely, though utterly unscientific (outside of theology, the Queen of Sciences), points to that nickname. Reflecting on these, and offering them for your reflection, lit the sparklers again for me, so I\u2019m grateful. Consider:<\/p>\n 1. All Things, Visible and Invisible<\/strong><\/p>\n The existence of the Higgs boson, according to what physicists call the Standard Model, accounts for the existence of everything. As Ker Than writes<\/a><\/strong> for National Geographic News:<\/p>\n According to the standard model, if the Higgs field didn\u2019t exist, the universe would be a very different place, said SLAC\u2019s Peskin, who isn\u2019t involved in the LHC experiments.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be very difficult to form atoms,\u201d Peskin said. \u201cSo our orderly world, where matter is made of atoms, and electrons form chemical bonds\u2014we wouldn\u2019t have that if we did not have the Higgs field.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words: no galaxies, no stars, no planets, no life on Earth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That\u2019s pretty close to Aquinas\u2019s Argument from Contingency, one of the \u201cfive ways\u201d of reasoning the existence of God.<\/p>\n Therefore we cannot but postulate the existence of some being having of itself its own necessity, and not receiving it from another, but rather causing in others their necessity. This all men speak of as God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n (Ah, Thomas. Not all men. Not even then. But still.)<\/p>\n 2. The Still, Small Voice<\/strong><\/p>\n The Higgs boson, like Divine Providence, is recognized best by its effects\u2014not the flashy miracles, the big bangs and the pillars of fire, but the billion infinitesimal nudges by which it keeps the galaxies spinning, while having, itself, no spin at all. And its presence is all too often drowned out by the world\u2019s clamor. Ker Than again:<\/p>\n In reality the Higgs appears to transform into relatively commonplace decay products such as quarks, which are produced by the millions at the LHC.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just so happens that nature is really nasty to us, and the range that we\u2019ve narrowed [the Higgs] down to is the range that makes it most difficult to find,\u201d ALICE\u2019s Evans said.<\/p>\n To detect the Higgs\u2019s signal amid this high background noise, scientists must calculate very precisely what the distribution of a particular decay particle for a collision will be at a given energy, and how many extras of that particle they\u2019d expect to see if a Higgs boson has been created.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don\u2019t know about you, but I am always having a hard time listening for God\u2019s presence through the high background noise, especially that of human nature (i.e, my own), which can be really nasty. And like the frustrated physicists, I would prefer that revelation crank itself up to 11 to make it a little easier. But Elijah learned differently in his own wilderness slump, hiding out on Mt Horeb and wishing God would speak up, for God\u2019s sake:<\/p>\n Then the LORD said, \u201cGo outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by.\u201d A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD\u2014but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake\u2014but the LORD was not in the earthquake.<\/p>\n After the earthquake there was fire\u2014but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.<\/p>\n When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. (1 Kings 19:11-13)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Higgs boson is the tiny whisper at the heart of the universe. Shhhhh, listen.<\/p>\n 3. It Surrounds and Penetrates Us<\/strong><\/p>\n As is true of important subatomic bits, Higgs is not only a particle but also a field. Ker Than:<\/p>\n Higgs\u2019s idea was that the universe is bathed in an invisible field similar to a magnetic field. Every particle feels this field\u2014now known as the Higgs field\u2014but to varying degrees.<\/p>\n If a particle can move through this field with little or no interaction, there will be no drag, and that particle will have little or no mass. Alternatively, if a particle interacts significantly with the Higgs field, it will have a higher mass.<\/p>\n The idea of the Higgs field requires the acceptance of a related particle: the Higgs boson.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That field we all feel in every particle\u2014sounds familiar, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It\u2019s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together. (Star Wars [The Real One])<\/em><\/p>\n The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For \u2018In him we live and move and have our being.\u2019 (Acts 17:24-28)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n All particles \u201cfeel\u201d the influence of the Higgs boson, but interact with it only by means of the weak force. That\u2019s God-like, too: we particles have free will, and are never forced or bullied into the dance.<\/p>\n Of course, all these reflections work well within the Standard Model that is the monotheistic Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. In the Patheos spirit of conversation, I hasten to point out that physicists have made clear that this need not be the only model. There could be more than one Higgs boson, for example; Pagans and Hindus might be comfortable reflecting on a God\/desses particle. There are models that account for our never knowing: Agnostic particles that may or may not exist. And there are models outside the Standard Model that don\u2019t require a God particle at all, so atheists can set off fireworks today, too, because nothing\u2019s really proven beyond the 5-sigma boundary of doubt.<\/p>\n 4. Everybody Is Offended<\/strong><\/p>\n One last proof that talking about the Higgs boson is like talking about religion: it has the power to offend. From the combox of the L.A. Times article<\/a><\/strong> on this morning\u2019s announcement:<\/p>\n The media are the only ones to call it a God particle.\u00a0 That\u2019s an absurd name that scientists would never use.\u00a0 It\u2019s offensive to everyone and I wish the media would realize this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The peeps at Patheos have been hashing out the issue of what constitutes offense in a diverse community all week (see The Anchoress<\/a><\/strong> and Timothy Dalrymple<\/a><\/strong>, among others), sometimes with a collision level as high as that generated by the Large Hadron Collider, so there\u2019s another connection worth exploring.<\/p>\n