I recently read an article in Freshly Pressed entitled “Whatever Color”: A Poem About Higgs Boson from SayKNOWtoTrivia. It is a poem about the elusive Higgs boson particle for which you have been sitting on the edge of your seats.
[From The Telegraph on July 24, 2012]
Higgs boson: scientists 99.999% sure “God Particle” has been found. Scientists believe they have captured the elusive “God particle” that gives matter mass and holds the physical fabric of the universe together.
[From Scientific American; The Higgs boson and the Future of Science by Ashutosh Jogalekar, July 23, 2012]
The discovery of the Higgs boson (or the “Higgs-like particle” if you prefer) is without a doubt one of the signal scientific achievements of our time. It illustrates what sheer thought – aided by data of course – can reveal about the workings of the universe and it continues a trend that lists Descartes, Hume, Galileo and Newton among its illustrious forebears.
[From ABC News; Higgs boson: Physicists See Best Proof Yet of “The God Particle” by Ned Potter, July 2, 2012]
After decades of careful experiment, physicists say they have found the “strongest indication to date” to prove the existence of the Higgs boson — a subatomic particle so important to the understanding of space, time and matter that the physicist Leon Lederman nicknamed it “the God particle.” The announcement today … comes just before a major meeting this week in Australia, where more findings will be announced from the giant underground particle accelerator at CERN, the great physics lab in the Alps on the French-Swiss border.
You may find all this information overwhelming but fear not. It’s easily (and poetically) explained:
There is a particle called Higgs boson Which the universe seems to grow on It’s elusive and small Hardly there at all It likes to keep its cloak on. To find this “Ultimate Provider” CERN built the Hadron Collider It’s big and it’s round Sunk deep in the ground A super-sonic, sub-atomic glider. The scientists from the lab at CERN Seem totally unconcerned “If we destroy the earth While seeking its birth, Well, that’s the price of knowledge,” they discerned. Forget your quarks and your leptons That’s yesterday’s news that you’ve slept on What we’re after today Gives mass away The weight-gaining particle – Higgs boson. So finding this particle is a riot It’s not something that we could keep quiet If it gives things their mass We could really be crass And say that the universe should go on a diet!
Curmudgeon at Large 