Higgs boson :-(
Well that will teach me to listen to gossip and bloggers and not wait for the scientific paper!
Last month I mentioned rumours that the researchers at CERN might be getting close to finding the Higgs boson. The final piece in the jigsaw puzzle of physics as we know it.
But as I said last month;
It's possible that with more data this result may just disappear. Sometimes in physics you end up chasing something that isn't there after all.
Well now we're a little bit closer as CERN have put together data from two separate experiments and discovered that what they thought was the Higgs is now looking more like a statistical bump than a new particle.
Worse it's looking increasingly likely that if the Higgs exists it will be found in a range of lighter potential masses that are more difficult for CERN itself to study.
By Christmas we'll know enough to settle this particular potential possible particle candidate. And some physicists actually hope it isn't the Higgs. Why? Well it makes things much more interesting, although as one confessed to me;
Personally, I'm hoping for no Higgs - that would be much more interesting. But difficult to sell to the public!
Well what do you think, "public" ?
I'm David Gregory, Ö÷²¥´óÐã Science Correspondent for the West Midlands. My first law states: "Science is the answer." There is no second law. Feel free to drop me a line: 
Comment number 1.
At 30th Aug 2011, Timx19 wrote:With the Higgs being in the news. I watched the Brian Cox documentary on the LHC again yesterday. I agree no-Higgs is a far more interesting outcome. As I understood it, no Higgs would present a real problem for the Standard model and probably prompt whole new avenues of research! Maybe even leading to a new Standard Model that doesn't sweep Gravity under the carpet.
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