Particle prediction wins prize
In gratitude for his healing, Namaan asked Elisha to “please accept a gift from your servant," says Sunday’s first reading. Scientists François Englert of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and Peter W. Higgs of the University of Edinburgh will be showing their gratitude for the joint 2013 Nobel Prize . . .
In gratitude for his healing, Namaan asked Elisha to “please accept a gift from your servant," says Sunday’s first reading. Scientists François Englert of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and Peter W. Higgs of the University of Edinburgh will be showing their gratitude when they receive the joint 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics which they just won.
Working independently of one another, they proposed a theory in 1964 of how subatomic particles acquire mass. In 2012 their theoretical proposal was confirmed by the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, the so-called Higgs boson or the somewhat misnamed “God particle,” by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.
The Standard Model of particle physics rests on the existence of the special Higgs particle, which originates from an invisible field that fills all space. Without it nothing would exist because it is from contact with this field that particles acquire mass.
Homily hint: Discoveries about particle physics are among "the many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms, and the appearance of man," as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says. "These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers."
Working independently of one another, they proposed a theory in 1964 of how subatomic particles acquire mass. In 2012 their theoretical proposal was confirmed by the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, the so-called Higgs boson or the somewhat misnamed “God particle,” by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.
The Standard Model of particle physics rests on the existence of the special Higgs particle, which originates from an invisible field that fills all space. Without it nothing would exist because it is from contact with this field that particles acquire mass.
Homily hint: Discoveries about particle physics are among "the many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms, and the appearance of man," as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says. "These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers."
Source: A press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences