Why Were So Many "Crazy" Higgs Boson Stories Published? 291
The presumed discovery of the Higgs boson may be one of the most important scientific discoveries ever, but it did bring out quite a bit of "strange" science reporting. In addition to blogs, many mainstream news sites jumped on the crazy headline bandwagon. The ability to soon travel at the speed of light, the building of a Star Trek style transporter, and many stories of the particle proving God doesn't exist have made the rounds in the past week. Is the particle's discovery just on the fringe of common scientific knowledge and therefore prone to wild speculation, or does this all come down to having the most sensational headline?
Invitation to San Francisco Higgs Boson Party (Score:4, Informative)
Because Lederman nicknamed it "the god particle" (Score:5, Informative)
And journalists are morons.
Re:Not mutually exclusive. (Score:4, Informative)
I like to try to stay reasonably well-informed relative to the general population, but I still needed about 2 hours of looking up summary articles and digging through wikipedia entries to make any goddamn sense of what was actually discovered, and what importance it has to progress in physics research. My highschool science classes never discussed anything below the atomic level. I had absolutely no awareness of where the Higgs Boson was theoretically supposed to fit into the "Standard Model" since I'd never even heard of the Standard Model either.
Pretty sure the vast majority of the population still has no clue what the Higgs Boson hullaballoo entails. It's easy for misinformation to propagate on this subject because the audience has virtually no context.
Re:Where were they? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-18712238 [bbc.co.uk]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7955846.stm [bbc.co.uk]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00tt7kb/World_Have_Your_Say_WHYS_60_Is_there_room_for_Higgs_Boson_and_Religion/ [bbc.co.uk]
Re:God particle (Score:5, Informative)
It wasn't the decision of the physicists. Leon Lederman originally wanted to title his book [wikipedia.org] the goddamn particle, but the publisher wouldn't allow it.
Peter Higgs [wikipedia.org] isn't happy with the name either.
Slashdot editors could do the world service by revising the name to its original whenever it appears here. Perhaps the rest of the world will pick up on the change.
Re:Because Lederman nicknamed it "the god particle (Score:4, Informative)
I wish I has karma to give you, as I was coming to say the same thing.
The wikipedia entry [wikipedia.org] on the Higgs Boson has some quotes from the author who nicknamed the Higgs Boson "the god particle":
While use of this term may have contributed to increased media interest, many scientists dislike it, since it is sensational and overstates the particle's importance. Its discovery would still leave unanswered questions about the unification of quantum chromodynamics, the electroweak interaction, and gravity, as well as the ultimate origin of the universe. Higgs, an atheist himself, is displeased that the Higgs particle is nicknamed the "God particle", because the term "might offend people who are religious".
Lederman said he gave it a nickname because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive," and added that he chose "the God particle" because "the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing."
I understand he did it so his book had a catchy title, but the media decided to go crazy when talking about it. Sure, it's a big discovery to physicists and understanding how our universe works, it really shouldn't be receiving the coverage it's getting. There is just too many ignorant reporters trying to explain something, which is creating a lot of mis-information.
Re:Two words (Score:4, Informative)
I don't read most science journalism anymore. It's too infuriating. Following the exploration of the Higgs particle, I've going to Professor Matt Strassler's blog http://profmattstrassler.com/ [profmattstrassler.com] where he has gone over a good many of the issues in reasonably easy to follow language. Since he's at CERN, he's well placed to write sensible articles on the matter.
Re:Where were they? (Score:4, Informative)
"Or was this an American news thing?"
If you RTFA, you'll see that the first two examples cited were from Canada's National Post and the BBC.
Well sure, but had he RTFA'd, he wouldn't have gotten to do any American-bashing, now would he?
Not sure which is worse: AC's who only post anti-American nonsense, or the idiots who mod such posts Insightful... Hating on Americans must be trending.
Re:Seriously. Check out this crazy: (Score:4, Informative)
It was in the Opinion section, written by a prolific satirist [wikipedia.org]. Can't take a joke, can you?
Re:Not mutually exclusive. (Score:5, Informative)
That's why lots of sites had articles like this. [theatlantic.com]
If you ignored the obvious idiot sites, I thought the general reaction to the Higgs Boson was pretty good. Idiot sites like ABC, CBC, MSNBC and CNN.