Simon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Alex
>
> Alex Smart Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > "Well they are trying to find the Higgs..."
> >
> > No, I'm not even thinking of asking you what
> that
> > is about
> >
>
> Too late Its the particle they rekon gives mass
> to everything. But no one has ever seen it
> despite spending millions trying. Whenever they
> don't find it, someone says - "We must have been
> looking in the wrong place"... in other words it
> must be heavier or lighter than they thought. But
> if the Higgs gives other particles mass - then
> what gives the Higgs mass ???

I know you have a problem with the Higgs particle. Actually what gives particles their mass (including the Higgs boson) is their interaction with the Higgs field. Thus it is NOT one particle giving mass to others but the interaction of particles with an energy field.
Lincoln, pp 224-235. I've recommended this book before Don Lincoln. 2004. *Understanding the Universe from Quarks to Cosmos* London: World Scientific.


>
> The funny thing is they call it the "God Particle"
> because if it does exist it supports their
> standard way of seeing things. That says more
> about them than about the theory IMO...
>
>
> >
> > Thinking of paradoxes such as Granny snuffing
> it
> > before your parent is born. I recall reading
> about
> > something called a tachyon (spelling?) that
> has
> > (or should that be 'had'?) quote: "the
> conceptual
> > difficulty of disappearing before it
> exists".
> > Fun, isn't it... he said, reaching for the
> aspirin
> > bottle, again...
>
>
> Well the tachyon is again something no body has
> any idea whether or not it exists. The golden
> fleece kind of thing
>
>
> >
> > Now, be fair. DVC wasn't that bad. Sadly have
> to
> > agree with you re my hero, Dirk. I think it's
> time
> > he quietly retired...
>
> The only one I read with Dirk was Atlantis Found
> which I was recommended by my father but it really
> wasn't my kind of thing. I like escapism James
> Bond/Wilbut Smith type of fantasy but when
> everything works just in time - usually because
> the badies were either outrageously unlucky or
> stupid or both, it gets a bit much for me. Still
> I read it to the end and there have been a few
> novels I really couldn't be bothered to finish so
> it must have had something going for it
>
>
> > I know this is the Science & Technology
> Board
> > (apologies to Kat )but, ever so briefly, if
> you
> > like fantasy, give David Gemmel a try. Like
> so
> > many authors these days his recent stuff is
> rather
> > repetitive, but his earlier efforts are
> rather
> > good.
> >
>
>
> I haven't heard of him but will keep it in mind -
> what do you mean by fantasy ? I'm actually
> reading Bernard Cornwalls "The Grail Quest" right
> now as an antidote to all the people reading the
> Da Vinci code Next on the list of novels will
> probably be the new Boudica that I see it out.
>
> Simon