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Math

Has the Higgs Boson Particle Field Been Hiding in Plain Sight? 163

Posted by Zonk from the it-blinded-us-with-science dept.
sciencehabit writes with a link to the ScienceNow site, noting an article saying the Higgs boson may already have been found in previous observations of the known universe. A theorist at Michigan state is arguing that scientists may have already found evidence for the elusive particle. The key appears to be that the particles that make up the Higgs field are of various 'strengths', and some of those particles may tug on others very weakly. "The lightest Higgs can be very light indeed, but it would not have been seen at [CERN's Large Electron-Positron (LEP)], because LEP experimenters were looking for an energetic collision that made a Z that then spit out a Higgs. That wouldn't happen very often if the lightest Higgs and the Z hardly interact. 'Just within the simplest supersymmetric model, there's still room for Higgs that is missed,' Yuan says. However, this lightweight Higgs is not exactly the Higgs everyone is looking for, says Marcela Carena, a theorist at Fermilab. 'The Higgs they are talking about is not the one responsible for giving mass to the W and Z,' she says. It can't be because it hardly interacts with those particles, Carena says. Indeed, in Yuan's model, the role of mass-giver falls to one of the heavier Higgses, which is still heavier than the LEP limit, she notes."

Comment Not Very Pretty (Score 2, Insightful) 371

by dirkdidit (#21779196) Attached to: High Efficiency Hybrid Car Planned For 2009
I don't know what it is about these cars of tomorrow, but they do not look attractive at all. Apparently the people who buy these cars feel like they need to announce to the world that they just bought an overly expensive golf-cart all under the guise of saving the planet.

When are we going to see high-range electric cars that don't look like something out a bad video game?
Operating Systems

Vista Vs. Gutsy Gibbon 806

Posted by kdawson from the difference-in-philosophy dept.
ricegf writes in with the account of one Rupert Goodwins writing in ZDNet UK. Goodwins has 7 computers running various versions of Windows and Linux, and explains why he chooses to do most of his work on the Gibbon. "So here's the funny thing. I've used Windows since 1.0. I've lived through the bad times of Windows/386 and ME, and the good times of NT 3.51 and 2K. I know XP if not backwards, then with a degree of familiarity that only middle-aged co-dependents can afford each other... Then how come I'm so much more at home with Ubuntu than Vista? It boils down to one abiding impression: Ubuntu goes out of its way to get out of your way... Vista goes out of its way to be Vista and enforce the Vista way."

Comment another step in the wrong direction (Score 4, Interesting) 498

by lightdarkness (#11335482) Attached to: G4 Drops TechTV Name
Obviously G4 didn't learn anything when they lost most of their fan base. G4 buying Tech TV was the worst thing to happen in ages.

Now they are going further away from the right thing. Getting rid of more shows, and adding lame ones.

It's still my hope that the old TechTV crew will start their own network, that would be awesome. G4 has ruined everything they ever made me believe in (TechTV that is).
User Journal

Journal Journal: Oh nose!

Journal by lightdarkness
Gah, kinda worried right now. I submitted a story to /., and it's the first time I feel like it should be posted, but i'm kinda worried. I put my website as the contact, and if it does get posted, i'm afraid the server will crash. I have been looking over what I wrote now, and I'm thinking it will be rejected because it was poorly written. Not content, but just how I worded things. Oh well, out of my hands now.

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