Most other science journalists are now head-over-heels with reporting a 100% discovery.

So they are still not yet  near the 5 Sigma level of discovery, correct?

I am surprised at the enthusiasm in their announcements, because the actual theorized particle may not be the one that is indicated in their data “bumps”.

Am I correct in understanding what I’ve read on BBC news?

Every time I see a news article with the words “PROOF” and “GOD” in the headlines I feel like throwing up.

http://i.qkme.me/3pyvo8.jpg

And keep ghifting the good ghift!

So it really is a misnomer, and one that Higgs considers offensive to the religious.

As a non-science type, I assumed this would be common knowledge here at the Boing Boings. Am I wrong?

Considering how insanely expensive this research is, how hard to understand it is, and how it doesn’t really have any short-term consequences, this is an enormous success for scientific outreach and I think it actually bodes well for the future of science funding. 

But I do agree that it’s going to be hard to top the excitement surrounding this. Of course, all scientists in hard to understand or simply not glamorous fields deal with that every day and eventually most still get a reasonable amount of funding (though not as much as they’d like).

Evidently it’s used because it’s more readable by dyslexics (according to a comment I read sometime earlier somewhere, perhaps from CERN)

It’s been spun as THE fundamental particle, but it’s not really. And now, how do we convince governments to keep research going?

That’s easy — tell them you’ve come up with a way to turn it into a weapon.

http://www.havewefoundthehiggsyet.com/

For the actual press conference at CERN:

http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1459604

(the questions from the non-science journal reporters are really funny. Plus there are two great metaphors explaining the Higgs field: one as a field of snow, and the other as a room full of reporters.)

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

It’s been spun as THE fundamental particle, but it’s not really. And now, how do we convince governments to keep research going?

There are reasons to continue looking for other particles (you never know what you will find), but really, it is possibly the last major particle that will be found. The only other outstanding major particle is the graviton, which would probably require a detector larger than the Earth (and it is said the neutrino shielding would be massive enough to collapse into a black hole). The other way to study the graviton is with gravitational waves. This is probably where the major physics funding should go now.

To be fair, getting some conclusive evidence on the supersymmetry theories is also a good area of research.

2.  “God” particle was coined by a nobel-prize-winning scientist, so they started it.

3.  Why scientists wouldn’t want to reap the benefits of such a successful PR campaign   is completely beyond me – even Mitt Romney could understand and fund a “god” particle.