God particle discovery excites scientists

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The scientific world is buzzing with one of the biggest physics discoveries in years. Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva announced today that they've pinned down the long-searched-for sub-atomic particle called the Higgs boson.

If you're like me, you're maybe a bit challenged when it comes to physics theories. You probably have no idea what that means. Somebody who does understand though is Professor Geoffrey Taylor. He leads Australia's research contribution to that Geneva project. He joined me moments ago from a science conference in Melbourne where the announcement was made.

Professor Taylor, just before coming on air I saw somebody Tweet, "Anyone got an English explanation for the Higgs boson discovery? I'm excited, but I don't know why." Can you help us out, Professor Taylor. What does this mean?

GEOFFREY TAYLOR, PHYSICIST, UNI. OF MELBOURNE: Well, the experimentalists and the theorists in the theatre that I've just come out of are also very excited, which is uncharacteristic of physicists. But - so I have to step back a little bit to give you some background. The standard model, a so-called standard model of particles that make up our universe and their interactions has been with us for 20, 30, 40 years now and has been almost unbreakable. We experimentalists have been running to try and find a chink in the armour of the standard model for all this time. It's been a very successful theory, but there are missing ingredients. And tonight, the Higgs boson has - is the final ingredient which has been found now.

LEIGH SALES: So to give those of us who aren't physicists a sense of the importance of this discovery, can you compare it to some other famous scientific breakthroughs that we might have heard of?

GEOFFREY TAYLOR: Yes, it's a massive step for us because it's a very unusual particle. It's not just another run-of-the-mill particle from the zoo of particles that have been discovered over the years. It's - it really - it's a new field which - so it really compares with understanding the electromagnetic field, which is absolutely fundamental to our modern lives.

LEIGH SALES: Absolutely - mobile phones, satellites, all those sorts of things. What might be the ... ?

GEOFFREY TAYLOR: Absolutely. Which we're not - they were not foreseen of course when the electromagnetic models were developed.

LEIGH SALES: So, does that mean it's possible to foresee what might be some of the applications from this discovery or not?

GEOFFREY TAYLOR: Well, by example, when the electromagnetic theory was developed, nobody knew what would come from it, so - and we're in that situation now. This has been a massive intellectual step for us, a very, very challenging experiment to come to grips with whether the Higgs particle exists or not. As for its practical applications, that's really something for the future.

LEIGH SALES: Some people call this the God particle. Why is that?

GEOFFREY TAYLOR: Well it gets lots of press. If I tell you the real reason for it, it's not quite as lofty. It was called the "God damn particle" 'cause it was so hard to find, and - but with the title the God damn particle the publishers weren't going to publish Leon Lehman's books so it was toned down to the God particle and the name has stuck ever since. But it does have some very important properties, probably not as strong as a God though.

LEIGH SALES: Well does it change people's theories about the universe or the way the universe started?

GEOFFREY TAYLOR: It narrows it down. Not necessarily the way it started, but the way that it evolved in that first fraction of a second of the universe. It gives us a tighter platform from - for which to go even further and to probe the universe even more. So we've raised the level of the foundations of our understanding now with this very important discovery. And so from this higher level, we can go further in probing even deeper questions like what's the nature of dark matter, what is - are there additional symmetries of nature, additional forces? Are there more than three space dimensions? So, as I said, it gives us a stronger base from which to ask these questions. It narrows down the range of possibilities.

LEIGH SALES: So now that this mystery is solved, is there another Holy Grail for physicists?

GEOFFREY TAYLOR: I suspect the one which is really hard to get to is gravity at the quantum scale, so gravity is - at the very smallest scale. But already by going to this understanding of the standard model, it gives us a better feeling for new types of fields. We're still a long way from quantum gravity, but that's probably the Holy Grail - to bring that into an understanding on the same par as electromagnetism and the weak interaction.

LEIGH SALES: Well you can work on that now that we've got this God damn particle. Professor Taylor, thank you very much.

GEOFFREY TAYLOR: Thank you, Leigh.

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3539090.htm?WT.svl=transcripts