Many of us born after 1970 mourn, among other things, never getting to see Elvis perform. Perhaps that’s why earlier this week bloggers began excitedly reporting that artist Koby Barhad had used DNA taken from Elvis’ hair to clone Elvis mice. Elvis mice! In 21 mouse years would they suddenly begin composing “Heartbreak Hotel?”
We humans dream of changing the world, of leaving marks in the annals of time for a bolt of insight or hard-won accomplishment. Yet some go down in history for strange, unexpected, even unwanted deeds. Certainly prehistoric Americans living in Oregon never thought that in the year 2012 they would become famous for dropping their guts in a cave.
It’s not every day that scientists discover a particle, or that Steven Hawking loses a physics-related bet. But today history was made: scientists at CERN laboratories announced they have uncovered a brand new particle. And it resembles the highly-theorized Higgs boson particle, which, if found, would complete the Standard Model of particle physics and answer questions about the fundamental laws of the universe.
Oh, and Steven Hawking, who bet Michigan University’s Gordon Kane that the Higgs boson particle would not be discovered, is out $100 today.
But what exactly is the Higgs boson particle?
