The Goddamn Particle
The Goddamn Particleâthat is, the âHiggs Bosonâ that functions as the glue holding our material reality togetherâwas finally discovered in July a dozen years ago. Leon Lederman famously referred to the Higgs as the âGoddamn Particle,â but his publisher resisted the moniker and pushed him to name his book âThe God Particleâ instead. As Lederman put it, ââWe managed to offend two groups, those that believed in god and those that didnât. We were warmly received by those in the middle.ââ Watch the conversation between Janna Levin and physicists Sean Carroll and Melissa Franklin that details how the particle keeps our theories hanging together, and why a multi-billion dollar machine was built in Switzerland just to find it. âŠ
Scientific Controversies brings together two scientists in conversation to explore unsolved quandaries. The focus is on ideas and the unknown, the precipice between where we are now and where we imagine the future will bring us.