Why Science Can’t Replace Religion

[Jim__]

96. Believing in the Higgs boson is fundamentally different than believing in electrons because ...

... tests for the existence of electrons are easily repeatable - meaning just about anyone can do the tests and see the evidence. Evidence for the Higgs boson? You need to understand the theory (the math) to even understand what's going on - which of course was Sarewitz' point.

Lily Asquith works on data from the LHC. Here's ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/life-and-physics/2012/jun/22/higgs-boson-particlephysics ) a bit of what she has to say about the Higgs boson:

...

But, it is not capable of directly observing the Higgs boson. We can't take a picture of this thing: no detector can. The Higgs boson's existence is fleeting: it is given the opportunity of existence by the high collision energy of the proton beams in the LHC, and the instant it finds itself in existence, it decays.

...

When we talk about any "fundamental" particle such as the Higgs, the reason for its decay is actually much more simple. Such a particle is not an 'object' in the sense we usually imagine, I think it is more accurately described as a 'possibility'. The question of 'what is real?' is one that I have avoided whole-heartedly since a particularly bad headache I had about three years ago, but a very general idea is that we can't describe anything without some well-defined properties, and in particle physics these properties are quantum numbers. A set of quantum numbers, combined with some additional information, gives you a descriptive quantity called a wavefunction, which completely describes a state of "matter" in its most fundamental form. The decay of a particle such as the Higgs CAN happen if its wavefunction is identical to the combined wavefunction of two other particles. It is always two: it must be because of the possible configurations of the quantum numbers.

...

So, the Higgs boson "is" also a pair of Z or W bosons, a pair of photons, or a pair of quarks or leptons. We cannot predict whether a single Higgs will decay to a pair of photons or to a pair of something else, we can only give a probability of each decay type.

...

We don't directly observe electrons, but we, anyone, can easily put together the tests that demonstrate their existence. The Higgs boson? Even particle physicists cannot directly observe it, or the evidence for its existence. They observe statistical anomalies that indicate it may have decayed.