A Big Bang in Science

Let's make this perfectly clear: I claim to have no actual knowledge of astrophysics.  In fact, I never even took Physics in high school or college.  Pretty much everything I know about the subject I've learned from watching Eureka, Stargate or The Big Bang Theory.  That being said, I am totally engrossed in the news coming out of Geneva this week.

Earlier this week, at the European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN), the largest particle-physics lab in the world, scientists shared that they were 99% sure they discovered the Higgs-Boson particle.  The Higgs-Boson is also known as the "God particle".  As far as I can deduce (I told you I wasn't a physicist), this particle, which scientists have been searching for for decades, proves that matter exists.  If this is in fact the Higgs-Boson, then all other theories of the universe will remain true.  Clear as mud, right?  A few years ago when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) made the news at CERN, I was equally impressed. I can't even fathom what it's like to work at a facility where conducting an experiment could result in the end of the world (According to myth, the LHC was trying to recreate the Big Bang and when they succeeded the world could have ended just like it did during the first bang). How fascinating is that?!  Of course, it would have been a whole lot less fascinating had the world actually ended, I'm sure.

I'm not even sure why it's so captivating.  I think it's one of those things that's so astronomically hard to understand that you (well at least, I) can't help being intrigued.  I have so many questions flying through my head.  Matter exists since we're here: why do we need a particle to prove it?  How does one build a machine that's so large, to smash together things that are so small?  How in God's name do you isolate things that are so small?  How do you decide to study one of the most confusing subjects in the world?  And most importantly: How in the world do you know you've found what you're looking for when you find it??

Maybe, instead of looking for Cary Grant-ish, I should be looking for Sheldon Cooper-ish...