This is a longer reading to give you practice identifying particular details in a text.
Before reading: you’ll find this reading easier if you’ve already watched TED Talk on the Large Hadron Collider, in the Media section of this unit.
Before reading: discuss these questions with your partner / group:
- Can you think of any recent scientific discoveries?
- Which scientific discovery has most affected your life?
- Why do you think scientists work so hard to discover facts about the universe?
- Should science be about gaining knowledge, or trying to improve people’s lives?
Quickly skim through the article. As you read try to work out the answer to this question:
Why does the headline refer to the discovery of a missing particle as ‘unofficial’?
Higgs boson: it’s unofficial! CERN scientists discover missing particle
Ian Sample 4 July, 2012
[1] In every scientist’s life, there is a time when the evidence can no longer be ignored. That moment has now arrived for physicists at CERN, near Geneva, home of the Large Hadron Collider. They have announced that there is now clear evidence of the existence of the extremely important Higgs boson particle, the particle that led to the greatest hunt in modern science.
[2] The leaders of two independent research teams gave presentations to a crowded auditorium. They said they had seen a new particle among the microscopic flashes created inside the world’s most powerful atom collider. They did not claim official discovery of the Higgs boson, although many physicists say the evidence is now so strong that they have surely found the missing particle.
[3] Formal confirmation of the discovery will probably happen soon, though it could take several years for scientists to know whether they have found the simplest kind of Higgs particle or something more complex: for example, one particle from a larger group of Higgs bosons. The discovery of more than one kind of Higgs particle would open up a completely new area of physics.
[4] The particle, which is unlike any other known to exist, was suggested in 1964. The search for the particle has taken decades and occupied thousands of researchers from tens of countries. For some, this has been their life’s work.
[5] Scientists at CERN will be happy they made the discovery before the machine is stopped for almost two years at the end of 2012, when engineers make changes so that the accelerator can work at its full design energy. The discovery of the Higgs particle is one of the most important scientific advances of the past 100 years. It proves there is an invisible energy field that covers the vacuum of the universe. It is thought that this field gives mass to the smallest bits of matter, the quarks and electrons that form atoms. Without the field, or something like it, there would be no planets, stars or life as we know it.
[6] Peter Higgs at Edinburgh University was the first to say, in 1964, that a new particle, the boson, was produced by the mass-giving field. That was a very important step, because it gave scientists something to look for in their experiments. Peter Higgs said: “I am very surprised at how quickly we found these results. I never expected this to happen in my lifetime.”
[7] According to the theory, all of the particles in the newborn universe were without mass and moved at the speed of light. But one trillionth of a second after the big bang, the Higgs field switched on, turning the vacuum of space into a kind of cosmic glue.
[8] Some particles feel the Higgs field more than others. The quarks that form atomic nuclei feel a lot of drag from the field, and become heavy. Others, such as electrons, feel less drag and become much less heavy. Particles of light, called photons, feel no drag at all, and so remain without mass and keep moving at the speed of light.
[9] To find the Higgs particle, physicists at CERN examined the results of more than 1,000 trillion proton collisions inside the Large Hadron Collider. Occasionally, these collisions might create a Higgs boson, which immediately disintegrates into more familiar particles. To identify the boson, the scientists have to look for unusual excesses of the particles it disintegrates into, which appear as bumps in their data.
[10] At the end of the announcement, the audience cheered, clapped and whistled. Jeff Forshaw, a physicist at Manchester University, said: “This is sensational news and really brilliant science. Without doubt, CERN has delivered us a new particle that looks like the Higgs boson, which is absolutely central to our understanding of how the universe works at its most basic level. I have waited over 20 years for this moment and am very happy with the news. The excitement will continue now, as we all try to learn how this thing behaves.
Guardian News & Media 2011 First published in The Guardian, 04/07/12
Exercise
Please open the exercise to continue.