1 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:08,800 Speaker 1: It's very natural in physics to describe the unknown in 2 00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:11,559 Speaker 1: terms of the known, and so we understand like grains 3 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:14,080 Speaker 1: of sand and tiny rocks and this stuff. So when 4 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:15,680 Speaker 1: we think of particles, we like to think of them 5 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: as tiny little balls of stuff. But they're not balls 6 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:20,760 Speaker 1: of stuff because they have no space to them. So 7 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 1: then if they don't have space to them, how can 8 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:25,360 Speaker 1: they have stuff to them? Because we think of mass 9 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: is being stuff. Right, Like, I'm made up of all 10 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:30,680 Speaker 1: the particles in me, and I have mass because of 11 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,360 Speaker 1: all those particles having mass, I'm like the sum of 12 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:46,960 Speaker 1: all those particles. I am Jorge, and I'm Daniel. Welcome 13 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: to Daniel and Jorge. Explained the universe. Explain the universe. 14 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:54,520 Speaker 1: The universe. Explain the universe, the whole universe. People. That's 15 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:57,320 Speaker 1: the topic of this podcast today. We're gonna be asking 16 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:03,920 Speaker 1: the question what is the Higgs boson? What is the 17 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,080 Speaker 1: Higgs boson? After all? Yeah, it turns out it's a 18 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,160 Speaker 1: really important particle, right, Daniel, that's right. It cost US 19 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:12,679 Speaker 1: ten billion dollars to build the LHC and find the 20 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:15,120 Speaker 1: Higgs boson. Good thing, we found it. A good thing. 21 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: We found it. And actually I was kind of disappointed 22 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:21,320 Speaker 1: when we found it, but we can get into that later. Um, 23 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 1: But the Higgs boson is a big discovery. Yeah, and 24 00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:26,840 Speaker 1: it's very important because it's it's like what keeps everything together. 25 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: We wouldn't be here without the Higgs boson, that's right. 26 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: We wouldn't be here without photons or ws or z's 27 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 1: or Higgs boson. It all comes together in the beautiful 28 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:36,959 Speaker 1: symphony of particles that make up our universe. Right. But 29 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 1: it's sort of the most recently discovered particle and in 30 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:41,280 Speaker 1: lots of ways, the weirdest. So we thought it'd be 31 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:43,560 Speaker 1: fun to talk about and actually break it down, like 32 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:46,480 Speaker 1: what is the Higgs boson? After all? But before we 33 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 1: jump into it, Um, I thought i'd be cool to 34 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 1: talk about how this is. The Higgs boson is actually 35 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:53,640 Speaker 1: sort of how we started working together. That's right. That 36 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:55,920 Speaker 1: was our first date. Right, let's talk about the Higgs boson. 37 00:01:55,960 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: That's right. We met on physics. Tender, physics plus cartoonists tender. No, 38 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:04,440 Speaker 1: but you're right, it's unusual for physicists and cartoonists to 39 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: spend this much time talking about science, So let's tell 40 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 1: them how that started. Yeah. So I'm a cartoonist. I 41 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: draw something called PhD comics, and I've been doing that 42 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:16,080 Speaker 1: for a long time on the Internet, and then one 43 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:18,240 Speaker 1: day I just get this email from this physicist at 44 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: the University of California at Irvine saying, hey, jor hey, 45 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:24,480 Speaker 1: I would like to pay you too and commission you 46 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 1: to draw some comics about the Higgs boson. And is 47 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: that the first time a physicists had ever cold emailed you? 48 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 1: That was the first time a physicist has offered to 49 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:38,079 Speaker 1: pay me, to be honest, So I was like, what 50 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 1: you want to pay me? What is that about? But 51 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:43,519 Speaker 1: I thought was that was pretty cool. It seemed like 52 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: it's kind of something I was needing. And you know, 53 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:47,920 Speaker 1: I had been seeing a lot of the buzz about 54 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: the Higgs boson and the search for the Higgs boson 55 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:52,200 Speaker 1: a few years ago, and so I was really intrigued 56 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: about about what it was. I wanted to learn more 57 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:56,760 Speaker 1: about it, and so I said, yeah, let's let's make 58 00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: something that explains what the Higgs boson is. Yeah, and 59 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: I've been reading all the buzz about the Higgs boson 60 00:03:01,919 --> 00:03:04,880 Speaker 1: and I thought, man, this is all buzz and no reality. 61 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: You know, there's so much writing about the Higgs boson. 62 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,359 Speaker 1: That's just like throws together a bunch of important sounding words, 63 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,520 Speaker 1: which doesn't actually explain it. And right, I felt like 64 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: there was this gap where we weren't really digging into 65 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:19,160 Speaker 1: it and communicating with the public what it was actually like. 66 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: And I was hoping, you know, something visual would work. Yeah, 67 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,919 Speaker 1: it's like people are sort of afraid of getting too 68 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: far into it, right, Like nobody wanted to touch kind 69 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:31,640 Speaker 1: of the serious mechanics and how it was, how it was, 70 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:33,520 Speaker 1: how you guys were looking for it. Yeah, and a 71 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 1: lot of it was sort of poetic writing. You know, 72 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: there's things like in the New York Times when they 73 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 1: say that scientists have revealed the deepest layer of reality 74 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: humans have ever probed, and like, I mean, this is 75 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:46,120 Speaker 1: my field. I don't even know what that means, Like 76 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: what like where what is that guy smoking? And where 77 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:53,640 Speaker 1: can I get some You're like poetry? So you're actually 78 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: one of the scientists who worked on Like you're you're 79 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,960 Speaker 1: like one of the one a couple of thousand physicists 80 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:03,040 Speaker 1: that worked on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. That's right, Yeah, 81 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:06,040 Speaker 1: there's several thousand of us all collaborating at this collider 82 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:10,040 Speaker 1: and the detectors surrounding the collision points, and we all 83 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: work together to make this project happen, all right, So 84 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: you reach out to me, and so we we created 85 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:19,919 Speaker 1: this video called the Higgs Boson explained. The Higgs theory 86 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:22,440 Speaker 1: starts with this. Imagine a field that for me, it's 87 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 1: the entire universe, and every particle UH feels this field 88 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,360 Speaker 1: is affected by this field in different amounts. So some 89 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:31,839 Speaker 1: particles are really slowed down by interaction to this field, 90 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:34,840 Speaker 1: like you know, swimming through molasses, and other particles hardly 91 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 1: feel it. So the ones that hardly feel it, they 92 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 1: have a small mass. The ones that are really affected 93 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:43,480 Speaker 1: by the couple strongly to this field are slowed down 94 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:45,600 Speaker 1: a lot. They have large mass. So you've turned the 95 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:47,760 Speaker 1: question of why do particles have different masses into a 96 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: different question why do particles feel the Higgs field differently? 97 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:53,800 Speaker 1: But there is one manifestation of the field is the 98 00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: existence of this particle. Yeah, that's right. You were at 99 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:00,400 Speaker 1: CERN and we sat down to the cafeteria and just 100 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:03,720 Speaker 1: talked about physics for hours and hours, and you recorded it, 101 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:07,200 Speaker 1: and it recorded like hours of conversation then edited down 102 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:09,000 Speaker 1: to a few minutes to make me sound really sharp. 103 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:11,920 Speaker 1: Thanks thanks for that, by the way, I was trying 104 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:15,440 Speaker 1: to make you sound poltic. Um. So yeah. So then 105 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:17,600 Speaker 1: we put it out there and it was super popular, 106 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,560 Speaker 1: and then they discovered the Higgs boson actually, and then 107 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:22,800 Speaker 1: the video went viral, like millions and millions of people 108 00:05:22,839 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: saw this video and um, and it was amazing. It 109 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:28,640 Speaker 1: was great, and people were saying, like like the New 110 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 1: York Times and CBS News, all these places were saying, 111 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:34,719 Speaker 1: this is the clearest and easiest to understand explanation of 112 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:36,800 Speaker 1: what the Higgs boson was. And so you might ask, 113 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: since we put out that video, has everybody now just 114 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 1: everybody understand the Higgs boson? How well have we succeeded 115 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,240 Speaker 1: in explaining the Higgs boson people in that short video. Well, 116 00:05:47,279 --> 00:05:49,760 Speaker 1: I think the video is up to like three million 117 00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:52,920 Speaker 1: views or something, so we've reached at least three million people, 118 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:56,800 Speaker 1: that's right. Well, I went out on campus and asked 119 00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:59,599 Speaker 1: random people. I walked into what is the Higgs boson? 120 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: Do you know what it is? Do you care about it? 121 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:03,920 Speaker 1: What do you understand about it? And here's what they 122 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:07,840 Speaker 1: had to say. Have you heard of the Higgs boson. Yes, 123 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:12,359 Speaker 1: it's a particle. I have no idea. No, it's a 124 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 1: sub potomic particle. Alright, So it sort of seems like 125 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:19,560 Speaker 1: maybe everyone has sort of heard about it. Everyone has 126 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: heard about the Higgs boson. That's right. The buzz has 127 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:25,000 Speaker 1: succeeded in at least convincing people that the Higgs is 128 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:30,520 Speaker 1: a thing. Good brand management there, brand exactly if we 129 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:33,640 Speaker 1: could only copyright that or something. Yes, so people know 130 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:35,760 Speaker 1: the Higgs is a thing. Some people call it, say 131 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:38,719 Speaker 1: it's a particle, but that's really about it. That's like 132 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,760 Speaker 1: the level of knowledge that's penetrated sort of the cultural 133 00:06:41,839 --> 00:06:45,119 Speaker 1: zeitgeist into people's minds. The Higgs is a particle. People 134 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,200 Speaker 1: have found it, That's what's the thing, Right, It's a 135 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:50,400 Speaker 1: Nobody seemed to know what it was or what it 136 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:54,280 Speaker 1: was for. Yeah, nobody said anything about how it's responsible 137 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:56,799 Speaker 1: for giving particles mass, or the meaning of the discovery, 138 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:59,560 Speaker 1: or why it's significant or anything like that. So from 139 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:01,920 Speaker 1: that point of you, I think UM science has done 140 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:04,040 Speaker 1: a good job and telling people what they found, But 141 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:06,840 Speaker 1: I'm not sure that we've really succeeded in explaining what 142 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: is the Higgs boson? Why is it interesting? So that's 143 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: why we thought it would be a good episode for 144 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:14,040 Speaker 1: this podcast. So it's like, you've done a good job 145 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 1: of telling people that you're doing your job and the 146 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:20,000 Speaker 1: job is important, but don't don't really ask is what's 147 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:24,600 Speaker 1: going on? That's about as far as we've gone. No, 148 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:26,520 Speaker 1: I'm happy to talk to people about it. That's why 149 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:29,480 Speaker 1: we're here. Yeah, that's right, that's what so tell us, Uh, well, 150 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:31,600 Speaker 1: what is the Higgs boson? What is it for? What 151 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,840 Speaker 1: is it for? Well, um, the Higgs boson is a particle, right, 152 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:37,280 Speaker 1: and we have we're familiar with lots of particles, you know, 153 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:41,440 Speaker 1: electrons and corks and other larger particles like protons and 154 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:44,520 Speaker 1: neutrons and most of the particles in our everyday world. 155 00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: They're the things that make up matter, you know, electrons 156 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:49,480 Speaker 1: and these corks make up the stuff that we're made 157 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:53,320 Speaker 1: out of the stuff. We're made of stuff. And one 158 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:56,120 Speaker 1: mystery we always wondered about was like, how do these 159 00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:59,920 Speaker 1: particles have mass? How do these particles weigh anything? You know, 160 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 1: how do these particles have any stuff to them? What 161 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: do you mean, like, why do they have mass? What 162 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:08,240 Speaker 1: does that even mean? To just wonder if something has mass? Well, 163 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 1: it's interesting because you think about these particles and mathematically 164 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: we think of these particles as just points in space 165 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 1: like dots, like zero volume, Like how big is the electron. 166 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:22,760 Speaker 1: People have some fuzzy ways to calculate electron size, you know, 167 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:26,240 Speaker 1: the electron radius, using like the photons that's surrounded, but 168 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: at its core, the electron itself is zero volume point 169 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:32,760 Speaker 1: in space. And I always thought that's weird. So it's 170 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:36,400 Speaker 1: not like a basketball. Like a basketball, you can put 171 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 1: it down and it had it goes from like here 172 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:41,600 Speaker 1: to here, and it has a surface to it, right, 173 00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: has an extent exactly, basketball has an extent. One side 174 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:46,840 Speaker 1: of it is not the same place as the other 175 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 1: side of it. Right this you can measure its length 176 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:51,600 Speaker 1: and its width and its height exactly has a volume. 177 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: But electrons and point particles are not like that. They're 178 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:58,280 Speaker 1: not like that. Two different particles can have different masses, 179 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,280 Speaker 1: but they're both the same side, is right. So if 180 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:03,439 Speaker 1: you if you're thinking, oh, are these particles all made 181 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 1: it out of some sort of like basic universe stuff 182 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:08,400 Speaker 1: and one of them is a bigger spoonful than the 183 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:12,040 Speaker 1: other one, will know they're both zero size spoonfuls. So 184 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:14,520 Speaker 1: that just can't explain why one has more mass than 185 00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 1: the other. And but it can't explain why either one 186 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:19,520 Speaker 1: has any mass, because there's no room for stuff in 187 00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:25,320 Speaker 1: there anyway, right, there's no like, um, there's no more 188 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:27,720 Speaker 1: of something in one of them and more or less 189 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:31,439 Speaker 1: of something in the other. There's just no there's nothing, 190 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:33,720 Speaker 1: there's no stuff to it. And so that was a 191 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:35,839 Speaker 1: big mystery. That was a big mystery, like how did 192 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:39,200 Speaker 1: these particles get mass exactly? Yeah, let's talk about that, 193 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:54,560 Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break. I think it's 194 00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:57,400 Speaker 1: in the end more natural to think about the mass 195 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:00,200 Speaker 1: these particles not as the amount of tiny unit her 196 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: stuff in them, but just like a label. Right, Like 197 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: you think about the electron. You know the electron is 198 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,720 Speaker 1: negative charge, but you don't worry like where in the 199 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:11,600 Speaker 1: electron is that negative charge? Is there room to put 200 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:13,520 Speaker 1: that charge in the electron? You don't think about that 201 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: or worry about that, the same way you think about mass. 202 00:10:16,559 --> 00:10:19,760 Speaker 1: Mass is just a label for particles. We don't understand 203 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:21,760 Speaker 1: really what these particles things are. What we think of 204 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:26,120 Speaker 1: them as points in space with a set of labels, spin, mass, charge, 205 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:29,720 Speaker 1: all sorts of other interactions and that's basically it. And 206 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:33,920 Speaker 1: so mass isn't like amount of stuff. It's just another label, um, 207 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:36,800 Speaker 1: and it's a label that affects how these particles move. Right, 208 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:39,640 Speaker 1: Mass means inertia means it's harder for it to speed 209 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:42,040 Speaker 1: up and harder for it to slow down, just like 210 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:46,280 Speaker 1: maybe like the electron has negative one electrical charge, and 211 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,560 Speaker 1: maybe like I want to say a prolem, but I 212 00:10:49,559 --> 00:10:51,400 Speaker 1: know persons are made out of quarks, but like one 213 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:55,679 Speaker 1: of the quarks has plus one third allergical charge. That's 214 00:10:55,720 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 1: just like something that is inherent in it. That's right. 215 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:01,200 Speaker 1: In a hundred years, we might have an explanation for that. 216 00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:03,840 Speaker 1: We might have sub corks which are made out of 217 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 1: something else and add up to have the minus one 218 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:08,880 Speaker 1: third charge or the plus two thirds charge or whatever. 219 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:11,840 Speaker 1: We might someday have an explanation for that, but currently 220 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:13,320 Speaker 1: we don't, and so we just think of them as 221 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:17,360 Speaker 1: these point particles. And the Higgs boson explains that that 222 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:20,040 Speaker 1: was the mystery, Right, how can particles have mass? What 223 00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:22,200 Speaker 1: is this thing we call mass for a particle? How 224 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:25,000 Speaker 1: does that even make sense? And the Higgs boson is 225 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:28,440 Speaker 1: part of this larger idea called the Higgs mechanism, which 226 00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:31,720 Speaker 1: includes also the Higgs field, and the Higgs field is 227 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:35,000 Speaker 1: something which permeates all of space. It's just like you know, 228 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:38,200 Speaker 1: the way like electromagnetic fields can you know, fill space. Also, 229 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,080 Speaker 1: they theorize this particle a long time ago, like in 230 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 1: the sixties they said, um, well we have this mystery 231 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: about why some particles have mass, why did they have mass? 232 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:53,800 Speaker 1: So we think we have this theory and this was 233 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:57,160 Speaker 1: down done in the sixties. Yeah, yeah, and so just 234 00:11:57,160 --> 00:11:58,840 Speaker 1: to make sure we finished the explanation of what they 235 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:02,160 Speaker 1: actually Higgs boson is right, sis field the field space 236 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:04,880 Speaker 1: and particles feel this field and if they feel it 237 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:07,880 Speaker 1: really strongly, then it prevents them from speeding up and 238 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:10,760 Speaker 1: slowing down. And that's the same thing as having mass. 239 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:13,680 Speaker 1: That is what having mass means. That means you have inertia. 240 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:17,280 Speaker 1: Inertia is the property of things to resist being slowed 241 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:20,320 Speaker 1: down and the property to resist being sped up. So 242 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:22,920 Speaker 1: interacting with the Higgs field is the same thing as 243 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:25,200 Speaker 1: having mass. So what do you mean like a field, 244 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:28,839 Speaker 1: Like it's just like this thing, this mathematic is it 245 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:32,400 Speaker 1: like a mathematical concept that sucks surrounding us, or it's 246 00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:35,920 Speaker 1: like actually a thing. It's actually a thing. The field 247 00:12:36,040 --> 00:12:38,600 Speaker 1: is actually a thing, like the way an electric field is. Right. 248 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:41,320 Speaker 1: Electric field is a mathematical concept, but it's also a 249 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:43,840 Speaker 1: physical thing. You can measure it um you put an 250 00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:46,679 Speaker 1: electron and electric field, it'll move, so you can see it. Right. 251 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:50,120 Speaker 1: You line up magnetic shavings on a table, you can 252 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:53,440 Speaker 1: see magnetic fields, like your compass sees a magnetic field. Right. 253 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:56,000 Speaker 1: So Higgs field is just like another field, like a 254 00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:59,839 Speaker 1: magnetic field or electric field. Right. But usually in a 255 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:02,280 Speaker 1: like the mechanic field, there's a source, right, like there's 256 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:05,240 Speaker 1: a magnet, or there's like a charge, or there's a 257 00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:08,440 Speaker 1: battery or something like that. But what is like this 258 00:13:08,559 --> 00:13:11,000 Speaker 1: Higgs field is just there. Yeah. And that's one of 259 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:15,480 Speaker 1: the fascinating things about it is that without any particular 260 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:19,000 Speaker 1: localized source, it has some energy to its, some value 261 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 1: to it, all the way through the universe. And that's 262 00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:24,800 Speaker 1: why these particles can get mass. It's called a vacuum 263 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:27,600 Speaker 1: expectation value, which is a technical term I Pobily shouldn't 264 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:30,079 Speaker 1: have mentioned. But it's a really weird thing about this 265 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 1: field is that it fills the universe and without any 266 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:36,079 Speaker 1: particular source, it has some strength to it, and the 267 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,800 Speaker 1: effect of that is to give all particles inertia, which 268 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:41,760 Speaker 1: is basically the same as mass. So when you say 269 00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:44,679 Speaker 1: that like particle A has this much mass, it means 270 00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:47,640 Speaker 1: that when it tries to move around, it feels the 271 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: Higgs field that much. Yeah. When if you have particle 272 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:54,439 Speaker 1: A and then you give it a push, right, well, 273 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:57,600 Speaker 1: acceleration F equals m A right, so a little push 274 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,200 Speaker 1: should give you acceleration, But the amount of acceleration asian 275 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:02,400 Speaker 1: you get from the push depends on the M part 276 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:05,640 Speaker 1: of F equals m A. Right. The larger your force, 277 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:09,000 Speaker 1: the more your acceleration. But the larger your mass, the 278 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:12,600 Speaker 1: less your acceleration. So you need a really big push 279 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:15,760 Speaker 1: to accelerate the Earth, for example, and a really little 280 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:18,760 Speaker 1: push to accelerate you know, a grain of sand. And 281 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:21,680 Speaker 1: so you would say that that's because the Earth is 282 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:25,040 Speaker 1: interacting more strongly with the Higgs field, whereas the little 283 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:29,240 Speaker 1: grain of salt is like almost ignored by the Higgs field. Yeah, 284 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 1: in comparison exactly. And so really massive particles interact with 285 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,800 Speaker 1: the Higgs field a lot, and and massless particles or 286 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:39,400 Speaker 1: particles that have almost no mass hardly interact with the 287 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,080 Speaker 1: Higgs field at all, there's really easy to accelerate or 288 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:45,400 Speaker 1: to slow down. Have almost no inertia. So it's kind 289 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,280 Speaker 1: of like it's like you're in the ocean. You're underwater, 290 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: and uh, if you are really massive, then maybe you 291 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:55,320 Speaker 1: have kind of like an odd shape and so it's 292 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:58,000 Speaker 1: really hard to move in the water. But maybe if 293 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,760 Speaker 1: you have a sleep shape, and it's really easy for 294 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:02,720 Speaker 1: you to move around in the water, and so that 295 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:05,760 Speaker 1: sort of shapeness is maybe what mass would be. Yeah, 296 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:08,400 Speaker 1: people try really hard to come up with like intuitive 297 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 1: analogies for the Higgs field, and almost all of them 298 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:14,440 Speaker 1: are roughly right, and that they give you the sense 299 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:16,320 Speaker 1: that the Higgs field is the thing that makes it 300 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:20,320 Speaker 1: hard to move through space, but they're technically almost all 301 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:24,680 Speaker 1: not correct because what the thing you describe, which is like, 302 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:28,280 Speaker 1: you know what friction from water is different from inertia, right, 303 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:30,280 Speaker 1: Friction from water is always going to slow you down. 304 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,280 Speaker 1: Inertia makes it hard to slow down. So something that's 305 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,120 Speaker 1: moving really really fast it's hard to slow down because 306 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:40,200 Speaker 1: it has inertia. M So it's just some some sort 307 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:46,280 Speaker 1: of field that affects how easily you can change in speed, right, 308 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:49,120 Speaker 1: whether it's gleating up or slowing down. So we should 309 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: just stop at that and not try to make any 310 00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:56,239 Speaker 1: molasses or politicians in the crowd analogies that's right, exactly, 311 00:15:56,560 --> 00:16:01,240 Speaker 1: or deep poetic statements about the meaning of the universe exactly, right. Um. 312 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:03,600 Speaker 1: But yeah, and you were saying earlier people came on 313 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,480 Speaker 1: this idea decades ago, right, yeah, and so they took 314 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:10,680 Speaker 1: him that long and billion dollars to find it, even 315 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 1: more than thirteen billion dollars. But it's it's a cool 316 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:16,600 Speaker 1: story because it's an idea that came sort of out 317 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:19,480 Speaker 1: of a search for beauty or poetry. Actually, I shouldn't 318 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:21,240 Speaker 1: have I shouldn't have dogged poetry or a long this 319 00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 1: podcast of a huge mistake. I didn't mean poetry in 320 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,280 Speaker 1: a negative sense of an empty poetry, right, right, right, 321 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:32,840 Speaker 1: poetry without mathematical references. That's right. We just lost the 322 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:36,560 Speaker 1: huge poetry loving audience segment of this audience. Let's get 323 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:41,640 Speaker 1: him back. Let's get him back, prepared turn on poetry now. Okay, 324 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:45,320 Speaker 1: So people were thinking about the particles we've seen and 325 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:48,240 Speaker 1: how they work, and they were wondering about patterns there 326 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:50,160 Speaker 1: and the short version of The story is that they 327 00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:53,880 Speaker 1: noticed a pattern and the patterns would be missing something. 328 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:55,720 Speaker 1: You know. It's like they looked at the list of 329 00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:58,600 Speaker 1: particles we had in the forces and they said, m hmm, 330 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:01,720 Speaker 1: this would be so prettier, this would be so much 331 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:04,800 Speaker 1: more elegant if there was one more piece here, one 332 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:07,919 Speaker 1: thing that made that that tied it all together, you know, 333 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:10,320 Speaker 1: like the rug that tied the Bowski's room together. Like 334 00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:14,159 Speaker 1: the equation seemed out of balance, right, Like it's we 335 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:16,679 Speaker 1: had they had an equation and it just it was 336 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,920 Speaker 1: just kind of imbalanced. Is that what you mean by beauty? Yeah, 337 00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:23,320 Speaker 1: And in particular, people were trying to unify forces. There's 338 00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:26,160 Speaker 1: a long history in physics of trying to bring everything 339 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:29,200 Speaker 1: together into a single equation, like can we describe all 340 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:31,600 Speaker 1: the physics in a single equation? And you know, for 341 00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,320 Speaker 1: a long time we've had different um we've talked about 342 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:37,520 Speaker 1: a different phenomena like magnetism and electricity, and one of 343 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:39,560 Speaker 1: some of the great advances in physics have been in 344 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:44,160 Speaker 1: unifying those forces, like showing electricity and magnetism are actually 345 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:47,480 Speaker 1: part of the same force. It's called electromagnetism. And the 346 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,520 Speaker 1: things that we think of as as magnetic and I 347 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:51,800 Speaker 1: think to think of electric, aren't you just two sides 348 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:54,160 Speaker 1: of the same coin. So there's a great tradition there. 349 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:57,880 Speaker 1: It's like simplifying things bringing them together. And so people 350 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:00,560 Speaker 1: were trying to do that one more time, and they're saying, 351 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:03,720 Speaker 1: can we bring the weak force, the thing that's responsible 352 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:08,080 Speaker 1: for like radioactive decay. Can we bring that together with electromagnetism. 353 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:11,159 Speaker 1: One problem is that the weak force is really really 354 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:14,840 Speaker 1: is really really weak is compared to electromagnetism. And the 355 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:17,639 Speaker 1: reason the weak force is so weak is because the 356 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:20,439 Speaker 1: particles that carry it, the W and the z boson, 357 00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:24,040 Speaker 1: are really heavy, if huge amounts of mass, whereas the 358 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:27,800 Speaker 1: photon for electromagnetism is really light. So one reason that 359 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:32,280 Speaker 1: electromagnetism is so powerful, such a strong force, is that 360 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:34,680 Speaker 1: the photon, the thing that carries it, can go really 361 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:37,119 Speaker 1: far there is no mass, whereas the W n z 362 00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:39,720 Speaker 1: bosons have so much mass it makes it a very 363 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:42,399 Speaker 1: short range force. So the question they were trying to 364 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:44,879 Speaker 1: understand is how do we bring these two things together. 365 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:47,399 Speaker 1: Why do the W z bosons have mass and the 366 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,000 Speaker 1: photon doesn't. So obviously, the equation they were trying to 367 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:54,040 Speaker 1: make more elegant. So it was weird that some particles 368 00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:56,240 Speaker 1: would have mass and some others would not. That was 369 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:59,920 Speaker 1: like theoretically mathematically weird, and so they came up with 370 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 1: this idea of the Higgs field to patch it up. 371 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:05,240 Speaker 1: That's right, that's right, the Higgs field and the Higgs 372 00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:08,479 Speaker 1: particle together in this thing called the Higgs mechanism. And 373 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:11,440 Speaker 1: if you add the Higgs mechanism to the theory, then boom, 374 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:15,600 Speaker 1: it explains it. It connects the weak force with electromagnetism, 375 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:18,719 Speaker 1: and it explains why the W and Z have mass 376 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:22,000 Speaker 1: and the photon doesn't. And so that was really beautiful. 377 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:25,159 Speaker 1: People are like, wow, that really makes sense. That's pretty. 378 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:28,199 Speaker 1: You know, there's like an elegance to that theory, and 379 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:31,520 Speaker 1: people were hoping that it's also true. You know, Nature 380 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:34,840 Speaker 1: doesn't have to come up with nure, doesn't have to 381 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,680 Speaker 1: reveal that the universe is beautiful. And sometimes, as as 382 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:41,760 Speaker 1: human physicists, we use like like aesthetic sense to like 383 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 1: sense what is nature's solution, Like how should things work? 384 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,399 Speaker 1: And we want things to be pretty. It doesn't always 385 00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:50,439 Speaker 1: work out that way. This history is littered with like 386 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:54,000 Speaker 1: beautiful theories that turned out to be wrong. Well, this 387 00:19:54,080 --> 00:20:08,399 Speaker 1: is a perfect point to take a break. So but 388 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:10,920 Speaker 1: back to the story of the Higgs boson. Yeah, after 389 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:12,800 Speaker 1: all that, they found it, right, How did they find 390 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:14,760 Speaker 1: the Higgs boson? Yeah, well they were looking for it 391 00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:17,879 Speaker 1: for a long time. Um, and people thought there was 392 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:21,080 Speaker 1: a collider in Geneva before the Large John Collider. There 393 00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:24,719 Speaker 1: was one called the Large Electron Positron Collider that leap 394 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:27,720 Speaker 1: l EP and people built that one, and they really 395 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:29,760 Speaker 1: were hoping to find the Higgs Boson there because like 396 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:32,000 Speaker 1: how their name has the word large in it, you know, 397 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:34,159 Speaker 1: like what if you build a bigger one, what is 398 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:37,200 Speaker 1: that one going to be called very large? The very 399 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:39,399 Speaker 1: largest v l h C is the plan for the 400 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: next one super large, uber large, hyper large, super duper large. Anyways, Um, 401 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,639 Speaker 1: so there was one before the large, the LHC UM 402 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:54,359 Speaker 1: but that they they didn't find it, so they build 403 00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:56,640 Speaker 1: the bigger one. They didn't find it, but they thought 404 00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:00,439 Speaker 1: they did. Actually, so it ran until the early two thousands, 405 00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:03,919 Speaker 1: and they had a very short window to run it 406 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 1: in because they had to turn it off because they 407 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,439 Speaker 1: were building the Large Hadron Collider in the same tunnel. 408 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:12,960 Speaker 1: One scheme for making the hadron collider. Cheaper was to 409 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:16,000 Speaker 1: reuse the existing tunnel so that to turn off the 410 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,520 Speaker 1: electron positron collider so they could build the hadron collider. 411 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:22,679 Speaker 1: But in the last few weeks of running the electron 412 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:26,119 Speaker 1: positron collider, people started seeing hints of the Higgs boson. 413 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:29,280 Speaker 1: They're smashing these particles together, and they started to see 414 00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:31,959 Speaker 1: collisions that looked just like what you would expect from 415 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,440 Speaker 1: a Higgs boson. The thing is, we didn't know how 416 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:37,119 Speaker 1: heavy the Higgs boson was. That's one thing the theory 417 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:40,560 Speaker 1: didn't predict. Is it really really light, is it kind 418 00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:43,880 Speaker 1: of heavy, is it medium heavy? Is it's super duper heavy. 419 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,000 Speaker 1: So we didn't know exactly where to look for it, 420 00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:49,760 Speaker 1: and right on the edge of where the large electron 421 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:52,280 Speaker 1: positron collider could have seen it. It started to pop 422 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:54,920 Speaker 1: up just in the last few weeks. But then they said, 423 00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,040 Speaker 1: but no, we just got thirteen billion dollars to make 424 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,440 Speaker 1: a very one. Don't find it yet exactly exactly. And 425 00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:03,840 Speaker 1: there was a huge argument in the community, like should 426 00:22:03,880 --> 00:22:06,880 Speaker 1: we put off building the L A C and keep 427 00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:08,760 Speaker 1: running this one because we might be like on the 428 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:12,879 Speaker 1: verge of a discovery or um should we say, look, 429 00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:15,760 Speaker 1: we have a plan, let's shut this thing down, build 430 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:18,520 Speaker 1: the next one, um and find it there for sure. 431 00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:23,040 Speaker 1: And the problem was that across the pond outside Chicago, 432 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:26,080 Speaker 1: the Americans were working on their collider, which is the 433 00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:29,840 Speaker 1: Tevatron Fermulab, and it was going to run sort of 434 00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:33,320 Speaker 1: in the gap there between the large electron positron collider 435 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,960 Speaker 1: and the Hadron collider at CERN, and the Europeans were 436 00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 1: really worried that if they gave this opportunity up, if 437 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:42,919 Speaker 1: they turned off their collider, that the Americans would discover 438 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:45,960 Speaker 1: the Higgs boson while they were busy building the Hadron collider. 439 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:49,480 Speaker 1: That was their fear. Suspiciously, the Americans were like, no, yeah, 440 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:54,680 Speaker 1: shut it down down UM. So certain decided to shut 441 00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:58,040 Speaker 1: it down. They were like, we see this evidence. It's interesting. 442 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:00,359 Speaker 1: It's not compelling enough for us to cheer age our 443 00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: entire program. You know, like when my son has to 444 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:04,800 Speaker 1: go to dinner, but he does want to turn off 445 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:08,520 Speaker 1: the video game he's playing, that's right. They were like, 446 00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,080 Speaker 1: So the Europeans saved their game while they're building the 447 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:15,040 Speaker 1: next colider, and the the Americans turned on their their 448 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 1: collider and they looked for it, and they didn't find it. 449 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:19,800 Speaker 1: I mean they saw a few things hints here and there, 450 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,880 Speaker 1: so they wouldn't haven't even found anything. Then the LP 451 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:25,080 Speaker 1: would not have found anything. It turned out that the 452 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:27,399 Speaker 1: Higgs was not where they thought it was. Yeah, what 453 00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:29,800 Speaker 1: they were seeing was just a fluctuation. So that was 454 00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:32,920 Speaker 1: and he was a little bit heavier than that. So okay, 455 00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:34,800 Speaker 1: So what does the act what does the large patron 456 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:38,040 Speaker 1: collider actually do like and specifically how how does it 457 00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 1: do that? What does it do to find how what 458 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,119 Speaker 1: did it do to find the Higgs bloson? So what 459 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:45,440 Speaker 1: we do is we smash protons together. And protons really 460 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,800 Speaker 1: high energy, and protons inside them have little particles called 461 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,879 Speaker 1: quarks and also particles called gluons. And when we smashed 462 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:54,960 Speaker 1: protons together, through the corks and the gluons inside the 463 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:57,720 Speaker 1: proteon that do the smashing. Think of protons is like 464 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,600 Speaker 1: little bags of particles and the cork and the gluons 465 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:03,720 Speaker 1: smashed together, and then sometimes like one in a tri 466 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:07,280 Speaker 1: zillion times, those quirk and gluons will smash together to 467 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,480 Speaker 1: make a Higgs boson. We run this thing every twenty 468 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:13,399 Speaker 1: five nanoseconds because most of the time. When we smush 469 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,360 Speaker 1: particles together, boring particles come out, particles we've seen over 470 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,480 Speaker 1: and over again. So the rare the interesting stuff is 471 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:22,320 Speaker 1: really rare, which is why we have to run it 472 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:26,080 Speaker 1: really often to spot the rare ones. And so it's 473 00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:28,560 Speaker 1: like one in the trisilient times the Higgs boson appears, 474 00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:30,919 Speaker 1: it doesn't live for very long. The thing I think 475 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:32,840 Speaker 1: people should understand is that you can don't make a 476 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:35,080 Speaker 1: Higgs boson and then you have it. It's not like 477 00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:37,920 Speaker 1: you can fill a glass jar with Higgs bosons that 478 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:41,160 Speaker 1: we've made at the LHC. They exist for like ten 479 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:44,720 Speaker 1: to the negative twenty something seconds, and then they decay. 480 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,960 Speaker 1: They turned into other stuff like evaporate kind. Yeah, they're 481 00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,480 Speaker 1: like heavy and unstable and so they break up. Yeah, 482 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:55,560 Speaker 1: they yeah, exactly into other stuff that we can see. 483 00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: Like one of the most common things they do is 484 00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:01,480 Speaker 1: turn into two bottom quarks for examp able. And so 485 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:03,960 Speaker 1: how do we actually see the Higgs boson. Well, one 486 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:05,760 Speaker 1: way we do what is we look for events with 487 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:08,680 Speaker 1: two bottom corks in them. The problem is there's lots 488 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,200 Speaker 1: of other ways to make events with two bottom corks 489 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:13,639 Speaker 1: in them. Lots of times when we collide protons, we 490 00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:16,080 Speaker 1: get events with two bottom corks in them that wasn't 491 00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:18,160 Speaker 1: from the Higgs boson. So you have to figure out 492 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:20,400 Speaker 1: which of the stuff that you see might have come 493 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:23,840 Speaker 1: from Higgs boson that existed for like a really short 494 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,520 Speaker 1: amount of time, that's right. And so it's like visiting 495 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:28,160 Speaker 1: the scene of a car crash and trying to figure 496 00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:30,600 Speaker 1: out what happened. Um, all you can see is the 497 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,280 Speaker 1: debris afterwards. You don't get to see the car crash itself, 498 00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:35,080 Speaker 1: and you have to be like, all right, I think 499 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,600 Speaker 1: from the debris that it was two yellow volkswagens that 500 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,480 Speaker 1: crashed onto each other, that's right. I think the Higgs 501 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:44,960 Speaker 1: boson was driving and it veered off the bridge. So 502 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,359 Speaker 1: then that's why it costs so much. It's you have 503 00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:49,440 Speaker 1: to like run this thing. It was huge. You needed 504 00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:51,520 Speaker 1: a lot of energy, that's right, and you had to 505 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,240 Speaker 1: run for a long time. And so then you found 506 00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:57,320 Speaker 1: enough observations of the debris to know, Okay, I think 507 00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:00,639 Speaker 1: in there we can definitely say that there was a 508 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:03,600 Speaker 1: Higgs boson that popped into existence for a brief amount 509 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:05,320 Speaker 1: of time, that's right. What we do is we take 510 00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:07,359 Speaker 1: the energy of those two bottom qrks and we add 511 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:09,760 Speaker 1: them up and we say how much energy was there? 512 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,000 Speaker 1: And if it was a Higgs boson, then the energy 513 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:14,880 Speaker 1: of the two bottom corks is going to mostly add 514 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,680 Speaker 1: up to be the mass of that Higgs boson. So 515 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,160 Speaker 1: you do that a bunch of bunch of times and 516 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:22,080 Speaker 1: then you add them all up, and if the Higgs 517 00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:24,520 Speaker 1: boson was there, you'll see a little bump. You'll see 518 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:28,119 Speaker 1: you make a plot for example, yeah, bump at the day. 519 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 1: If you make a plot for example of like how 520 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,480 Speaker 1: much energy was in the two bottom quarks versus how 521 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,520 Speaker 1: often you see it, you'll see a bunch of collisions 522 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,399 Speaker 1: that all have the same energy in the two bottom qurks, 523 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:40,160 Speaker 1: and that will be at the mass of the Higgs boson. 524 00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:43,040 Speaker 1: So we were bump hunting. We didn't know where we 525 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,720 Speaker 1: might see it. Bump hunting. That should be the next 526 00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:51,320 Speaker 1: show in the Discovery Channel, bump Hunters. I think there's 527 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:55,040 Speaker 1: probably some easy, salacious misunderstanding of bump hunting, you know. 528 00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:58,960 Speaker 1: So they so they found it right, and this was 529 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,320 Speaker 1: I think to the is in what was it two thousand, 530 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,360 Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen that they founded it was it was sort 531 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,119 Speaker 1: of slow like we started to see hints of it. 532 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:08,160 Speaker 1: We saw little bumps, and then they would go away, 533 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:09,880 Speaker 1: and we saw and then we finally started to see 534 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,919 Speaker 1: more significant bumps that just grew and grew and grew. 535 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:15,560 Speaker 1: And so the actual discovery the Higgs wasn't like an 536 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,000 Speaker 1: aha moment like one day like boom, here it is, 537 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:19,920 Speaker 1: we found it. There it is, you can all see it. 538 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:23,080 Speaker 1: It was a slow accumulation of data. It's sort of 539 00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:26,240 Speaker 1: like you know, the water draining out of a out 540 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,040 Speaker 1: of the ocean, and you can revealing things on the seafloor, 541 00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,080 Speaker 1: like very gradually we saw this bump rising out of 542 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:34,280 Speaker 1: the take he saw a little shadow of it here, 543 00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:36,960 Speaker 1: a little shadowed it were there, and then suddenly you 544 00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:39,800 Speaker 1: had the confidence to say, I think all of these things, 545 00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:43,360 Speaker 1: say that the Higgs boson is a thing. That's right. 546 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:46,359 Speaker 1: And it gradually accumulated. So it was sort of a 547 00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:49,639 Speaker 1: slow burn, and at some point it passes some threshold 548 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:52,800 Speaker 1: where statisticians say we were allowed to say we've discovered 549 00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 1: the Higgs boson, and so huge fanfare, lots of excitement, 550 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:01,840 Speaker 1: lots of like news cover rige in the media. Why 551 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,000 Speaker 1: do you think it was such a like media frenzy 552 00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:08,800 Speaker 1: dis Higgs boson, Like you know, like scientists discover stuff 553 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,119 Speaker 1: every day all the time. Why do you think people 554 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,320 Speaker 1: got so excited about discovery of this particle? That's a 555 00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:17,760 Speaker 1: great question. I wish I understood how the whole science 556 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:21,359 Speaker 1: journalism world worked, why they all get excited about something 557 00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:23,959 Speaker 1: sometimes and other times you just can't get them interested 558 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,280 Speaker 1: at all. I don't know. I think that Certain has 559 00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:29,640 Speaker 1: a great PR team and that they really built their 560 00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,520 Speaker 1: argument about why Certain is exciting based on this um 561 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:37,320 Speaker 1: this goal, this let's discover the Higgs boson, and that 562 00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:41,000 Speaker 1: has positives and negatives, like the positives that are if 563 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,520 Speaker 1: you spend several years hyping this up, then when you 564 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:46,880 Speaker 1: actually are ready to deliver your discovery, people are hyped up. Oh, 565 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:48,640 Speaker 1: I see. Part of so part of it was just 566 00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,000 Speaker 1: like the the size of the project. People were really 567 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: hyped up about it. Yeah, and Certain is organized and 568 00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:56,800 Speaker 1: they know how to do PR and they have been 569 00:28:56,840 --> 00:28:59,560 Speaker 1: priming science journalists for a long time. But it's sort 570 00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 1: of important because it's it's kind of it closed the gap, right, 571 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:06,000 Speaker 1: It's sort of like put the little button on this 572 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:08,760 Speaker 1: theory of the universe that physics sad, right. It was 573 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:10,840 Speaker 1: kind of like this piece that people have been theorizing 574 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,760 Speaker 1: for a long time and so now here it is. Here, 575 00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:16,800 Speaker 1: here was the evidence that this theory was right. Yeah, 576 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,120 Speaker 1: and a lot of people look at that positively. I 577 00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:21,960 Speaker 1: actually think this it's kind of a negative story. I mean, 578 00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:25,480 Speaker 1: people's people sold the LHC is like, here's we're going 579 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,720 Speaker 1: to discover the Higgs boson and that's going to be 580 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,480 Speaker 1: the answer to this decades long question. And after that 581 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:34,280 Speaker 1: the standard model is finished. And it's certainly true that 582 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:36,160 Speaker 1: we've been looking for for a long time and that 583 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,800 Speaker 1: we found it, and it validated this idea of this 584 00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:42,240 Speaker 1: beautiful mathematical idea which came you know, just from this 585 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:47,640 Speaker 1: esthetic sense of mathematical beauty. That's awesome, that's an awesome story. Um. 586 00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:49,840 Speaker 1: And it was the missing piece of the standard model, 587 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,040 Speaker 1: the piece we didn't have. So now we have a 588 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,800 Speaker 1: theory which is complete in the sense that it works right, 589 00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:58,120 Speaker 1: there's no obvious missing piece. But it doesn't mean that 590 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:00,960 Speaker 1: there aren't questions remaining. And I think one downside of 591 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:03,880 Speaker 1: saying the late C was about discovering the Higgs is 592 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:07,160 Speaker 1: that people think, oh, we're done, Like well, we've finished 593 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: this theory and now it's over, and like, why are 594 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:11,840 Speaker 1: you still running the late c um And the other 595 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:14,840 Speaker 1: thing is that some of us were hoping we wouldn't 596 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 1: find the Higgs. I mean, the Higgs is sort of 597 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,480 Speaker 1: like a nice wrap up to that story, but there 598 00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:22,800 Speaker 1: were other ideas out there, ideas that might have been 599 00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:25,680 Speaker 1: more exciting. And so in some ways, finding something that 600 00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:29,320 Speaker 1: wasn't the Higgs, something weird and strange and unexpected, something 601 00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,040 Speaker 1: that wasn't predicted. But the theory is something where we 602 00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,640 Speaker 1: didn't have like a mental slot for it already. That 603 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:37,840 Speaker 1: would have been much more exciting, something totally unexpected than 604 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:41,080 Speaker 1: I cracked open particle physics and let us understand things 605 00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:44,400 Speaker 1: about why particles get different masses, or what is dark matter? 606 00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:46,400 Speaker 1: You know, what are the patterns of the particles. There's 607 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:48,840 Speaker 1: a lot of questions we don't have the answers to 608 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:50,800 Speaker 1: just because we found the Higgs. I can see a 609 00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:53,120 Speaker 1: politician being like, all right, guys, so you're telling me 610 00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:57,400 Speaker 1: that you were totally wrong and you misspent all this money, 611 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:02,120 Speaker 1: But it turns out that unluckily it's actually good news. 612 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:05,080 Speaker 1: That's right. Well, for me, the most exciting thing is 613 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,920 Speaker 1: the exploration. Like I want to build that three trillion 614 00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:10,880 Speaker 1: dollar collider because it lets just explore the universe at 615 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:13,760 Speaker 1: a scale we've never seen before. And I'm excited for 616 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,760 Speaker 1: unexpected discoveries much more than I'm excited for expected discoveries. 617 00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:20,960 Speaker 1: You know. It's like if somebody told you exactly where 618 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,720 Speaker 1: to find a special little rock, it'd be cool to 619 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:25,200 Speaker 1: go there and see, like, oh, look they found this 620 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:27,480 Speaker 1: little rock. Would be much cooler to find something you 621 00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:35,400 Speaker 1: didn't expecta