Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun

Subject: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: GUEST,A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 08:41 AM

Like the elusive particle itself this has been hovering around in the edges of my conciousness for some time so I thought I would share it :)

The Higgs Bosun
(to the tune of "The Handsome Cabin Boy")

Twas in the year of '98 as I very well recall
I shipped aboard a packet lying near the harbour wall
Her name it was the "Richard Higgs" a flying second rate
And being an old seadog, I was rated bosun's mate

We soon did raise the anchor and we left that harbour wall
And when we was well out to sea a strange thing did befall
The captain called all hands on deck and tore us off a strip
Because in all our haste, the bosun hadn't joined the ship!

As through the Bay of Biscay our gallant ship did go
when it came to sails and reefing our lives were full of woe
We ran aloft like good topmen then swore and tore our hair
for when we looked about us, the "Higgs" Bosun wasn't there!

We went our way around the Horn, in driving winds and rain
The lightning flashed, the thunder crashed, we strove with might and main
yet every rope was neatly coiled and not a sail was rent,
"It's as if the Bosun were aboard" the captain did lament

We sailed for Valparaiso and waiting on the quay
We saw "Higgs" Bosun standing there, as live as live could be
But since that time I've wondered, and still do to this day
How he got there before us but didn't pass us on the way?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 08:43 AM

Oops, either my cookie had crumbled or I was momentarily not here at all ;)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: Raggytash
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 08:57 AM

I like it !

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: doc.tom
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 11:17 AM

Excellent!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: MartinRyan
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 11:24 AM

Nice one. Kind of an update of "As I was going up the stairs, I met a man..."

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: MartinRyan
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 11:27 AM

a.k.a. anti-gone-ish!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 02:38 PM

Often missed off:

Any of a class of elementary or composite particles, including the photon, pion, and gluon, that are not subject to the Pauli exclusion principle (that is, any two bosons can potentially be in the same quantum state ). The value of the spin of a boson is always an integer. Mesons are bosons, as are the gauge bosons (the particles that mediate the fundamental forces). They are named after the physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.

Note Higgs but Bose

L in C#

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: Michael
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 04:36 PM

Thanks for that Les, bleedin' obvious when you think about it innit?

Mike

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 09:36 PM

Thanks for posting this.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 11 Jan 12 - 03:46 AM

Apparantly Bose, became aware of Einstein's early work and taught himslef German so that he could read Einstein in his original lanuage. He then wrote to Einstein with some suggestions. He was then invited to 'Europe' to further hsi studies and his research.

And so the Boson was named after him but Higgs gets all the current credit. This would never happen in music though!

Les

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 11 Jan 12 - 04:34 AM

A specific kind of boson that is thought to be likely to exist is called the Higgs boson. Calling it by that name takes no credit from Bose, for whom all the boson class of particles are named.

Every particular kind of boson has to have a unique name, to tell which one we're talking about, and the "Higgs" boson is just a specific one out of the many. The thing that makes the Higgs one so interesting is that even though many (but not all) scientists believe it should exist we're still trying very hard to actually find one - which hasn't happened yet.

The Higgs has been called "the God particle" from the title of a book by Lederman. Wiki misses the point that Lederman's book was in no small part an effort to "popularize" the need to try to prove whether or not the particle exists during an attempt to get support for building an accelerator in Texas, but quotes Lederman as saying:

"... he gave it the nickname "The God Particle" because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive,"[58][59][61] but jokingly added that a second reason was because "the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing."[59]"

Whether because of the enormous costs, or for other reasons, the Texas construction failed to materialize, and the CERN project supplanted it. The search for the Higgs is by no means the only reason for building the new accelerator, but that search is probably one of a few "most important" primary reasons for it.

My own theory is that the new facility wasn't built in the US because they proposed putting it in Texas (General Sheridan got it right when he said "If I owned Texas and Hell I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell." He was, of course, speaking of a specific part of Hell Texas where he trained tank troops for Desert Campaigns.)

CERN of course is not the first time we've spent massive amounts of money, and devoted enormous efforts to the pursuit and study of something that quite possibly doesn't exist at all ...

We just don't know. As to the Higgs boson, we're getting a lot better (with recent CERN results) at proving where it isn't, but have yet to determine whether the real answer as to where it is is "nowhere."

John

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The 'Higgs' Bosun
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 11 Jan 12 - 10:04 PM

VERY nicely done, AWM!