My (admittedly very hazy) understanding is that the Higgs boson is actually a fluctuation in the Higgs field caused, in this case, by two protons colliding at the mind-boggling speeds achievable by the LHC. Basically, this high-energy event tweaks the otherwise uniform Higgs field in a small region. We perceive that fluctuation as a particle, and it only lasts a very short time (think of it either as the Higgs field settling down quickly or the Higgs particle having a very short lifetime). Thus, we can’t directly observe the Higgs particle with our current instrumentation–we can only observe its decay products, which the video does a good job of explaining.

After about a nanosecond, the “tweak” in the Higgs field settles down, and the Higgs boson decays into a shower of particles. Scientists look at the showers of particles that occurs after the proton collision, examine the trajectories, add up all the mass and energy, and calculate the probability that all those particles could have come from something *other* than the Higgs. In the case of the two experiments, they’re 99.7% confident (3 sigma) that it must have been the Higgs. Or something with exactly the same characteristics of the Higgs.

…it’s not an original idea,
postulating that gravity
spread across the multiverse
explains its feeble force
.
it made sense to him
when he read it in Discovery Magazine
… but then why are not the other forces
trans-space/time/dimensional too?

hey, maybe gravity is God’s hand
holding it all together …
or God’s hyperbolic, trans-dimensional joke
on old ladies with saggy boobs?

…That’s what grandma says…

the autistic boy
pondered these things
while walking in the drizzly rain
… oh no! ten minutes late to school

… hmmmm….
the similarity of photons and electrons
… and how does gamma radiation
fit into the equation?

“Ryan! …are you with us?” queries the TLC Aid…

“…star light, star bright…
first star I see tonight
I wish I may, I wish I might
have this wish I wish tonight…”

… photon, electron, positron, beta particle
all seem interchangeable
only with different origins
… and all are part of the electromagnetic spectrum …

Can anyone shed some light on this?

… “self absorption and getting lost
in his cloistered quantum world
aids and abets his social ineptitude”
declares the Special Ed. Teacher at TLC

…. or perhaps the alternate universes with which we co-exist
ARE the yin to our yang
and expressed as the attractive force of gravity
that holds our universes together

… as such, this attractive force
would permeate the multiverse
with gravity most focused
where the matter of the infinite universes overlap

… does this make at least as much sense
as mythical ether?
the dark energy and matter
of quantum mysticism

…. ah! I see the light! …

the boy waves his hands
with changing amplitude and frequency
vibrating the cloud of dust motes ablaze
from photons cascading through the window pane

… and what about dark energy and matter
we cannot perceive by any known means
that quantum physicists believe in
with religious fervor?

… faith in string theory
which in turn gives birth to the multiverse,
seem as logically consistent
as the Flying Spaghetti Monster … or the Holy Trinity

“I am mightier than gravity!”
blurts the autistic child
demonstratively
as he picks up a crayon

… if I am stronger than gravity
how can IT hold the universe together?
… because IT never gives up …
the trans-universal tortoise to the quantum electromagnetic hare

… Ryan’s pet theory…
the wave function itself imparts mass
hence gravity to matter.
not the God-like boson particle

..dark energy and dark matter
…ephemeral as the neither world
…so ya gotta read between the lines…
…. God’s domain in the empty spaces

… does the autistic child’s musing …
God, Multiverse, Holy Trinity, Flying Spaghetti Monster
in the same breath offend you?
…tread lightly in your rebuttal …

the autistic child may start headbanging
..talk softly
…lightly hold his hand
….smile as you agree