Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

With instruments offering “ tantalizing hints ” in support of the Higgs boson, the elementary particle thought to endow matter with mass, we stand at a singular moment in time for physics.

The world's strongest neutron beam is produced by a scientific instrument at the research neutron source FRM II (Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz) at the Technischen Universitaet Muenchen (TUM). But that is not all: During the long maintenance break in 2011, the instrument PGAA (Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis) was improved to give it the best ratio between usable neutrons and noisy background radiation worldwide.

GENEVA--The two largest collaborations of physicists in history Tuesday presented intriguing but tentative clues to the existence of the Higgs boson , the elementary particle thought to endow ordinary matter with mass.

Welcome to the Scientific American podcast Science Talk, posted on December 11th, 2011. I’m Steve Mirsky. Rumors are flying about the search for the long-sought Higgs boson at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider

The physics buzz reached a frenzy in the past few days over the announcement that the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva is planning to release what is widely expected to be tantalizing--although not conclusive--evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson, the elementary particle hypothesized to be the origin of the mass of all matter. [More]