CERN Spikes the Football: Higgs Boson Discovery Coming on Fourth of July

CERN is set to announce the discovery of proof that the Higgs boson “almost certainly” exists, according to the AP. That’s a big freaking deal; it’s been more than 50 years since the God particle was first theorized, and it’s the last piece of the Standard Model remaining. Basically, by being able to explain the Standard Model more completely, we can jump closer to explaining how the universe contains mass in the first place.

It’s not complete proof, at least not yet. CERN has quite possibly seen the Higgs, but the results to be presented Wednesday only go so far as to say CERN researchers have seen its shadow. From the AP:

But after decades of work and billions of dollars spent, researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, aren’t quite ready to say they’ve “discovered” the particle. Instead, experts familiar with the research at CERN’s vast complex on the Swiss-French border say that the massive data they have obtained will essentially show the footprint of the key particle known as the Higgs boson — all but proving it exists — but doesn’t allow them to say it has actually been glimpsed.

But, wait, Wednesday? Yes, the new results — and a whole lot of accolades — will be presented at CERN’s facility on the Swiss-French border on July 4. Now, maybe it’s a slight point, but considering that Fermilab’s Tevatron is shutting down, announcing such a massive discovery by a well-funded European team on our most patriotic holiday seems like a bit of a jab in the eye.

I mean, the Tevatron is the United States’ largest particle accelerator and a longtime driver of particle physics research that built much of the base of knowledge that CERN used (along with its newfangled, shinier and more expensive Large Hadron Collider) to get to where it is today. It’s no surprise that the LHC, being newer, is more sensitive than the Tevatron, and more capability — not to take anything way from CERN researchers — is going to make finding the impossible that much easier.

But it’s sad that Fermilab is left announcing its final, inconclusive Higgs results just two days before CERN steals the thunder on Wednesday. It’s a depressing thing to think about. Big science has lost more and more funding in the U.S., and now we’re having the results of that decline shoved in our faces, with Europe announcing such an incredibly important discovery on the day we ought to be feeling our most patriotic. Now, maybe folks shoving back hot dogs and Budweiser flag cans won’t give a damn, but, considering how far we’ve pushed the field forward, it has to get a little bit of that red, white, and blue blood boiling to know that another set of countries is spiking the football on Independence Day?

At least someone is sticking up for us. Rob Roser, lead Higgs research at Fermilab, managed to slip in a little jab of his own in the AP’s story:

[Roser] said: “Particle physicists have a very high standard for what it takes to be a discovery,” and he thinks it is a hair’s breadth away.

Rosen compared the results that scientists are preparing to announce Wednesday to finding the fossilized imprint of a dinosaur: “You see the footprints and the shadow of the object, but you don’t actually see it.”

Wait, maybe CERN didn’t finish the race yet after all? Well, more likely that’s just the cautious hedging scientists are known for. But what the hell, I can still hope that Roser and Fermilab are planning on going down swinging, right? More importantly, maybe we can find some politicians that can find them the money to do so.

Follow Derek Mead on Twitter: @derektmead.

• Primer: What Finding The Higgs Boson Would Actually Mean
• An Interview With a Guy at CERN About the Higgs Boson
• Fermilab Closes In On the Higgs Boson