Stephen Tremp & The Higgs Boson

You wake up in the morning and step on the scale. You take a sip of coffee and the gears in your brain start to crank up. You smile because even though you may not have lost any weight, you understand scientifically how your weight is determined. The quantity of your mass and the force of gravity determines your weight.

Okay. You get it. Mass + the force of gravity = weight. But wait. You take another sip of coffee and your brain picks up speed. You dig a little deeper, scratch your head, and wonder just what the heck determines your mass? What gives mass its mass? You’re not quite satisfied as you want more answers but don’t have them. Well, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in great company. This is one of the most-asked and hotly pursued questions in all of physics today. What determines mass?
Enter the Higgs Boson and the Standard Model.

“The standard model describes the behaviour and interactions of all of the most fundamental particles we have seen. The model was developed throughout the 20th century and finalised when the existence of quarks, the particles that make up protons and neutrons, was confirmed in the 1970s. At the time many of the particles predicted by the standard model were yet to be seen. Over the years since then, physicists have ticked these particles off, one by one, like items on a shopping list. Now they are left with just one remaining unfound particle — the Higgs boson.” (Kelly Oakes)

Eureka! After years of frustrating tests, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN detected events that hint at identifying the sub-atomic particle called The Higgs Boson. Then, just last week. “new measurements were announced by scientists at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory indicate that the elusive Higgs boson may nearly be cornered. After analyzing the full data set from the Tevatron accelerator, which completed its last run in September 2011, the two independent experiments see hints of a Higgs boson.” (Science Daily)


Why Should I Care? (Doing a spit take with the remainder of my coffee) Why indeed! LHC experiments will address questions such as what gives matter its mass, what the invisible 96% of the Universe is made of, why nature prefers matter to antimatter and how matter evolved from the first instants of the Universe’s existence. Some are talking increasingly of the "New Physics" on the horizon that could totally change current views of the universe and how it works.

Yes folks, we may very well be unlocking more of the secrets of our universe and our place in it! Exciting stuff for sure. So stay tuned!

Stephen Tremp, author of the BREAKTHROUGH series, has a B.A. in information systems and an MBA degree in global management. Stephen has a background in information systems, management, and finance and draws from this varied and complex experiential knowledge to write one-of-a-kind thrillers.

His novels are enhanced by current events at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and other scientific research facilities around the world. These potential advances have the ability to change the way we perceive our universe and our place in it!

You can visit Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs. BREAKTHROUGH and OPENING can be downloaded:

Download Opening: Amazon Kindle $1.99

Download Breakthrough: Amazon Kindle for $1.99


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Thanks so much for dropping by, Stephen! I wonder if all these discoveries will help us figure out how to lose some of that mass???

So, anyone out there pondering some of these mysteries of the universe?