Nobel Prize in Physics. Peter Higgs and François Englert

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Guardian

Winners announced

The 2013 physics Nobel Prize goes to Peter Higgs and François Englert. Congratulations to them both.


Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/08/nobel-prize-in-physics-live-blog

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Announced only minutes before posting this.

Two scientists have won the Nobel prize in physics for their work on the theory of the Higgs boson.

Peter Higgs, from the UK, and Francois Englert from Belgium, shared the prize.

In the 1960s they were among several physicists who proposed a mechanism to explain why the most basic building blocks of the Universe have mass.

The mechanism predicts a particle - the Higgs boson - which was finally discovered in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, in Switzerland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24436781

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. The Higgs Boson has been found, announced 2012. nt

[VWolf]

2. Can't really argue with this decision

Congrats to both physicists. What a "massive" accomplishment.

[lastlib]

3. A development that will carry great weight in the realm of science!

[rurallib]

4. seems odd they hadn't been so honored before

glad to see them get the recognition

[Sgent]

5. Agree

even if it turned out to not exist or exist in a different way than predicted (much like parts of evolution, or gravity), the development of higgs-boson was a major breakthrough in our understanding of the universe. I'm surprised they weren't honored 20-30 years ago.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. They wait until it's confirmed by observation

If it had turned out to 'not exist', then it wouldn't have been "understanding of the universe".

Einstein was never given a Nobel specifically for his theories of relativity. He won it in 1921 for "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". They sometimes shy away from theories without observation.

[NoodleyAppendage]

7. I would recommend telling your story to a mental health professional.

They will listen and understand. They likely have a solution for your injustice.

[Nye Bevan]

8. So Higgs got his prize. Why not Boson? (nt)

[jakeXT]

9. No posthumous Nobel Prize

In his book The Scientific Edge, physicist Jayant Narlikar observed:

SN Bose’s work on particle statistics (c. 1922), which clarified the behaviour of photons (the particles of light in an enclosure) and opened the door to new ideas on statistics of Microsystems that obey the rules of quantum theory, was one of the top ten achievements of 20th century Indian science and could be considered in the Nobel Prize class.[25]

However, when asked about the omission, Bose himself said:

I have got all the recognition I deserve.[26]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Nath_Bose

Is it possible to nominate someone for a posthumous Nobel Prize?


No, it is not. From 1974, the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation have stipulated that a Prize cannot be awarded posthumously, unless death has occurred after the announcement of the Nobel Prize. This happened in 1996 when William Vickrey died only a few days after the announcement of the Prize in Economics.

Before 1974, the Nobel Prize has only been awarded posthumously twice: to Dag Hammarskjöld (Nobel Peace Prize 1961) and Erik Axel Karlfeldt (Nobel Prize in Literature 1931).
http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/nomination_faq.html

[dipsydoodle]

10. I hadn't realised he'd based the word after Bose.

Respect I guess.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. 'Boson' was coined by Paul Dirac, in 1947

OED:

Any particle which has a symmetric wave-function and which therefore obeys Bose-Einstein statistics

1947 P. A. M. Dirac Princ. Quantum Mech. (ed. 3) ix. 210 The new statistics was first studied by Bose, so we shall call particles for which only symmetrical states occur in nature bosons.

As opposed to:

fermion

A particle that obeys the Fermi-Dirac statistics.

1947 P. A. M. Dirac Princ. Quantum Mech. (ed. 3) ix. 210 It leads to a special statistics, which was first studied by Fermi, so we shall call particles for which only antisymmetrical states occur in nature fermions.

[dipsydoodle]

13. Thanks

I'd searched and couldn't find that.

[jakeXT]

14. India is happy with it

Boson's naming after Satyendra Nath Bose bigger honour than Nobel, say Indian physicists

Prominent Indian physicists say that naming of the 'God particle' Boson after Indian scientist Satyendra Nath Bose is the biggest honour.

The reactions came after Britain's Peter Higgs and Belgian Francois Englert won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on the 'God particle'.

Professor Bikash Sinha and Bose Institute director Sibaji Raha in Kolkata, however, expressed their displeasure at four other researchers missing out on the prize.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/boson-s-naming-after-satyendra-nath-bose-bigger-honour-than-nobel-say-indian-physicists-429608

[dipsydoodle]

15. Higgs can't abide that expression

'God particle' He simply hates it.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. That's heavy.