This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
A year ago today I was at the 62nd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany. Miles away in Geneva, Switzerland, scientists were getting ready to tell the gathering media about a discovery that would change physics forever. It was Higgs day.
It was great to be in Lindau then, surrounded by Nobel laureates and young scientists who were all pretty excited about the announcement. We watched the livestream from Cern in the morning, then had a special press conference with Martinus Veltman, David Gross and Carlo Rubbia about what the discovery meant.
One year on, what do we know about this once elusive particle? Well, on 4 July 2012 it was "a particle consistent with a Higgs". In March it became "a Higgs", and soon we might be able to be start calling it "the Higgs".
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But I'm not going to go into detail. I'm just here to celebrate the Higgs boson's (sort of) official birthday. So here's a song:
This video, by and featuring physics student Tim Blais (aka acapellascience), is from last summer. Since I was was reminded of the Higgs anniversary earlier this week, the song popped into my head and seems to have taken up residence. So, I thought I'd share it with you all, too. A fitting tribute to a boson that gets everywhere.
Image: Martinus Veltman, David Gross and Carlo Rubbia at the Lindau Higgs discovery press conference. Photo by me.