Finding Higgs Boson: A Triumph of Human Curiosity

A basic particle common to all objects has been isolated, observed and celebrated by an international team of researchers, with funding by global taxpayers. The Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland, is 17 miles of superconducting magnets, designed to detect a particle first theorized about in the 1960s. “The human capital needed to plan and build the LHC and the two detectors, ATLAS and CMS, is measured in tens of thousands of person-years,” writes Paul Tipton, Yale physicist, for the Los Angeles Times. Such basic research ushers in a thrilling new era of research, promising unimaginable applications. Tipton argues there are broader lessons: “Citizens from all corners of the globe labored together to achieve this result…. the vast majority of the planet's taxpayers had skin in the game.” The motive behind the collaboration was not profits, but rather curiosity and a passion for science. – YaleGlobal