Click to couple to the Higgs field. Image courtesy of US Dept. of Energy

In an early morning seminar, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), announced results from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ATLAS and CMS experiments which strongly suggest (at the level of five standard deviations, or "five sigma") a new elementary particle with a mass of roughly 125 billion electron-volts (125 GeV), which, researchers said, makes it a candidate for the long-sought Higgs boson.

"We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV," said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti in a CERN press release. "The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS and the huge efforts of many people have brought us to this exciting stage, but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication."

"The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. “The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks."

Here's a bit more from the release:

The results presented today are labelled preliminary. They are based on data collected in 2011 and 2012, with the 2012 data still under analysis.  Publication of the analyses shown today is expected around the end of July. A more complete picture of today’s observations will emerge later this year after the LHC provides the experiments with more data.

The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle and its significance for our understanding of the universe. Are its properties as expected for the long-sought Higgs boson, the final missing ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics? Or is it something more exotic? The Standard Model describes the fundamental particles from which we, and every visible thing in the universe, are made, and the forces acting between them. All the matter that we can see, however, appears to be no more than about 4% of the total. A more exotic version of the Higgs particle could be a bridge to understanding the 96% of the universe that remains obscure.

“We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle’s properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe.”

Positive identification of the new particle’s characteristics will take considerable time and data. But whatever form the Higgs particle takes, our knowledge of the fundamental structure of matter is about to take a major step forward.

And here's the most accessible piece I've found on how to think about the significance of the Higgs, explained in simple, cartoon form:

The Higgs Boson Explained from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

Resources
CERN press release
CERN liveblog of event
Fermilab press release
CERN explainer
io9's delightful opinion piece, "Stop calling it 'The God Particle!'"

Editorial note: Written from press releases.

CNN is not the place one thinks of first for science news, but today it was unavoidable, as was, perhaps, the unfortunate presentation of the OPERA neutrino speed results by the hapless "American Morning" anchors.

"You can tell we're a couple of journalism majors trying to do this."

Yes we can, folks, yes we can.

For those seeking a more nuanced understanding, go read the paper.

Jupiter and moons

Jupiter is currently closer to Earth than it's been for forty years, and with even a backyard telescope, it was easy to spot four of the moons (only two visible in the picture above.) Also got a good shot of Tycho Crater up on Flickr.

Patrick Kennedy greets local Democrats.

Last night, at a dinner at the Newport Marriott, the Newport Democratic City Committee presented retiring Congressman Patrick Kennedy with their "Democrat of the Year" award, and he took the opportunity to preview some his plans post-Washington.

The evening began with a round of celebrations and thanks from virtually every Rhode Island Democratic figure, including notes from Sen. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and remarks by Rep. Jim Langevin, Lt. Gov Elizabeth Roberts, and Providence Mayor (and now endorsed candidate for Kenney's seat) David Cicilline.

But the real excitement of the evening was hearing Kennedy speak, and he was in outstanding form, delivering a barn-burner of a speech focusing on what he sees as the next scientific frontier: brain injury research.

Kennedy noted the enormous number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with either obvious or latent brain injuries, and said that some the current policies and practices were shamefully lacking. He lamented the fact that it took a recent change in policy to allow the President to send notes of condolence to the families of soldiers who committed suicide, saying it represented a holdover of the stigma of mental illness he had fought for years in his work on mental health parity legislation.

He noted that these veterans would be at greater risk for a variety of debilitating brain conditions in years to come, and argued that the US should commit to a research program on brain injuries the same way the country aimed for the Moon in the 1960s. Explicitly invoking the 40th anniversary of his uncle's challenge in 1960, Kennedy called for a program to explore "inner space" and the "galaxy of neurons." Within ten years, he said, we should aim to restore the kind of traumatic brain injuries our veterans live with every day.

Kennedy argued that it is, in many ways, a social justice issue. "Who of us would want to change places with them," he said, referring to brain-injured veterns in language that echoed JFK's Civil Rights address of June, 1963.

And I will confess that for me, the most exciting idea is a plan to finally put science and technology front and center again after years of marginalization. Kennedy described it with language both evocative and urgent, noting that for the complex biomedical issues our veterans — and our whole population — are facing, "The guys with the lab coats are the first responders now, kicking in the doors."

Awesome.

Thank you, Rep. Kennedy, for everything you've done on mental health and so many other issues, and best of luck with this next chapter.