Quest for the Higgs

The story behind 'The Quest for the Higgs'.

In 1999 my father Martinus Veltman won the Nobel Prize in physics and quite quickly it became apparent that I had no idea for what. In fact, it's fair to say that barely anyone today knows much about the present forefront of physics. This was not always the case. There was a great celebration and basic public understanding of physics in the early 20th century. The celebrity of Einstein and his theory relativity, the discoveries of the structure of the atom and of course the atomic bomb. The general public knew to some extent the idea of fusion, a nucleus surrounded by electrons, etc.. But since then, the last 60 plus years of discovery has gone into a realm of mystery. Quarks, Leptons, Higgs, Quantum Mechanics, Weak Force, Gauge Theory, and the list of mysterious terms goes on and on. However, my dad believed that we are at a point where the picture of particle physics has gotten quite clear and can be explained to the layman... me! We decided to make an educational film and the task of writing it fell upon me.

What followed was two years of intense learning. Reading one layman book after another and asking my dad numerous questions. Of particular help was in fact my dad's book "Fact and Mysteries of Particle Physics." A complex book but it is all there without crazy mathematical formulas. The Eureka moment of how to explain Particle Physics came with the book QED by Richard Feynman. In the foreword he explains that he was asked by a friend to explain Quantum Mechanics. He said he would only if they accept everything he says as truth and not question him. If you do that, and stick with it, it will make sense once you get the whole picture. The problem with Quantum Mechanics is that you have a knee jerk reaction to it that says it's wrong. It is not wrong but simply a different way of thinking. Just show everything the way it really is (however complex you think it is) and sure enough, people get it.

All these other layman books fear people are too stupid and can't understand so they muddle everything with stupid patronizing analogies. Analogies have their place but a Quark is not an orange, it's a Quark.

Eventually I scripted a 9 chapter educational film. We start with the basic structure of the atom and from there we go into the world of creating particles, Quantum Mechanics and piecing together the Standard model. The conclusion would be the explanation of the Higgs particle and the current hunt for it. The hope would be that people could see this film and be able to understand and get quite excited when they read the headline: 'The Higgs has been discovered'.

I would have to say that it is the Physics Community responsibility to explain to the public at large just what they are doing. Unfortunately most don't get that and we had a terrible time getting any sort of funding. My dad and me decided to make the first chapter of our educational film ourselves. We wanted to illustrate that Particle Physics can be taught and explained to the laymen. The key to explaining Particle Physics and the world of Quantum Mechanics is to simply show everything WITHOUT PATRONIZING ANALOGIES. In other words, dont underestimate the intelligence of your audience.

After years of trying to sell this educational film (and yes, we tried PBS numerous times), we got nowhere even though everyone we showed it to 'got it' and wanted to see more. But, to no avail. I finally decided to put it up on YouTube and over time just more and more people started watching it. It's taken my dad and me by surprise. I cannot describe just how excited I am when I see comments saying, "I finally get it".

Thanks to YouTube though it shows that there is a thirst for knowledge and a market for educational films. Unfortunately, I don't know how to translate that into making more. People want more and we would love to but there's no funding. If you do know of some way to get more funding, please don't hesitate to contact me. At the very least support our sponsors. We would love to continue the movie.

Thank-you for all your support!

Martijn Veltman

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• particle
• physics
• Higgs
• LHC
• Large
• Hadron
• Collider
• CERN
• Fermilab
• educational
• short
• film
• nobel
• prize
• Veltman
• science
• animation
• radiation

[gitaarman1956]

Hello Martijn, Thank you for this explanation. Your dad and I both lived in 'de Borkse sticht' and that makes me feel proud for irrelevant reasons.Although being a layman,I would very much like to discus with him why I think the Higgs particle does not have to exist.In short: During the first moments of the Big bang, energy bounced against the borders, or 'shell' of the tiny universe.Therefor it rolled itself up into what we call matter.I also think our universe is located inside a black hole.

[o0professional0o]

So very good video.. Wr z part 2 and the rest??

[FascistFrenchman]

As physicists are narrowing down the field for the non/discovery of the Higgs Boson, new documentaries are needed to keep pace with what we've learned. I was looking for a video just like this one to post on Facebook to help spread the word. I must say, this is an excellent video, and I am very disappointed in PBS and Discovery for not picking it up. Let us know when this will be available for general home retail purchase, please - I want to see it in it’s entirety.

[Typho0n86]

@justgold76 Aus im from, and I do hate Bill O'Reilly too :P But i dont agree with this Higgs boson so thats probably why i havnt seen the news; "Scientists in Geneva may have glimpsed elusive Higgs boson particle" - nothing solid in that news report. Gravity is a property of spacetime, not a particle. Before it was built I thought they caculated that the LHC was spose to reach those energys to detect the Higgs, but now u say its not enough, it will never be enough cause it dont exist!!!

[justgold76]

@Typho0n86 look don't you get the News where you live I was not on about neutrinos travelling a micro of a second faster than light.I was on about the news from CERN on Dec it was all over the news in the U.K and the rest of the European channels.You must be American and I feel for you with your rubbish biased news channels which are more about the presenters than actual news(fuck I hate that Bill O'Reilly,but that's another story)This is the piece I was on about; bbc higgs boson dec 13 2011

[Debil999]

@Typho0n86 Additionally, everything that science can detect, from simple hydrogen atoms to electromagnetic radiation exhibits a very strange intrinsic property of both waves and particles. This is called the "wave-particle duality of matter", and is one of the founding principles of quantum physics. Gravitons and the Higgs are more than waves/particles; they are more like an intrinsic property of the universe that propagates at the speed of light, which also why they are so important.

[Debil999]

@Typho0n86 You seem to be partly agreeing with me. The fabric of space Space-Time is a result of mass, without it, there is no gravity and there would be no fabric. The Higgs Boson and the Graviton are both theoretical "particles" that the standard model mathematically outlines but have not been observed in particle accelerators because the energy required to detect them is beyond the technological capacity of the human race. For now.

[Typho0n86]

@justgold76 Yeah I didn’t reply because I didn’t know u replied. & u didn’t answer my question "What’s wrong with the bends in space that Relativity describes?" I hate when people don’t answer questions and reply, yeah the LHC might have worked out that neutrinos can travel faster than light, still doesn’t mean that that Higgs exists

[justgold76]

@Typho0n86 how strange to reply to my sarcastic reply 4 months ago, especially when we've just had exciting news out of CERN last week.cant say for sure yet but by the end of next year your dad,Stephen Hawking and yourself will be probably taking about it non stop.

[Typho0n86]

@Debil999 Space-time is the force carrier for mass, its the bends in space described by Einstein's Relativity, that give us gravity. Black holes are not just points, that have a thing called an 'event horizon' which has a diameter. The graviton does not exist. Everything does not need to be a particle.