the shell game

for years now, one of the main concerns in high energy physics and
particle acceleration has focused on the search for one of the most
basic building blocks that define the fabric of our universe.

a thousand physicists working at the fermi national accelerator
laboratory in batavia, ill., reported in paris on monday that they
had not found the so-called “god particle,” yet. but they are
beginning to figure out where it is not.

over the last decade physicists working on two separate experiments
at fermilab have combed the debris from a thousand trillion collisions
of protons and anti-protons looking for signs of the the higgs boson,
which is said to be responsible for imbuing elementary particles with
mass.

although this information doesn't have the immediate impact of a
newly crowned little girl with a wad of cash and pancake make-up,
it resonates, believe it or not, even deeper with it's implications not
only in science, but spirituality and the existence of the idea of god.