What is the ‘Higgs Boson’ and why is it important?

Articles and videos for non-physicists
July 5, 2012

(Credit: PHD Comics)

What It Means to Find ‘a Higgs’ — Scientific American 

Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe — The New York Times

Howard Bloom, author of the forthcoming book, The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos Createscomments: “The god particle, the Higgs boson, is a bit of a red herring. It’s an infinite regress. Once upon a time, god believers had a problem: if everything that exists must be the product of a creator, then who created the creator? Now physicists are running into the same problem. If every force acting at a distance must be explained by a particle, what explains how particles seduce and repel each other? What explains the propulsive powers of  force at a distance?  There may or may not be a Higgs boson and it may or may not be hooked to mass. But even if it is, how do mere particles pull off force at a distance? How do they move things to and away from each other?  how do mere particles seduce, kidnap, and recruit?”