It’s a boson!

If you’re the kind of person who reads these updates here, you already know that CERN has come out and said they’ve found the Higgs boson.

What does that mean?

Simplest version: http://havewefoundthehiggsbosonyet.org/

Slightly more sophisticated version: Professor Matt Strassler explains what a “boson” is.

Even more sophisticated version (but still for non-physics-majors): Quantum Diaries explains how the discovery happened and what it means.

Mostly it means that the way we’re looking at how things fit together is correct, and now we’ll be able to make more educated guesses about things like teleportation beams, death rays, quantum computers and fusion containment fields – anything that involves subatomic particles.