March 2, 2014 David Latchman

The second week of the FutureLearn course “The Discovery of the Higgs Boson” looks at physics of the 20th century–special relativity and quantum mechanics. These two branches of physics represented a fundamental shift in the way we view the world. It may come as a surprise to some that these deep philosophical shifts have very unexpected origins. Our view of a quantized world came from the need to create a more efficient light bulb while the connection between space and time came from our need to run a more efficient railroad network and international time conventions. Need for a more…

February 15, 2014 David Latchman 1Comment

The Higgs boson has captured the world’s attention from the moment it was announced the Large Hardron Collider was being built to find it. The elementary particle’s discovery was announced by CERN on 4 July 2012 and is nothing short of monumental as it appears to confirm the existence of the Higgs field. This pervasive field is pivotal to understanding why some fundamental particles have mass. As interesting and exciting as this discovery may be, its consequences and implications remain out of reach for the general public. Future Learn, a privately company owned by Open University, along with the University…