Higgs boson in fiction
Encyclopedia
The Higgs boson
has appeared in several works of fiction
in popular culture
. These references rarely reflect the expected properties of the hypothetical elementary particle
, or do so only vaguely, and often imbue it with fantastic properties. Some examples are shown below.
, it is said that planets which develop on a path similar to Earth are type 13 planets which are sometimes destroyed by all-out nuclear war
, but it is much more common for such planets to be obliterated by physicists attempting to determine the precise mass of the Higgs boson particle. The particle colliders used to perform the calculations reach critical mass at the moment the mass of the particle is known, causing an implosion which destroys the planet and then collapses it into a nugget of super-dense matter "roughly the size of a pea
." The mass of the particle was a repeating 131313 matching the name "type 13 planet" and this also is in the predicted range of the particle's mass.
, a space station crew deals with an inexplicable presence of other people, including absent or deceased friends and relatives — apparently the creations of an alien phenomenon they are studying. They discover that their visitors, when killed, always return to life, even if they attempt to kill themselves. (In the novel, these "ghosts" are described as being constructed from long-range energy fields derived from bound states of neutrino
s.) In Steven Soderbergh
's 2002 film adaptation
, the script has a reference to Higgs bosons, absent in the original: "So, if we created a negative Higgs field, and bombarded them with a stream of Higgs anti-bosons, they might disintegrate."
's White Mars, an expedition is established to go to Mars
to find Higgs bosons which is believed to hold the key to solving the question of where mass comes from. The reason that Mars is considered is that Earth and the Moon are "too noisy" from all the human activity for the experiment. The way they go about it is by having a ring of superconductive fluid, Argon 36, and waiting till they see an error which will signify a Higgs particle has passed through the fluid.
's Flashforward
, an experiment at CERN
to find the Higgs particle causes the consciousness of the entire human race to be temporarily sent twenty-one years into the future.
's Into the Looking Glass
, the University of Central Florida is destroyed by a 60 kiloton explosion that is first thought to be a nuclear weapon, but turns out to be a mishap from a Higgs boson research experiment. Following the explosion, gateways to other worlds are opened and a war with the aliens on the other side of the gates begins.
's The God Particle, American business man Steve Keeley is thrown out of a window and falls three stories, then wakes up and begins to see the world in a different way; he is able to accurately predict future events, read others' thoughts, and manipulate his environment.
's A Hole In Texas
, the real science behind the Higgs boson is used as a backdrop for a satire on Washington politics, the chase for funding in scientific communities, and Hollywood blockbusters. In fact, the Hollywood portion of the satire has much to do with the wild flights of fancy in evidence in many of the other entries on this list. Much of the plot is based on the aborted Superconducting Super Collider
project.
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics. Its existence is postulated as a means of resolving inconsistencies in the Standard Model...
has appeared in several works of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
in popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. These references rarely reflect the expected properties of the hypothetical elementary particle
Elementary particle
In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a particle not known to have substructure; that is, it is not known to be made up of smaller particles. If an elementary particle truly has no substructure, then it is one of the basic building blocks of the universe from which...
, or do so only vaguely, and often imbue it with fantastic properties. Some examples are shown below.
Lexx
In the science fantasy series LexxLexx
Lexx is a science fantasy television series that follows the adventures of a group of mismatched individuals aboard the organic space craft Lexx. They travel through two universes and encounter planets including a parody of the Earth....
, it is said that planets which develop on a path similar to Earth are type 13 planets which are sometimes destroyed by all-out nuclear war
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
, but it is much more common for such planets to be obliterated by physicists attempting to determine the precise mass of the Higgs boson particle. The particle colliders used to perform the calculations reach critical mass at the moment the mass of the particle is known, causing an implosion which destroys the planet and then collapses it into a nugget of super-dense matter "roughly the size of a pea
Pea
A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...
." The mass of the particle was a repeating 131313 matching the name "type 13 planet" and this also is in the predicted range of the particle's mass.
Solaris
In Stanisław Lem's SolarisSolaris (novel)
Solaris is a 1961 Polish science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem. It is about the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species....
, a space station crew deals with an inexplicable presence of other people, including absent or deceased friends and relatives — apparently the creations of an alien phenomenon they are studying. They discover that their visitors, when killed, always return to life, even if they attempt to kill themselves. (In the novel, these "ghosts" are described as being constructed from long-range energy fields derived from bound states of neutrino
Neutrino
A neutrino is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with a half-integer spin, chirality and a disputed but small non-zero mass. It is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected...
s.) In Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
's 2002 film adaptation
Solaris (2002 film)
Solaris is a 2002 science fiction film and psychological drama directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone...
, the script has a reference to Higgs bosons, absent in the original: "So, if we created a negative Higgs field, and bombarded them with a stream of Higgs anti-bosons, they might disintegrate."
White Mars
In Brian AldissBrian Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society...
's White Mars, an expedition is established to go to Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
to find Higgs bosons which is believed to hold the key to solving the question of where mass comes from. The reason that Mars is considered is that Earth and the Moon are "too noisy" from all the human activity for the experiment. The way they go about it is by having a ring of superconductive fluid, Argon 36, and waiting till they see an error which will signify a Higgs particle has passed through the fluid.
Flashforward
In Robert J. SawyerRobert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
's Flashforward
Flashforward (novel)
Flashforward is a science fiction novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer first published in 1999. The novel is set in 2009. At CERN, the Large Hadron Collider accelerator is performing a run to search for the Higgs boson. The experiment has a unique side effect: the entire human race loses...
, an experiment at CERN
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
to find the Higgs particle causes the consciousness of the entire human race to be temporarily sent twenty-one years into the future.
Into the Looking Glass
In John RingoJohn Ringo
John Ringo is an American science fiction and military fiction author. He has had several New York Times best sellers. His books range from straightforward science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers...
's Into the Looking Glass
Into the Looking Glass
Into the Looking Glass, by John Ringo, is the first in the Looking Glass military hard science fiction series. The story involves travel through portals called looking glasses, the discovery of alternate worlds and the aliens that inhabit them....
, the University of Central Florida is destroyed by a 60 kiloton explosion that is first thought to be a nuclear weapon, but turns out to be a mishap from a Higgs boson research experiment. Following the explosion, gateways to other worlds are opened and a war with the aliens on the other side of the gates begins.
The God Particle
In Richard CoxRichard L. Cox
Richard Cox is an American author. He has published two novels with The Random House Publishing Group: Rift and The God Particle. He currently resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma....
's The God Particle, American business man Steve Keeley is thrown out of a window and falls three stories, then wakes up and begins to see the world in a different way; he is able to accurately predict future events, read others' thoughts, and manipulate his environment.
A Hole In Texas
In Herman WoukHerman Wouk
Herman Wouk is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author of novels including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.-Biography:...
's A Hole In Texas
A Hole In Texas
A Hole In Texas is a novel by Herman Wouk. Published in 2004, the book describes the adventures of a high-energy physicist following the surprise announcement that a Chinese physicist had discovered the long-sought Higgs boson.Parts of the plot are based on the aborted Superconducting Super...
, the real science behind the Higgs boson is used as a backdrop for a satire on Washington politics, the chase for funding in scientific communities, and Hollywood blockbusters. In fact, the Hollywood portion of the satire has much to do with the wild flights of fancy in evidence in many of the other entries on this list. Much of the plot is based on the aborted Superconducting Super Collider
Superconducting Super Collider
The Superconducting Super Collider was a particle accelerator complex under construction in the vicinity of Waxahachie, Texas that was set to be world's largest and most energetic, surpassing the current record held by the Large Hadron Collider. Its planned ring circumference was with an energy...
project.
Others
The particle also appears in other, non-narrative art forms:- Frank ZappaFrank ZappaFrank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
's posthumously released album Trance-FusionTrance-FusionTrance-Fusion is the name of an album of guitar solos completed by Frank Zappa shortly before his death, but not released until 2006. The album had previously been announced for release in 1999, and 2003 and again announced in 2005 in relation to the Zappa Plays Zappa tour...
contains an instrumental track called 'Finding Higgs' Boson'.
- In the Japanese science fiction anime Martian Successor NadesicoMartian Successor Nadesico, is a science fiction comedy anime TV series, and a later manga series created by Kia Asamiya. The manga, published in English by CPM Manga, is significantly different from the anime....
'boson jumping', which is shown as the activation of a sort of temporary subspace wormhole by bending the laws of physics, plays a large role in the plot. The name 'boson jump' comes from the (apparently incidental) increase of boson particles in the vicinity and the anime also includes mention of the advanced potential of the Wheeler-Feynman Time-Symmetric Theory.
- On the television show Numb3rsNUMB3RSNumb3rs is an American television drama which premiered on CBS on January 23, 2005, and concluded on March 12, 2010. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, and follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes , who helps Don solve crimes...
, Peter MacNicolPeter MacNicolPeter MacNicol is an American actor. He may be best known in films for his roles of Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II, Stingo in Sophie's Choice, Thomas Renfield in Dracula: Dead and Loving It and David Langley in Bean...
's character, Dr. Larry Fleinhardt is working as part of a team in search of the Higgs boson.
- More realistically, CERN's Large Hadron ColliderLarge Hadron ColliderThe Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature....
is the subject of a CERN-produced rapRappingRapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
video featuring some of its own staff.
- On the day that the Large Hadron Collider was activated, BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
broadcast "Lost SoulsLost Souls (Torchwood)"Lost Souls" is an original BBC Radio 4 audio play written by Joseph Lidster and is a spin-off from the British science fiction television series Torchwood, itself a spin-off from Doctor Who. It aired on 10 September 2008 in the Afternoon Play slot as part of Radio 4's Big Bang Day which celebrated...
", a science fiction radio drama set at CERN, dealing with the discovery of the Higgs boson.
- In the animeAnimeis the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series Code Geass, the piloted robots called Knightmare FrameKnightmare Frame, or simply Knightmares, officially designated as the Humanoid Autonomous Armored Knight, are a form of mecha in the Sunrise anime series Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. In the series, they were developed by the Holy Britannian Empire...
s, make use of a flight pack that is said to generate a Higgs field in order to counteract the force of gravity.
- In Terry PratchettTerry PratchettSir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
's novel NationNation (novel)Nation is a Terry Pratchett novel, published in the UK on September 11, 2008. It is the first non-Discworld Pratchett novel since Johnny and the Bomb . Nation is in an alternate history of our world in the 1860s. The book received recognition as a Michael L...
, there is a character named Bo'sn Higgs.
- The Higgs boson is mentioned briefly on several occasions in the Angels and DemonsAngels and Demons (film)Angels & Demons is a 2009 American mystery-thriller film directed by Ron Howard and based on Dan Brown's novel by the same name. It is the Interquel or third film, although the book was published first in series chronology. Filming of Angels & Demons took place in Rome, Italy, and the Sony Pictures...
film.
- The GN Particle in the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam 00, appears to be a name substitution for the Higgs boson particle as well as containing several of the property the Higgs boson is theorized to have.
- In an episode of SyfySyfySyfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
's EurekaEureka (TV series)Eureka is an American science fiction television series that premiered on Syfy on July 18, 2006. Since then four seasons have aired, and a fifth is currently being filmed. The second half of season 4 began on SyFy on July 11, 2011 and ended on September 19, 2011...
, they mention the possibility of finding the Higgs boson when using a rotating collider.
- Post-Rock band, Tides from Nebula, has a track on their album "Aura" called Higgs boson.
- The Coen brothersCoen BrothersJoel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
2009 film, 'A Serious ManA Serious ManA Serious Man is a 2009 dark comedy written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and personally, leading to questions about his faith...
', reveals endless layers of references to particle physics, and to Higg's boson explicitly.