Have We Reached the End of Particle Physics?

When I was a boy, I used to think that all our cosmos was nothing but particles of the wooden handle of a big, big spoon.

Primordial Soup is Good Food.

Yes, soup is important, and one of the things you most clearly remember of your parents home throughout your life.

I remember my mother sweeping as well, and later while at secondary school (juniors high ?), as opposed to the wooden handle idea, it occured to me that the dust swirls from her broom actually lasted millions of Eons for someone that was small enough to live in them; or that worlds could be developing in the very inside of a burning match flame... yeah, lots of spare time !

The question provides its own answer, No! there is still the question to answer.

Maybe not....

1) It's turtles all the way down....

2) Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
and little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.

Quark! quark! said the dork.

You're just stringing me along!

--Einstein's brane.

I read through this very patiently, desperately hoping that it might finally come to an end before Particle Physics ever did (which itself seems at the very least half as far as infinity, and beyond), and finally started wondering which had had the most significant impact on humanity. The fact that a guy called Higgs had carelessly misplaced his Bosun, or the fact that Fish & Chips are no longer served in newspaper. I'll publish the results of my extensive research once I've thought up a snappy title.

First, let me thank the CR4 blogger for selecting a very nice article from National Geographic. The article gives a very good layman's explanation on the search and significance of one of the postulated Higgs Boson(s). Along with further confirming experiments of this particle to be done at the LHC, there will also be the exploration to determine if this is the only Higgs Boson or if this is one of a family of Higgs Bosons. (All are anticipated to exist in the energy levels the LHC can produce.)My only nit to pick of this article is that it is still early to make definitive conclusions on the LHC data about the Higgs Boson. The article does clearly state that still more Physics research needs to be done but this only implies that more research on this particle(s) and the data needed to verify it will be needed.

Now as the article questions, this might actually be the beginning of the "end of particle physics" but only in the realm of finding any new particles themselves. The quest for verifying their attributes will be the very next step. Knowing the complete set of particles that make up the universe allows for much more research to be done on how these particles make up the universe.