這幾天,讓我最關心的新聞除了一級方程式賽車,就是那個地下一百公尺、長達二十七公里追尋「上帝的粒子」的龐大計畫(LHC)。它對我的意義,主要是這個世界上有幾十個國家、一大群人,正孜孜矻矻地,願意為夢想與科學實踐上幹點「正事」,其中,包括大陸中科院高能物理研究所的科學家。我每天花一、兩小時耗在中外網上,觀看這個讓英國物理學家霍金,押下一百美元打賭LHC實驗找不到被喻為「上帝粒子」的「希格斯粒子」(Higgs)
我瞎讀了一些報導後,對於這個我私稱「物質究竟」的熱鬧,不要說得其門而入,連門兒都沒有。它跟黑洞到底有什麼關係?實驗意義及目的為何?要過濾出人、物、線上諸多消息來源,對無足夠物理基礎的我來說,實夸父追日、不自量力之笑舉。可大外行就不能有興趣嗎?這是心虛之言。但我不怕鬧笑話,不懂就虛心請教,這篇文章目的就是希望有相關專家能驚鴻一瞥,就自私說吧,能為我個人解釋、解釋(LHC)。
就在股溝一般搜索打上「Higgs particle」,如果資訊排序沒改變、您的電腦沒意外,在第二位會出現www.physlink.com/education/網站「What is a Higgs Particle?」
The Higgs particle is as yet a hypothetical particle invoked to explain why the carriers of the electroweak force (the W and Z bosons) have mass. Quantum electrodynamics requires the photon to have zero mass (which is good because indeed it does), but early attempts to develop and electroweak theory also required the bosons to be massless, (which is bad because then they would be as abundant as the photon in the universe, which indeed they are not). Peter Higgs and two Belgian researchers (who worked independently of Higgs) come across the same idea for settling the puzzle in 1964. If there is an otherwise undetectable field filling the universe (now called the Higgs field), it could have associated with it a previously unknown kind of boson, the Higgs particle, which has mass. This would allow any photon-like particle to become massive by swallowing up a Higgs boson. It is possible, but not proven, that all-massive particles get their mass this way.
Answered by: Dan Summons, Physics Undergrad Student, UOS, Souhampton
叭啦叭啦…相關資訊若江海之廣,就隨便舉個例,單單「the W and Z bosons,」就花了我一小時枯搜,沒辦法,閱讀能力有限,又眼高手低,不太信任大部份的國內外電譯稿,漫漫茫茫中,抓不到要領,最末自己都覺得:「這一頭熱地幹什麼?真浪費時間,增進自己的學習與討論能力沒有?」
後來上路透社,我坑坑巴巴的英文能力,讀這類物理科技新聞都力有未逮,仍再找ABC、BBC、telegraph.co.uk等,我的閱讀速度於查找科技字典間,降到大概一小時8-10個行句之間。如果上西方專論型的科學網站,我想,那正是鴨子聽雷了。魯賓遜漂流記Daneil Deford說:「 我的寫作原則,是假設對五百個不同職業的群眾說話,而使每一個人都聽得懂。」可科學不是寫作或新聞報導,說到「 Higgs」:

圖片來源http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20080910/waccelerator10/0909acceleratorgraphic750big.jpg
隨便上點「小菜」,都不免有宇宙繁浩、望洋興嘆、自覺渺小之緒,這世上真的有些東西不是人人能搞得來的。想到腳下有個27公里長的大東西轟轟烈烈,只能錦上添花,向科學家窮究的毅力致敬!還有個雜想,知識的力量,其碼得先來自語言,無怪當年大唐三藏玄奘法師求法要精學梵文...