What do you think of the New York Times article? I like the bit about what the scientist who's attributed with giving it the nickname "God Particle" wanted to call it. But I can't say I'm familiar enough with the theories and facts to know how close any of what the Times says is remotely accurate.
And there's part of the underlying problem. In a country where more people would be able to pick out Snooki from a police lineup than either of their own state's U.S. Senators, mass media has to resort to ultra-simplistic metaphors and sideshow strategies to get people to care about things like the Higgs boson. And they need to somehow attract and keep their attention from that sort of sideshow in order to get even that much information to "the asses." (No, that's not a typo). Hence, the rap video in the NBC piece and Kaku's rather glib (and imperfect) explanation on CNN.com. Honestly, I'm surprised that they tried at all.
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And there's part of the underlying problem. In a country where more people would be able to pick out Snooki from a police lineup than either of their own state's U.S. Senators, mass media has to resort to ultra-simplistic metaphors and sideshow strategies to get people to care about things like the Higgs boson. And they need to somehow attract and keep their attention from that sort of sideshow in order to get even that much information to "the asses." (No, that's not a typo). Hence, the rap video in the NBC piece and Kaku's rather glib (and imperfect) explanation on CNN.com. Honestly, I'm surprised that they tried at all.
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