i don't understand this either

from gominokouhai

"I never really understood the Higgs Boson. It's supposed to give mass to other particles by dint of its very proximity, in the same manner, it was explained to me once, as you get a cluster of people surrounding Maggie Thatcher at a costume party[0]. But if the Higgs Boson is a boson, then it's a particle with mass, and nobody could ever explain to me where it gets its mass."

I am still ridiculously tired. Boy am I going to be a pussy at badminton..

You say Higgs boson, I say hugs bosom..

Thanks for the answers to last post,  but i don't even understand *them*. I'm not used to being so lacking in a field I can't even get the Wikipedia explanation.. I have Physics A Higher from 1978 damnit!!:-)

Let's start again. What's a boson? Is it as attractive as a bosom?

Oh that Italo Calvino was still writing CosmiComics.. (why isn't there an xkcd on this yet, huh??)

(Actually I did by lucky accident hear half a prg on R4 called Flying particles and have tentive hopes for explanations in the next part - they'd only got as far as neutrinos which I actually know about! albeit via Isaac Asimov!)

Nice normal mature vet student turned out to be no good as she spends her weekends in York and/or Fife - not good for catsitting. Do I go with clever male postdoc waster (not really - but he has managed to get to age of 35 with no belongings or house) or see more people (they still keep ringing!)? Sigh.