“I had a bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the Higgs particle wouldn’t be found.”
- January 8, 1942 – March 14, 2018
- British
- Theoretical physicist, science writer
- Announced the black hole singularity theorem and Hawking radiation, and contributed to the popularization of science with his book “Talking about the Universe”
Quote
“I had a bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the Higgs particle wouldn’t be found.”
Explanation
In this quote, Stephen Hawking humorously refers to a bet he made with Gordon Kane, a prominent theoretical physicist at the University of Michigan. The subject of their bet was the Higgs boson, a particle whose existence was first proposed in 1964 by Peter Higgs and several other physicists as part of the Standard Model of particle physics. The Higgs boson is crucial for explaining how elementary particles acquire mass through the Higgs field, an energy field that permeates the universe.
For many years, the Higgs boson was one of the most sought-after particles in physics, and its discovery was considered pivotal to completing the Standard Model. Despite decades of searches, it remained elusive. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the world’s largest particle accelerator, was specifically designed to try and detect this particle. Hawking’s bet with Kane highlights how even some of the leading physicists had doubts about the Higgs boson’s existence, reflecting the uncertainty and speculative nature of cutting-edge research.
In 2012, the Higgs boson was finally discovered at the LHC, marking one of the most significant breakthroughs in modern physics. This discovery validated much of the Standard Model and confirmed the theoretical framework that had been developed over decades. Hawking’s bet, therefore, became a memorable piece of scientific history, underscoring the complexity and unpredictability of fundamental physics, even for those deeply immersed in the field. It also serves as a reminder that scientific progress often involves a balance between skepticism and open-mindedness, and that even well-respected physicists can be proven wrong.
