The layman's understanding of the matter may be asymptotically limited: http://www.isgtw.org/images/2010/Chast_2010_04_26.jpg
Re:The Higgs Boson - A one page explanation
by pavel_lishin on Wednesday July 27, 2011 @10:30AM
(#2812271)
I think I remember my father telling me about a cat who wandered into a particle collider as it was being built. It died inside, and nobody realized it until they tried to pump it down to a vacuum - and kept failing, because the dead animal kept outgassing.
I can't find any corroborating evidence after a 5 minute google search, so it might be an urban legend - but regardless, the answer to the next-to-last question is pretty well known.
The story of a Russian physicist sticking his head in an accelerator is told here: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/3468/what-would-h.... Half of his face was badly burnt but he survived and even completed his PhD!
They are not trying to explain scientific thought. they are trying to explain the theory they are experimenting to prove.
They cover your 1st topic fine (read only 1st and 2nd links from the page. second link was the best in my humble opinion). Your other 3 topics are just required if explaining scientific thought model.
Someone needs to explain the following clearly:
* What if the Higgs boson doesn't exist? does this mean Gigg' theory is incorrect?
* What is Higgs' theory is totally incorrect?
* What if the boson has mass 10M (or 10000M) rather than M, how would the world (universe) be different?
* If the boson is found, are we "done", i.e. can we proceed with a coming up with a GUT?