British theorist Peter Higgs lives to see his boson

GENEVA — Peter Higgs was no good in the lab, but he never doubted that one day his theory of a powerful subatomic particle that bears his name would be proven right in practice. His surprise was that he lived to see that day.

Speaking at Geneva's CERN research center on Wednesday after experimental physicists announced the discovery of a new particle, a boson much as Higgs imagined half a century ago, he confessed to Reuters he felt "rather dazed but very pleased."

As a schoolboy in Bristol in the southwest of England, the now 83-year-old Higgs admitted to being "incompetent" at science in the laboratory. He went on, however, to specialize in the theoretical realm, applying mathematics to exploring the outer reaches of our understanding of the universe that makes us.

One paper he dispatched from Edinburgh University in 1964, as he was formulating a theory of an elusive particle to explain how an ordered universe emerged from Big Bang, was rejected by an academic physics journal edited at CERN.

But he gave no sign of bearing a grudge when he spent the day at the institution watching its experimental experts vindicate him.

"For me personally it is just the confirmation of something I did 48 years ago, and it is very satisfying to be proved right in some way," Higgs said in the interview. "I haven't been dreaming about it for 48 years because I had other things to do with my life. At the beginning, I had no expectation that I would still be alive when it happened."

That experimental proof had been delivered in his own lifetime was, he said, "incredible," and he suggested the moment would have greatly surprised his early science teachers: "I certainly did some lab work as a schoolboy in Bristol. I was incompetent," he said, a boyish grin flitting across his round face.

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For nearly three decades, physicists at CERN and at the Fermilab research center in Illinois had tried to find what became known as the "Higgs boson" in particle colliders creating mini- explosions duplicating the big bang of 13.7 billion years ago.

The physicists hedged its bets in their report on Wednesday, and held back on claiming it had discovered the Higgs until they had time to "get inside" it, but they were sure they had found a new particle.

No hint of resentment The rotund, bespectacled theoretical physicist, who for many years held a professorial chair at Edinburgh University, gave no hint of schadenfreude over the fact that his original idea was rejected by a CERN journal as being "of no relevance to physics."

"What I did 48 years ago wasn't very specific," he said. Earlier, at a news conference, he had refused to get into what his feelings were. "This day belongs to CERN and the people who work here," he insisted.

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Higgs, who has strong views on what is good and bad about science and resigned from a movement for nuclear disarmament when it began campaigning against the harnessing of nuclear energy, makes clear he has no religious faith.

He said he was not worried by the fact that it was not yet finally established whether the new boson — sometimes dubbed, to his disgust and that of all CERN scientists, "the God particle" — was exactly as he conceived it.

His vision of a particle linked to a force field that attracted the flying debris of the big bang and turned it into stars, planets and galaxies "was about a type of theory, and I'm not particularly bothered if this is a single Higgs boson or one of several," he told Reuters.

But, he added, it would be "rather surprising" if study of the new boson over the coming months in CERN's Large Hadron Collider showed "deviations from the expectations for the properties of any kind of Higgs boson."

CERN experts say that if such a scenario — discovery that the new boson was something totally outside their expectations — were to unfold, the whole modern concept of how the universe works would have to be reviewed.

End of an era? Or a beginning? The Higgs, in its basic form, has long been seen as filling in the last major gap in the so-called Standard Model of physics. That model, drawn up in the 1970s, describes the way the universe works at the most elementary level.

"From the point of view of future physics," said the scientist, "it seems to me that in one way it is the end of an era in that it appears to complete the Standard Model. But the more important thing is that studying it [the new particle] will lead onto what lies beyond that model which we hope will have more interesting connections with cosmology, the dark matter problem and that sort of thing."

CERN physicists say the finding of the boson — widely hailed as the biggest advance in knowledge about the cosmos for over 30 years — will open the door to probing this and other ideas that were once the stuff of science fiction.

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Gravity remains unexplained outside the model, although it is the force that created the black holes at the center of galaxies and elsewhere in the universe.

Other concepts that scientists say could now be examined more closely are supersymmetry, the idea that all particles have a much heavier counterpart; the dark matter believed to make up about 23 percent of the universe but cannot be seen; and the dark energy that constitutes anotgher 72 percent.

"You may call it science fiction, but to me these are speculative theories which have been around for quite some time, and it's only now they are beginning to be tested," said Higgs.

"As with the Higgs boson, there's a lot of theoretical motivation for some parts of these theories to be true, in particular supersymmetry, which I think most people would say is a necessary feature of any theory that is going to unify the Standard Model with gravity.

"If we don't unify these theories with gravity, there is something very funny going on, because gravity on its own doesn't fit in properly with quantum theory" — the overriding theory of the nature of matter which evolved in the first half of the 20th century.

Frank Ocean's talent and sexuality could push musical boundaries

Frank Ocean’s Def Jam debut, “Channel Orange,” isn’t due for two weeks, but the album has had Twitter abuzz for days.

As the Odd Future crooner previewed the highly anticipated disc for press, attention shifted to his sexuality after one blogger’s brief mention that when he sings about love on a number of tracks he uses “him” as opposed to “her.”

It was that quick line that has dominated the blogosphere.

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What was fascinating about the rampant speculation about Ocean isn’t that it spread so quickly (much of this week’s headlines have centered on Anderson Cooper confirming his sexual orientation), but rather how many blogs haphazardly drafted their own analysis, most of them without having heard the album.

Now we know for sure: Tuesday evening Ocean took to his Tumblr to address the spreading headlines. In a preface post, he wrote that he would be posting what was originally meant to appear in the liner notes for “Channel Orange.” He made clear that he lived the lyrics in his songs, which he sings with such an intense passion, urgency and plainness. This was his story.

“With all the rumors going round.. i figured it’d be good to clarify..,” he wrote.

In the letter – actually a screenshot of a note document – he describes the first time he fell in love with a man and how the relationship progressed. He bluntly stated, “I don't know what happens now, and that's alrite. I don’t have any secrets I need kept anymore.”

“4 summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide,” Ocean wrote in part of the letter. “Most of the day I'd see him, and his smile. I'd hear his conversation and his silence ... until it was time to sleep. Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless...”

The straightforward letter – which can be read in its entirety here – is undoubtedly the glass ceiling moment for music. Especially black music, which has long been in desperate need of a voice like Ocean’s to break the layers of homophobia. There are plenty of reasons this moment has so much weight. Too many for any single article to explore.

Ocean has never talked at length about his personal life, leaving his music and its often-complex narratives to drive the conversation. But in a culture where the gossip increasingly and frustratingly outweighs the music, Ocean’s casual and candid approach to addressing his personal life, and revealing his personal truth of having loved a man, will be seen as groundbreaking. 

There was no cover story, no anonymous sources or PR-orchestrated announcement (though this is not to demean those celebrities who have taken those approaches to this issue). Sure this will be seen as his "coming out" but it should be noted he doesn't use the word "gay" or "bisexual," and his letter isn't about caving to the pressures of the labels we are so quick to pass out. 

Ocean told his story on his terms and in his own words, something virtually unheard of in hip-hop and R&B -- genres he has already pushed forward artistically with his work, and could push further. 

Thursday, Ocean played the disc for a small group of music reporters at Los Angeles’ Capitol Records.

“This will take about an hour of your life,” he said before focusing on the control board and bobbing his head to the album, a stellar kaleidoscope of atmospheric beats, lush harmonies and those complex narratives he's known for.

“It’s a bad religion, to be in love with someone who can never love you,” he muses over an organ on “Bad Religion,” one of the track’s catching attention along with the Andre 3000-assisted “Pink Matter” and the album’s wrenching closer “Forrest Gump,” where he sings of a boy he once knew.

"You're running on my mind, boy," he offers on the track.

The reaction to Ocean’s revelation is still uncertain –- although any negativity can be drowned out by the album’s raw beauty and masterful craftsmanship. The outpouring of tweets supporting Ocean has made it clear that he's going to get a fair amount of love from fans and the industry, with some already touting him as a hero and a trailblazer. Being someone of his stature will place a heavy burden on his shoulders as being the "first," but this moment was so very necessary. 

Hopefully, in the wake of his letter, the urban community will fully embrace Ocean for his honesty and bravery. It's impossible he's alone.