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The Higgs Boson Is Like…Justin Bieber? A Giraffe?

Our favorite ridiculous physics analogies of the past week.

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The Higgs boson is like…a bomb wire…or a giraffe.

By July 06, 20120

Even though Cara Santa Maria of the Huffington Post isn’t a physics expert (wipe those smirks off your faces, guys — she’s actually a neuroscientist), she’ll use an incredibly complicated metaphor to explain the Higgs boson. And she’ll talk really fast while doing it. So everyone’s looking for a wire in a bomb, and that’s the Higgs. Or, if you didn’t like that analogy, consider thinking about the Higgs as a giraffe. At this point Santa Maria apologizes for how poorly she explained everything and asks readers to submit their own analogies.

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    Fernando1958
    Fernando1958

    I think Eliana Dockterman has a problem with Cara Santa Maria. The analogy was pretty clear. Everybody knows what a bomb is and that the residues are at a minimum and confusing when doing an investigation (CSI anybody?).

    Saying that Cara used an "incredibly complicated metaphor" is a bit far fetch.

    Anybody that reach Cara's website has the intelligence to understand the metaphor she used... well, all except one :P

    stevlich
    stevlich

    I didn't see anything wrong with her explanation of the Higgs Boson. Of course nothing cool is ever discovered like electricity flowing backward or anti-gravity.  Everyday life is far too brutally logical to wake us up from the induced coma that eventlessness produces.