Higgs boson in fiction

The Higgs boson has appeared in several works of fiction in popular culture. These references rarely reflect the expected properties of the hypothetical elementary particle, or do so only vaguely, and often imbue it with fantastic properties.

*In the science fantasy series "Lexx", one character points out that although all-out nuclear war sometimes destroys all life on planets as advanced as Earth, it is much more common for such planets to be obliterated by physicists attempting to determine the precise mass of the Higgs boson particle. The particle colliders used to perform the calculations reach critical mass at the moment the mass of the particle is known, causing an explosion which destroys the planets and then collapses it into a nugget of super-dense matter "roughly the size of a pea."

*In Stanisław Lem's "Solaris", a space station crew deals with an inexplicable presence of other people, including absent or deceased friends and relatives — apparently the creations of an alien phenomenon they are studying. They discover that their visitors, when killed, always return to life, even if they attempt to kill themselves. (In the novel, these "ghosts" are described as being constructed from long-range energy fields derived from bound states of neutrinos.) In Steven Soderbergh's 2002 film adaptation, the script has a reference to Higgs bosons, absent in the original: "So, if we created a negative Higgs field, and bombarded them with a stream of Higgs anti-bosons, they might disintegrate."

*In Brian Aldiss's "White Mars" an expedition is established to go to Mars to find Higgs bosons which is believed to hold the key in solving the question of where mass comes from. The reason that Mars is considered is that Earth and the Moon are "too noisy" from all the human activity for the experiment. The way they go about it is by having a ring with superconductive fluid, Argon 36, and waiting till they see an error which will signify a Higgs particle has passed through the fluid.

*In Robert J. Sawyer's "Flashforward" an experiment at CERN to find Higgs particle causes the consciousness of the entire human race to be sent twenty years into the future. [Sawyer R., "Flashforward", Tor Books, 1999, ISBN 0-312-86712-3]

*In John Ringo's "Into the Looking Glass" the University of Central Florida is destroyed by a 60 kiloton explosion that is first thought to be a nuclear weapon, but turns out to be a mishap with a Higgs Boson. This also leads to gateways to other worlds and a war with the aliens on the other side of the gates.

*In Richard Cox's "The God Particle" American business man Steve Keeley is thrown out of a window and falls three stories, but wakes up and begins to see the world in a different way--he is able to accurately predict future events, read others' thoughts, and manipulate his environment. [Cox R., "The God Particle", Random House, 2005, ISBN-13: 9780345462855]

*In Herman Wouk's "A Hole In Texas", the real science behind the Higgs boson is used as a backdrop for a satire on Washington politics, the chase for funding in scientific communities, and Hollywood blockbusters. In fact, the Hollywood portion of the satire has much to do with the wild flights of fancy in evidence in many of the other entries on this list. Much of the plot is based on the real-life aborted Superconducting Super Collider project. [Wouk H., "A Hole in Texas", Little, Brown and Company, 2004, ISBN 0-316-52590-1]

*The particle also appears in other, non-narrative art forms: Frank Zappa's posthumously released album Trance-Fusion contains an instrumental track called 'Finding Higgs' Boson'.

*On the 01-18-08 Episode Number: 73 Season Num: 4 CBS T.V. show NUMB3RS. Higgs-Boson was mentioned, when Amita Ramanujan (Navi Rawat), is asked by Larry Fleinhardt (Peter MacNicol), to help solve the Higgs Boson theory.

*On March 26, 2008, xkcd posted the comic " [http://xkcd.com/401/ Large Hadron Collider] " and while they didn't find the Higgs Boson, they had a lot of fun with the supercollider.

* In the September 15, 2008 episode of Rob and Elliot, titled " [http://www.robandelliot.cycomics.com/archive.php?id=341 Real Inventions] ", Rob claims to be a genius inventor because he has put a clock on a toaster. When Elliot tells him he must do something new to be considered a genius, Rob proceeds to prove the Higgs boson - and puts a clock on his proof.
*In the Japanese science fiction anime Martian Successor Nadesico 'boson jumping', which is shown as the activation of a sort of temporary subspace wormhole by bending the laws of physics, plays a large role in the plot.

*On the television show "Numb3rs", Peter MacNicol's character Dr. Larry Fleinhardt is working as part of a team in search of the Higgs boson.

*More realistically, CERN's Large Hadron Collider is the subject of a CERN-produced rap video featuring some of its own staff: http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/08/cern-rap-video-about-the-large-hadron-collider-creates-a-black-h/ and http://www.vimeo.com/1431471?pg=embed&sec=1431471.

*On the day that the Large Hadron Collider was activated, BBC Radio 4 broadcast "Lost Souls", a science fiction radio drama set at CERN and dealing with the discovery of the Higgs boson.

* In the anime series "Code Geass", the piloted robots called Knightmare Frames make use of a flight pack that is said to generate a Higgs field in order to counteract the force of gravity.

* The website Abstruse Goose features a comic " [http://abstrusegoose.com/49/ Dear CERN] " describing the search for the Higgs boson, and ending with the punchline "You don't find the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson finds you."

* In Phil Foglio's comic Girl Genius, there is an airship crewman surnamed "Higgs" who hold the position of bosun.

* In Terry Pratchett's novel Nation, there is a character named Bo'sn Higgs.

References