The God Particle: Android Users Can Now Help Look For The Higgs Boson!

Want to see the collision of protons in real time? All you need is a Smartphone that runs Google Android. Now you can view the world’s highest energy particle accelerator smashing subatomic particles in your phones and tablets in real time and in 3D.

Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful machine belonging to CERN used to accelerate and observe the universe’s smallest particles, and now there is an app for that. Scientists at Oxford University created an app approved by CERN called ‘LHSee’ through which Android users can watch particles colliding on their screens in real time, and even play a game called ‘Hunt for Higgs’ which is about finding the hypothetical Higgs Boson, also called the ‘God Particle’.

With the help of this real time application, users can view the collision of particles at any point of time through a live feed. The smashing of protons is shown using computer generated 3D models which enables users to see the images from every angle. This app will allow users to learn how LHC works and have a quick look at the research going on.

Dr. Alan Barr wrote on the the university of Oxford’s science blog:

“For ages I’d been thinking that with the amazing capabilities on modern smart phones we really ought to be able to make a really great app—something that would allow everybody to access the LHC data.”

The game ‘Hunt the Higgs’ (which is not part of the actual research) lets the user look for the Higgs Boson, which has managed to elude physicists to date. The hunt for the particle will be carried out by observing the slides of reaction and to distinguish between the present particles. According to physicists, Higgs Boson will help in explaining how matter has mass and the people at LHC are hopeful that they will prove its existence by 2012.

The app would not show users all the data because the collider generates more than several GB per second and there will be no numerical value assigned to any picture in the imagery, so users won’t be able to perform any analysis on the particle data. The app also includes animated tutorials about LHC and videos on how LHC was constructed and its operation.

The LHC app can be downloaded from Google Android Marketplace and according to the market, users have downloaded the app more than 10,000 times.

Dr. Alan Barr hopes that through this application people will appreciate science more and will inspire some potential physicists to enter this field.

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