0 to 60 in less than 6seconds

60 years of my life in less than 6 seconds

When I was a small boy, I used to go to my Nan and Grand-dad's house in Bower Lane, Maidstone, to watch television.   My Mum and Dad didn't have a television, TVs were an expensive luxury in the early1950's.  There were only two channels (broadcasters), The BBC and ITV.  There were no colour broadcasts or colour TVs on which to watch them.   Everything was in black and white!

Much of the programmes (shows) on TV were live and there was no such thing as a programme planner, consequently, if programmes overan, schedules were disrupted. To overcome such problems the BBC commissioned and ran short films which were politely named 'Interludes'.  One of my favourites was a speeded up film of a train journey between London Victoria and Brighton in Sussex. "London to Brighton in 4minutes".  For some unknown reason, this film just popped into my mind. 

To view London to Brighton in 4 minutes follow the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6Ll96VNuSc&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Watching this film now, which as a little boy I really looked forward to viewing repeatedly, it is quite mind boggling how naive and basic entertainment was and how media innocent and unsophisticated we all were.

Misplaced Architecture No3

Bladed Braces

Recommended for all aspiring boy or girl architects - The 'wobbly bladed' braces from the 'Thames Bridge Range' of suspenders.

These sartorial accessories work best with pre-dampened trousers.

The spiral galaxy in Andromeda

M31 the great spiral galaxy in the constellation of Andromeda 

This week, I took the above photograph of M31 from our backyard.  I am very pleased with this image as it shows a lot more detail than I have managed to obtain in previous attempts to capture this famous deep sky object.  I used my Canon DSLR camera attached directly to my 127mm Meade refractor driven on a NEQ PRO6 Synscan equatorial mount.  I took 25 or more 15 second light subs and a number of dark and flat exposures. These shots were then aligned and stacked in Registax 6.  I used Photoshop to bring out the detail in the spiral arms and to adjust the over exposure of the galactic core.

As well as M31, the satellite galaxy, M32 can be seen in this photograph, above M31 and to the left of centre.  The light from M31 and recorded on my photograph has been travelling through space for over 2.5million years.  Our species had not evolved and our ancestors, Australopithecus Africanus, were hunting and gathering on the African Continent, when these recorded photons of light set off from alien stars outside our home galaxy the Milky Way. This is a real time example of "A galaxy, a long time ago and far away"!

The skull of our common ancestor Australopithecus Africanus

For further information regarding early hominids see:http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/specimen.html 

New Planetary Camera

My first photo with my new camera

Finally got a chance to try out my new planetary camera attached to my refracting telescope.

The sky was blue and the sun was beating down on our backyard, so having made myself a white light filter for my telescope, I set about taking a film clip of images of the sun using my new camera.

Problem was, that after a period of intense solar activity, the sun's disc was almost devoid of spots.  I managed to find a small group very near to the sun's rim and had a go at photographing them.  Its quite difficult focussing on an object near the rim as the curvature of the sun's surface creates difficulties.

Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear visibly as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature. Like magnets, they also have two poles. Although they are at temperatures of roughly 3000–4500 K (2727–4227 °C), the contrast with the surrounding material at about 5780 K (5500 °C) leaves them clearly visible as dark spots, as the luminous intensity of a heated black body (closely approximated by the photosphere) is a function of temperature to the fourth power. If the sunspot were isolated from the surrounding photosphere it would be brighter than an electric arc. Sunspots expand and contract as they move across the surface of the Sun and can be as large as 80,000 kilometers (50,000 mi) in diameter, making the larger ones visible from Earth without the aid of a telescope.^[1] They may also travel at relative speeds ("proper motions") of a few hundred m/s when they first emerge onto the solar photosphere.

Manifesting intense magnetic activity, sunspots host secondary phenomena such as coronal loops (prominences) and reconnectionevents. Most solar flares and coronal mass ejections originate in magnetically active regions around visible sunspot groupings. (Wikipedia)

Sunspot in UV light (taken by the Trace spacecraft)

M13 - Adds lustre to your cluster

The Giant Globular Cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules
(note the galaxy centre right)

Astronomers, even those with bad backs, love a warm clear night.  I took these photographs of M13 after midnight and from my backyard using my 127mm Meade refracting telescope and my Canon DSLR.

M13 is about 145 light-years in diameter, and it is composed of several hundred thousand stars, the brightest of which is thevariable star V11 with an apparent magnitude of 11.95. M13 is 25,100 light-years away from Earth. 

M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, and catalogued by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764.

It is located at right ascension 16^h 41.7^m and declination +36° 28'. With an apparent magnitude of 5.8, it is barely visible with thenaked eye on a very clear night. Its diameter is about 23 arc minutes and it is readily viewable in small telescopes. Nearby isNGC 6207, a 12th magnitude edge-on galaxy that lies 28 arc minutes directly north east. A small galaxy, IC 4617, lies halfway between NGC 6207 and M13, north-northeast of the large globular cluster's center.

(Thanks to Wikipedia)

Enlarged view of the globular cluster

Misplaced Architecture No 2

Never answer distress calls from alien environments, unless
you really like calamari or cephlapods up -close

Thanks to my son, Chrissie H Roberts, for this post picture and idea, which I rather liked!

Out of Site out of Mind

No 1 The Sheared

I have decided to virtually relocate acknowledged architectural masterpieces in a series of contextual variations called "Misplaced Architecture".

Government Warning: Blogging can seriously damage your mental health.

Dawn

Aurora now had left her saffron bed,

And beams of early light the heav'ns o'erspread,

When, from a tow'r, the queen, with wakeful eyes,

Saw day point upward from the rosy skies.

Virgil

Tooty couldn't sleep last night and took these photographs from the north facing window of our bedroom.  In June and July and at our latitude, 52 degrees 29 minutes north, the sun never drops that far below the northern horizon. Consequently, prior to sunrise, the northern horizon shows the rosy glow of a false dawn.

It was a shame that, on the night before, the sky was completely overcast. Apparently, the Northern Lights could be seen only twenty miles north of Lowestoft.

Looking at the NASA site I was much impressed with the images sent back from the 'Dawn' probe, which has been in orbit around the asteroid Vesta.

In particular and for those who kept their 3d spectacles after seeing  'Men in Black 3', NASA's 3d film of the asteroid Vesta is well worth a watch!

See:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/news/dawn20111201.html

"After successfully completing nearly five months scrutinizing the giant asteroid Vesta at its lowest orbit altitude, NASA's Dawn spacecraft is beginning its final major science data-gathering phase at Vesta on June 15, at an average altitude of 420 miles (680 kilometers) above the surface".

"Following this final data gathering phase, Dawn will spend almost five weeks spiraling out from the giant asteroid to the point at which Vesta will lose its gravitational hold on the spacecraft. That departure day is expected to be around Aug. 26. Dawn will turn to view Vesta as it leaves and acquire more data. Then, Dawn will set its sights on the dwarf planet Ceres, and begin a two-and-a-half year journey to investigate the largest body in the main asteroid belt. Dawn will enter orbit around Ceres in 2015". NASA

Aurora Borealis over Foxley, Norfolk. Photo by Chris Bell of Weatherquest.From the EDP site

Red good, grey bad?

Whilst watching my grand-daughter derive such pleasure from feeding peanuts to the grey squirrels in Nicholas Everet Park I started to wonder whether as sentient beings we have lost the plot.  A quick scan through the information and disinformation relating to grey squirrels on the Internet  rather confirms my unease. Depending upon your point of view the grey squirrel is; "the red squirrel's nemesis", "destructor of forests", "vector of 'pox' infection", "enemy of the thrush and hawfinch",  "cuddly friend" or "tasty sandwich filling".








For a non-emotive assessment of the impact of the grey squirrel on the flora and fauna of the UK see:  
http://conservation-issues.co.uk/Articles%20Pages/Grey_Squirrel_Article_07-07.htm

In my opinion us monkeys have a pretty high opinion of ourselves and an alarmingly partisan attitude when assessing the impacts of other species upon the environment.  As our 'Victorian' ancestors introduced the grey squirrel to their parks and gardens for their own amusement, perhaps in the UK, we should take on the responsibility for the welfare of both the grey and red squirrel.  I doubt that eradication of the grey squirrel by itself would ensure the survival of our native red squirrel.  The replacement of coniferous forests by deciduous woods and other man-made environmental impacts will probably be sufficient to see 'Squirrel Nutkin' reduced to an exhibit in zoos or a resident of defended environmental reserves. If this is the case, how sad would it be if the grey squirrel was also absent from our parks and gardens because we decided to make it so?

I have similar concerns regarding the "Gas a badger and save a Dairy Farmer" advocacy.  Nihilistic arguments based and argued upon inconclusive science, economic desperation and a collective national love of furry creatures, do not form a sound basis for making ecological interventions, especially when this is short hand for killing members of other species.

Strangely, as a long time non-meat eater, I have no moral objections to killing animals for food. Seems logical to me that our survival as an individual or species is as relevant as the survival of any other animal or species. If its ok for the Lion to hunt for its supper its probably ok for us to enjoy a fillet steak.

I must say I thought the the 'Squirrel melt' conceptually a tad bizarre but I guess Elvis would have approved!

See:
http://boingboing.net/2008/09/11/how-to-make-a-squirr.html

"Uh-ha"

Celestial Perspective

A small cow in a field nearby occulting the Solar System's largest planet, which is very far away

This weekend, between 2.50 and 3.10 am, in the early hours of Sunday July 15th, Jupiter and its retinue of Galilean Moons will be occulted or eclipsed by the Moon.  From our location in East Anglia, we will see the tiny disc of Jupiter appear to skim and disappear behind a large crescent Moon. In reality, Jupiter is many many times larger than the Moon but much much further away.


A Lesson in Perspective for Father Dougal given by Father Ted


Father Ted: Now concentrate this time, Dougal. These 
[he points to some plastic cows on the table] 
Father Ted: are very small; those 
[pointing at some cows out of the window] 
Father Ted: are far away...


"I'm not sure I got that Ted"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbd3E6tK2U


Sadly, the Moon will not rise above the horizon in our part of the world until 1.36am British Summer Time and consequently will be very low in the sky during the occultation.
For Moon rise and setting times at your location see:
http://www.sunrisesunsetmap.com/

From the website Astronomy Occultations

My main telescope is located in my backyard and too big for me to move. There are trees and houses between our house and the eastern horizon, so unfortunately, the Moon will not be visible from our garden until long after the occultation has finished.

If the weather is good, I will stay up and try to glimpse this astronomical event through my binoculars.
A pair of 10x50 binoculars will provide a very good view and should show Jupiter's four main moons as pinpricks of light..

The occultation of the major planets by the moon is not that rare and since 2002, I have seen both Jupiter and Saturn occulted by the Moon.  I have never managed to photograph such an event so have included this excellent image from the Web.

If you are up and about in the early hours of Sunday morning why not check out the Moon and the bright looking star nearby (Jupiter). It should be a splendid sight even without a telescope or binoculars,

Brush up your Shakespeare

Turns out, I didn't listen to Toot properly who booked the tickets for tonight's performance of 'Taming of the Shrew' not the 'Tempest' as previously posted on this Blog. Apparently the same company are doing the 'Tempest' at Norwich Cathedral on Friday not Wednesday.

Anyway, it was an excellent performance, which we both enjoyed. It was a bit cold sitting outside until 9.30pm but at least it did not rain!

One additional treat, whilst we watched the performance, was the overflight of the cloisters by the peregrine falcons that have made the Cathedral's Spire their home.

For more information regarding Norwich Cathedral's peregrine falcons see: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-18161708

Norwich Cathedral view from Cloisters

If you want to brush up your Shakespeare see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSmZfnax1yw

The Hoya in our lives

Toot's Hoya

Stephanotis

Hoyas are evergreen creepers or vines, they grow on trees (like some orchids) or in soil. They are climbers and can reach heights up to 18 metres. We were given a cutting several years ago by our friends Derek and Gloria. They said it was a Stephanotis or 'Madagascar Jasmine'. 

"Feed me Seymour"

Toot, who has green fingers, has kept  it in a pot in our 'lean-to' conservatory ever since and it has grown and grown!     "Feed me Seymour, Feed me" Little Shop of Horrors.








The flowers, which appear in clusters, are very waxy and pleasantly fragrant. They leak copious amounts of a clear sticky nectar, so much so that for awhile Toot thought the plant had contracted some sort of virus. 

A flower head on Toot's  Hoya

The plant is frost intolerant so in our climate we are going to have to keep it indoors. At the rate at which it is growing it could take control.

For more information on Hoyas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoya
Fore more information on 'Little Shop of Horrors'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7SkrYF8lCU

Shakespeare,the Mobius strip and the Klein Bottle

For Wednesday, this week, Toot and I have tickets to see a performance of William Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest'. The play is being staged in the cloisters at Norwich Cathedral.  Good weather is therefore an essential and for the last few days we have experienced torrential rain.

We have not seen this play staged, other than on television, so we are very much looking forward to this performance.

We have both seen the Sci-fi film classic 'The Forbidden Planet' and the stage musical 'Return to the Forbidden Planet', which are based upon the Tempest.

We saw 'Return to the Forbidden Planet' with our friends, Phil and Jean, at the Lyceum in Sheffield.  The protagonist in the Tempest is 'Prospero' the rightful Duke of Milan, who finds himself exiled and marooned on a remote island with his daughter Miranda. In the  the Sci-Fi version, the island becomes a remote planet and Prospero and Miranda become Dr Morbius and Altaira.

Norwich Cathedral Cloister

Now, our friend Phil is studying for an Open University degree in Mathematics and the last time I saw him we got to talking about the 'Mobius Strip'.  Morbius short of an 'r'.

'The Swan of Avon'
"Nice Bard but dangerous"

Along with the 'Klein bottle', the 'Mobius Strip' is a non-orientable surface. The 'Strip' is a surface with a boundary and the 'Bottle' has no boundary. You cannot make a 'Klein Bottle' but you can make a 'Mobius Strip'. Just take a rectangular strip of paper,twist once and paste the ends together.  Draw a line along the centre of the strip and you will come back to where you started.  Cut along this line and be surprised at the result.

For more on Mobius Strips and Klein Bottles see the following web-sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6bius_strip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=sRTKSzAOBr4

Thanks to Wikipedia and Norwich Cathedral for the images

The Sicilian Defence

The Sicilian Dragon variation of the defence
played out on our sitting room rug.

The excellent Toot has been investigating my family-tree and has discovered that I have Sicilian blood from my paternal grandmother's line.

No wonder then, that when playing chess as Black, I always enjoy deploying a Sicilian Defence.

The Sicilian Defence is one of the most popular and successful responses by Black  to White's opening of - pawn to e4.

There are many variations to this defence including; the 'Dragon', the 'Najdorf', the 'Alapin'.

For more information  on the Sicilian Defence see the excellent chess sites:
http://www.thechesswebsite.com/chess-openings/sicilian-defense.php
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessopening?eco=B70

"If I call you Betty, you can call me Al"
(thanks to Wikipedia)

What constitutes a good chess opening?

1. Keep your pawn moves to the minimum and make only those that are necessary to develop your major pieces.
2. As soon as possible, put all your chess pieces on squares that have plenty of scope for further movement.
3. Deploy your pieces and pawns in a manner, which ensures your pieces are not exposed to attack.
4. Do not waste time and /or lose the initiative by making moves that do nothing to increase the activity and impact of your pieces.
5. Never put a 'horses head' in an opponents bed as its seen as unsporting by most players of the game.

Fish and chips with vinegar for two.

Plaice and chips (plaice rolled in flour prior to frying)
with "lashings of peas"

'Rock eel' ( in batter) and chips

Plaice are flat fish with orange spots
The brighter orange the spots, the fresher the fish

The Dog fish. This fish, a member of the shark family,
 is marketed as 'Rock Eel', Rock Salmon, and Huss. 
This fish is completely unrelated to the Mud-shark.

Last night, Toot cooked fish and chips. So I came in from the Cabine, put my feet under the table and tucked into a "slap-up fish and chip supper" (The Beano Comic).  Absolutely delicious!

When I was a baby and a toddler, I lived with my Mum and Dad, Edna and Joe, in a flat over my Grand-dad's fish and chip shop in Bower Lane, Maidstone, Kent.  So you could say "vinegar" runs in my veins.

I haven't eaten meat of any description for over twenty-five years but Toot and I do enjoy eating the many "denizens of the deep" (Jacques Cousteau and Frank Zappa) that frequent the waters around our shores. Now, there are many ways of cooking fish and it is extremely easy to overcook, so to enjoy fish at its best requires attention to detail.


Some people say "I just cant bring myself to eat fish because of the smell". Well, fresh fish doesn't smell,  other than of the sea, and you should only cook fresh fish.


Some say "I don't know how to cook fish". Well its not difficult as fish requires little time or chef skills to deliver a tasty nutritious meal.  Whether you are frying fillets of fish in batter or after just rolling them in seasoned flour, the trick is to use the best oil for the job 'Ground-nut oil' (Peanut oil).  Sun flower oil does not get hot enough and corn oil imparts a taste.  Ground-nut oil is the most expensive but also the best, beware poor  quality substitutes!


The Batter:  If you like your fish cooked in batter then a good general mixture of plain flour, a little corn flour, water and a dash of vinegar or lemon juice works well.  Some folks like the additional flavour and colour of batter when beer is added to plain flour.  If you want your batter to cover and stick to your fish then roll it in dry flour before you dip it in the batter.  Personally, I like batter on fillets of fish like; cod, haddock and rock eel but I like flat fish fillets of plaice and dabs just rolled in flour and fried.


One really important tip for frying rock eel: this fish has only one cartilaginous bone, its backbone, that runs the length of its body.  Do not try to fry this fish in cutlets with the back bone at its centre. If you do this, the flesh around the bone will not cook through.  Best to run a knife along the fish exposing or removing the backbone and creating  a flat fillet which will cook evenly in the fryer.


There are many ways to cook a chip, some will say it is essential to fry the chip twice, once in cool oil and then finally again in hot oil, personally I am happy with chips cooked once in hot oil.  For me the secret of a good chip is the use of ground-nut oil and an appropriate variety of potato such as King Edward or the red Desiree. 


Cooked chips need lots of sea salt crystals and black pepper!  I also like a variety of sauces and condiments on chips.  I first encountered recreational drugs, and mayonnaise on chips, in Amsterdam in 1968.  Nowadays, mayonnaise on chips is common place, but in the UK of the 1960's and 70's, it was considered 'exotic'.


Some say 'Roast Beef and Yorkshire pudding' is the dish that defines 'English Cuisine' but I believe its fried fish and chips. We have given 'fish and chips' to the world and every country we've visited has its own version.  I remember with delight the wonderful fish and chips we ate in New Zealand, fried fillets of Red Snapper and John Dory taking the place of the British Chip shop's Cod and Haddock. We enjoyed great fish and chips on Cape Cod (no pun intended) and excellent fried seafood at an indoor market in Toronto,

An incidental delight of fish and chips is the 'Chip Buttie'. This simple but high-carb treat just requires a fresh baked soft white bread roll (Bap) or two slices of white bread, lots of  salted butter and a handful of chips, then do what comes naturally!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_and_chips
http://www.beano.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cousteau
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa

Fish and chips have even inspired poetry:

'Vinegar' by Roger McGough 1990

Sometimes

I feel like a priest

In a fish and chip queue

quietly thinking

as the vinegar runs through

how nice it would be

to buy a supper for two.

'A once in a life-time experience'

Yesterday morning, as I was unable to get to the route and  take a real photo, I made this one up to capture the spirit of the event.

The Olympic flame has been travelling down the East Coast and visited Lowestoft and Southwold yesterday.         Today my grandchildren get to see the flame in Southend on Sea.  Toot and I have been watching the street parade on the live video stream from the BBC website.  A real and moving, once in a life-time experience, which exemplifies the Olympic aspirations and ideals!

"The sky is falling in" Mr. C. Licken

Iron meteorite:
part of the meteor that fell from the sky
 in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in 1947

Tekite

Useful Definitions:

• Meteoroid - is a small piece of dust, rock, ice or metal moving through space. They range in size from a speck of dust but are smaller than an asteroid.
• Meteor - is a meteoroid that has entered the Earths atmosphere and burns brightly leaving a flaming tail and sometimes smoke. They are more commonly called 'Shooting Stars' or 'Falling Stars'. Most meteors will burn up completely in the atmosphere.
• Meteorite - is a meteor that has survived entry through the atmosphere and reached the Earths surface.

• Tektite - naturally occurring and once airborne glass ejected by explosive meteorite impact.

As finding a meteorite in the UK would be as nigh impossible as  the 'discovery of a needle in a haystack', the above specimens from my collection of rocks and fossils, were purchased from dealers. The piece of the iron meteorite was bought from a chap at a 'Star-party' in Norfolk UK and the tekite from a mineral shop, 'Fire and Ice', in Akaroa, New Zealand.  I suspect that the Tekite was originally found in Australia.  The Sikhote-Alin meteorite has a much more interesting history.

Location of Meteors fall
(Thanks to Wikipedia)

At around 10:30 AM  on February 12, 1947, eyewitnesses in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, Primorye, Soviet Union, observed a large bolide brighter than the Sun that came out of the north and descended at an angle of about 41 degrees. The bright flash and the deafening sound of the fall were observed for 300 kilometres (190 mi) around the point of impact not far from Luchegorsk and approximately 440 km (270 mi) northeast of Vladivostok. A smoke trail, estimated at 32 km (20 mi) long, remained in the sky for several hours.

As the meteorite, traveling at a speed of about 14 km/s (8.7 mi/s), entered the atmosphere, it began to break apart, and the fragments fell together. At an altitude of about 5.6 km (3.5 mi), the largest mass apparently broke up in a violent explosion.

"Infamy, infamy, they'e all got it in for me"!

I believe that on the day the meteor entered Russian air space, the Soviet Union's Southern Ocean Fleet was anchored in Vladivostok.  When 'Smokin' Joe Stalin heard about the large bang, he allegedly blamed 'Uncle Sam' and gave the order for nuclear retaliation.  Thankfully, the Soviet Union's military command was more considered in its approach and a wise delay in launching an attack on the 'West' enabled the 'Big Bang' to be attributed to a natural phenomena.  I like to think that this story is more manufactured than true but Uncle Joe was not known for his warm heart and patience.  When Toot and I visited the 'Political Museum' in St Petersburgh, we were very much impressed by the honesty and openness with which Stalin's era was described and portrayed.  Many museums we have visited in the UK and in other cities around the world, have been much more partisan in their treatment of conflict and political themes.  What much improved times we live in!!

Things you can find in Switzerland

The Cuckoo Clock

Although the Cuckoo Clock is traditionally associated with Switzerland, it was originally made and developed in the Black Forest area of Germany.

Swiss Cuckoo Clocks generally take the form of the Bearnaise Chalet.

 The Edelweiss:

Some say the unofficial flower of Switzerland, a flower popularized by Julie Andrews in 'The Sound of Music', a musical  generally loved by old ladies world wide.

The Edelweiss was said to be Adolf Hitler's favourite flower.

The Pop legend that is'Phil Collins'

The Matterhorn

A very very pointy mountain often covered by snow and climbers with an unresolved death wish.

Swiss Chocolate

"Mmmm stuffed crust"

The Grosser Schweizer Sennenhund

Nice dogs but probably dangerous.

The Swiss Army Knife Enigma.

Why does a country with such a long history of neutrality and with such an admirable army, which takes part only in worldwide peace keeping activities, have such a predilection for pocket knives?  Do they use them for carving cuckoo clocks or cubing the cheese for fondue?

The Higgs Boson

The thing is, the press release from Cern is a bit reserved, so has evidence for the Higgs Boson been discovered by The Large Hadron Collider or not?  Well two experiments have produced evidence for a new particle in the mass region of 125-126 GeV.  The scientists know it is a boson and it is the heaviest boson found to date.


My limited understanding of why any of this is important ( Chad Valley Particle Physics):

Our understanding of the fabric of the universe is based upon The Standard Model developed by theoretical scientists in this and the last centuries. The current model requires the existence of  a fundamental particle which enables the transfer of mass. If it is shown not to exist, then a new standard model for 'Life, the Universe and Everything', will have to be developed.  This would represent an enormous set back for particle physics and our understanding of the science of everything. That's why finding it is such a big deal!

Elementary particles are classified either Bosons or Fermions.  Bosons and Fermions have very different properties.  Fermions (eg. electrons, quarks....) obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle ie. no two fermions can occupy the same quantum state and have half integral spin (angular momentum) 1/2,3/2,....  Bosons (eg. photons and gluons....) do not  obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle, have integral spin  ie. 0,1,2..... and  can but not always carry forces.



In nature there are four currently known forces; the strong nuclear, the electromagnetic, weak nuclear and gravitational. The forces are carried by particles 'bosons', which act upon  other particles 'fermions'. 


Electromagnetic fields, for instance, depend on the photon to transmit electromagnetic force to matter. Physicists think the Higgs boson might have a similar function -- but transferring mass itself.  The Higgs Boson  if it exists, is considered the carrier particle integral to the transfer of mass in the Higgs field, which is thought to permeate the whole Universe. 
or more information on the Higgs Boson see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIg1Vh7uPyw&feature=related



Note of caution:
I remember  'the discovery of cold fusion', which was later found to be a chemical effect, the press release when NASA thought they had found evidence for extraterrestrial life in a martian meteorite, which turned out to be inorganic carbon, and generally whenever I start banging on about particle physics Toot starts singing "When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears......"