Question Everything: How the Higgs Helps Decipher How the Universe Will End

Question: After the detection of the Higgs boson, a few articles went up in the news claiming scientists have now figured out exactly how and approximately when our universe will end. Exactly how did they use this information to come to those conclusions?



Answer: Ahh. If there is one thing I like more than talking about the beginning of the universe, it's the end of it. And since physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider have confirmed the existence of a Higgs-like particle, we've had plenty "end of the world" material to speculate on.



Now, before I get down to the nitty gritty and answer your question, let me take a moment to establish what the Higgs Boson is. Firstly (and most importantly) the Higgs Boson fills in one of the last missing pieces to the standard model of particle physics; the so-called "holy grail" of theoretical models. (Let me say that with or without the Higgs, it's still not complete. It doesn't include a full-scale description of gravity, dark matter, dark energy or neutrino oscillations) Not only does it explain how the four forces of the universe work together to produce the characteristics of particles interactions, but it also offers some insight into how the universe might evolve far down the line.

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