Peter Higgs
Peter Higgs
Peter Ware Higgs CH FRS FRSEis a British theoretical physicist, emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh, and Nobel Prize laureate for his work on the mass of subatomic particles...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth29 May 1929
came competent good honestly people point realise
The point came when people were doing things I didn't feel competent to do myself. I'm not being modest; I honestly get lost. I was lucky in spotting what I did when I did, but there comes a point where you realise what you're doing is not going to be much good.
gave might people press previous produce
The first interview I gave to the press was in 1987 when some people thought a previous machine at Cern, called LEP, might have enough energy to produce the particle.
outside regard television
I don't regard television as the outside world. I regard it as an artefact.
arrange edinburgh home life
Edinburgh is my adopted home. It's a place where I wanted to come and live, and I managed to arrange my life so it happened.
time
After I retired, it was quite a long time before I went back to my department. I thought I was well out of it.
cambridge paper similar simpler visiting wrote
It shouldn't be a Higgs field. If it's anybody's, it should be Goldstone field, I think. When Nambu wrote his short paper in 1960, Jeffrey Goldstone of Cambridge University, who was visiting Cern, heard about it. He then wrote a paper which was conceptually similar to what Nambu had done, but a simpler model.
data enormous evolution gigantic huge number obvious particle people size speak task
I can only speak for particle physics. But it has become obvious that on the experimental side, there has been a huge evolution in the number of people who have to collaborate because of the gigantic size of the instruments used, but also because of the enormous task that is data analysis.
warned
When my wife and I got married, she thought of me being an easygoing person, and I warned her I wasn't.
arm arriving bomb school
One of the first things I did on arriving at school was to break my left arm falling into a bomb crater.
barcelona board brew doormat emails endorse favourite full letters people quite similar wants
My inbox and doormat are full with emails and letters from people who want me to endorse their Higgs board game or to inaugurate the walkway of their new office atrium. There's even a microbrewery in Barcelona which wants to know what my favourite beer is so they can brew a similar one in my honour. It is quite mad.
alone basic case change cleared hypothesis main needs paradigm status structure theory work
When the basic status of a theory is clear, and all that needs to be cleared are details, you can collaborate. But if the main structure of a hypothesis isn't established, and you want to change the paradigm - like it was the case in the 1960s - it's better to work alone.
age showing
I was already, I think, at the age of 18, showing signs of being incompetent in the lab.
admirer backed company great people poking quite surprising
I'm a great admirer of 'The Simpsons.' It's very surprising because it's backed by a right-wing television company in the U.S., and quite often it's poking fun at the people who would be its audience.
absolutely attention elementary hawking meant particle pay saying scottish specialist
In 2002, a Scottish journalist, during a dinner meant to be private, absolutely wanted me to react to Stephen Hawking's comments. I said one shouldn't pay too much attention to what Hawking was saying because he was a celebrity but not a specialist of elementary particle theory.