[pmulcahy11b]

I don't have any great understanding of physics -- but I don't understand this yearning by quantum physicists for a particle for every effect or force in the universe. It's like they had the Particle Zoo culled and virtually tamed, and now it's growing and becoming non-understandable again. A particle for every effect and force, virtual particles that pop in and out of existence, elemental-particle-sized black holes all over the place, quantum-sized wormholes that float around, neutrinos zipping all over and hardly ever getting stopped by anything -- to a layman with a History degree and a meager understanding of physics, it's a mess that boggles my mind.

I don't know if the Higgs Bosun is even real or required for quantum physics. They're still arguing over whether the graviton is real, because Einstein's work says there's no actual pulling force causing gravity -- every bit of mass causes a spacetime warp that actually causes the effect that Newton called "gravity." No particle to carry the force of gravity is required, because gravity as a quantum force doesn't actually exist.

As I said, mind-bending.