Hawking Bets That LHC Won't Find Higgs

On the eve of a major test of the LHC start-up procedure, Stephen Hawking has thrown a damper on the event (although not much of a damper) by betting "one hundred dollars" that it won't find the Higgs boson.

"I think it will be much more exciting if we don't find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of 100 dollars that we won't find the Higgs," added Hawking, whose books including "A Brief History of Time" have sought to popularise study of stellar physics.

He does think that we might find a supersymmetric particle. Still, he has been wrong (or has been shown to be wrong) before. And he is also not the first person who has stated that while finding the Higgs would be monumental, not finding it would be even more exciting. C.N. Yang said almost the same thing.

Either way, the LHC will produce a lot of things to ponder over.

Zz.