--- title: Physics for Poets description: Ask not what the Higgs boson can do for you. Ask what it can do for me canonical: https://time.com/archive/6642140/physics-for-poets/ author: Joel Stein article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-07-23T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-26T16:23:52.644Z article:section: Science og:title: Physics for Poets og:description: Ask not what the Higgs boson can do for you. Ask what it can do for me og:url: https://time.com/archive/6642140/physics-for-poets/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Physics for Poets twitter:description: Ask not what the Higgs boson can do for you. Ask what it can do for me twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Science](/section/science/) # Physics for Poets > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=486bbcf1-e2e0-435c-8970-7f901caf0f90&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Joel Stein](https://time.com/author/joel-stein/) Jul 23, 2012 4:00 AM UTC by [Joel Stein](https://time.com/author/joel-stein/) Jul 23, 2012 4:00 AM UTC Ever since physicists announced their discovery of the Higgs boson particle in Switzerland on July 4, I keep being told that its existence fundamentally alters our knowledge of the universe. I have no idea who this “our” refers to. My knowledge of the universe is that if I write stupid jokes, the universe gives me a really nice house and great meals. I do not believe mankind will ever develop a formula to explain this. Still, I figured if I could talk to one of the greatest physicists in the world and have him explain the Higgs boson to me, I could then explain it to you, and you could explain it to your friends, who, by the laws of the telephone-game hypothesis, would believe that physicians had found a way to make bigger bosoms. Toward that end, I called Brian Greene, a physics professor at Columbia University who has theorized that topology in string theory can change at the conifold point and, more important, played himself in an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Greene, in a matter of minutes, likened the Higgs boson to a baseball, a hockey puck, molasses, a Mack truck and the television show CSI. None of these comparisons helped, because I don’t know how any of those things work either. Then Greene told me that when physicists develop equations to describe electrons, neutrinos, quarks and other stuff that makes up stuff, “we most naturally apply zero mass, but experiment reveals they have mass.” Having taken high school math, I realized that physicists had been plugging in zero for everything’s mass because it’s a really easy number to multiply by. “I wish that were the case. It’s actually a huge amount of work,” Greene said. I’m pretty sure I said the same thing to Mr. Natale. What the Higgs field proves is that this stuff all really does start out with zero mass. The entire universe, most of which looks like nothingness, is actually filled with a Higgs field, and when stuff accelerates through this molasses/rough ice/poorly paved road/Fenway Park air/muddled CBS plot, it gets slowed down so it seems as if it has mass. If you flick off a piece of this Higgs field, you can actually get a boson–which is nerd for “tiny bit.” And while this physical particle exists only for a billionth of a billionth of a millionth of a second, you can measure all the tiny parts it decomposes into, thereby proving the existence of the Higgs field–which creates all the physical stuff in the entire universe. The point is, the entire universe is jam-packed with this Higgs stuff, and physicists were too dumb to notice it because they were so focused on whether or not Pluto was a planet. This amazing discovery led me to a lot of fascinating questions, the largest of which was: What can the Higgs field do for me? Yes, having given me mass is great, though I think the Higgs field has lately gone a little too far with that, but what could it do for me right now? Would the Higgs boson allow me to fuel some kind of reasonably priced Toyota that would make me feel morally superior to SUV drivers? More important, could the Higgs field be used to hook a Barbie doll to a computer and create a circa-1985 Kelly LeBrock? It even seemed possible that, because the discovery is so new, a naf like me could ask the kind of insightful question that could lead to newer, even more amazing discoveries, like the Stein boson. “Doesn’t this mean that you could change an object’s mass by changing its acceleration?” I asked, wondering if I would put my Nobel Prize near my 1998 New York Association of Black Journalists award for First Place in Sports Spot News or the 2003 International Medical Marijuana Award for Best Newspaper/Magazine Article. “Yes,” Greene said. “Even Isaac Newton in the 1600s said, If you want to accelerate an object, it’s related to the force you exert: force equals mass times acceleration.” I wanted to tell him that even Shakespeare in the 1600s knew how to insult people more subtly. But I can see why Greene would get frustrated. Usually when he gives talks to groups of clueless people like me, he has to tell them why this stuff matters–that cell-phone technology, personal computers and 35% of the gross national product are based on quantum mechanics. What he really wants is for people to just be curious. Proof of the Higgs field is supposed to fill us with wonder about our bizarre, endlessly surprising world–the same way we are fascinated by poetry, music and everything Malcolm Gladwell says. We’re supposed to ask not what the Higgs boson can do for us, but–whenever we see a science nerd–what the Higgs boson is. Then we get to watch them try to talk in regular English instead of math and made-up words. 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