<story><title>How the Higgs Boson Ruined Peter Higgs’s Life</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-higgs-boson-ruined-peter-higgss-life/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lalalandland</author><text>FWIW Bosons are named after a person</text></item><item><author>lokimedes</author><text>After we discovered the particle in June 2012, there was a large summer conference in Stockholm (a good few months before the Nobel announcement). In the spirit of jubilation the Municipality had arranged a classical “Nobel” reception at the Mayor’s Hall and banquet at the Vasa Museum in the evening.&lt;p&gt;As a good friend of the chair of the organizing committee, I was asked to help that evening, collecting invitations as people entered. After greeting the first 100 or so, up came this elderly man who has lost his invitation. He was very sorry, and asked if there was any way for him to prove he in fact was invited. I told the gentleman, that he could have mine in case there was any trouble. As Peter Higgs was allowed to enter the little dress rehearsal for what was to befall him in autumn, there was a warm chuckle around us.&lt;p&gt;I have met him on other occasions and perhaps it is exactly his non-selfish personality that has allowed the particle to carry his name in the first place. The rest of particle physics is luckily void of attributing eternal properties of nature to individuals.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rcshubhadeep</author><text>It is named after Prof Satyendra Nath Bose. A physicist and true polyglot from pre-independent India. He was in his twenties when he figured this out. Of course never really received any larger fame, as is customary for Theoretical scientists from South East Asia (well most of the time) but if anyone is interested here is the story - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Satyendra_Nath_Bose&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Satyendra_Nath_Bose&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>How the Higgs Boson Ruined Peter Higgs’s Life</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-higgs-boson-ruined-peter-higgss-life/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lalalandland</author><text>FWIW Bosons are named after a person</text></item><item><author>lokimedes</author><text>After we discovered the particle in June 2012, there was a large summer conference in Stockholm (a good few months before the Nobel announcement). In the spirit of jubilation the Municipality had arranged a classical “Nobel” reception at the Mayor’s Hall and banquet at the Vasa Museum in the evening.&lt;p&gt;As a good friend of the chair of the organizing committee, I was asked to help that evening, collecting invitations as people entered. After greeting the first 100 or so, up came this elderly man who has lost his invitation. He was very sorry, and asked if there was any way for him to prove he in fact was invited. I told the gentleman, that he could have mine in case there was any trouble. As Peter Higgs was allowed to enter the little dress rehearsal for what was to befall him in autumn, there was a warm chuckle around us.&lt;p&gt;I have met him on other occasions and perhaps it is exactly his non-selfish personality that has allowed the particle to carry his name in the first place. The rest of particle physics is luckily void of attributing eternal properties of nature to individuals.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lokimedes</author><text>You got me. But being a Fermion or a Boson is (IMO) a label for a generic property. and we have plenty of other such theoretical constructs named after the inventor: Weyl, Dirac, etc. we need language and labels to communicate ideas, so that is alight. But the Higgs particle and mechanism represents physical reality (now at least) which brings it to the level of electrons, quarks and the fundamental forces of nature. These names will stand for as long as our civilization. Who cares that someone predicted them a couple of years before their discovery when we are a century down the line.
Just imagine if fire was known as the Peterson effect? 
Anyway that’s just my opinion.</text></comment>