Not In Textbooks - Yet.

As Sara and Leo wait for their respective trains at the Gare Corvain, they talk about the monumental discovery that has just been announced. Sara reflects on the discrepancy between how the morning's events will be recorded in textbooks, and how they were actually experienced.

In future editions [of textbooks], a new sentence will be added, to say that the Higgs boson was discovered at CERN in 2012. In a few years, to a new generation, that is all it will be: a flat, black-and-white statement of fact. But for those who have lived through this moment, that same prosaic phrase will sparkle and gleam.

In much the same vein, the physicists who work at ATLAS, declare "What we do is not in textbooks". In this wonderful little video, they share what they do and why. 

The Higgs Boson Announcement

Having earned a seat by camping out all night, Sara takes her place in the auditorium, and looks around. This is what she thinks:

In minutes, the screen in front of me will be flashing images of machinery, plots, results from the world’s most sophisticated experiment; but right now, the only projection is a sea of faces, in an auditorium, much like this one, at the other end of the world. At the international particle physics conference in Melbourne, physicists are glued to their chairs, in anticipation of what is to come.

“Today is a special day,” begins Heuer. It’s show time.

Here's what happens next: