The God particle

[snopes]

Comment: Is it true that the Higgs boson is called the "God particle"
because the author of a paper on it (maybe Higgs) referred to it as the
God-damned particle or Goddamn particle because it was so hard to find,
and the editor of the scientific journal thought people would be offended
and took the "-damned" part out? I have heard this from two people now and
it is a great story--I'd love it to be true, but as always I am skeptical.

[RichardM]

Well Wiki, that paragon of facts, seems to say so:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God...he_Question%3F

I suppose I should go read the book and see if that really is in it.

[Ali Infree]

But if you read the book, won't your observation of the pages...

Oh, nevermind

Wrong level of reality

Ali

[Brad from Georgia]

Insiders tell me the Higgs Boson actually wasn't discovered at CERN. It turned up in the pocket of a pair of jeans that Higgs hadn't washed in a long time.

[FullMetal]

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

Insiders tell me the Higgs Boson actually wasn't discovered at CERN. It turned up in the pocket of a pair of jeans that Higgs hadn't washed in a long time.

I thought it was found in the couch cushions.. Conspiring...
http://amultiverse.com/2012/07/09/boson-buddies/

[Bonnie]

Originally Posted by RichardM

Well Wiki, that paragon of facts, seems to say so:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God...he_Question%3F

I suppose I should go read the book and see if that really is in it.

Well, there's the line on p. 22, but see

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2...nsidered-real/

Bonnie "mass appeal" Taylor

[Alchemy]

Originally Posted by RichardM

Well Wiki, that paragon of facts, seems to say so ... I suppose I should go read the book and see if that really is in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_b...instream_media

Prof. Lederman's book is popular science, not an original research article. He popularized "The God Particle" as a term for the Higgs boson and refers it as "The Goddamn Particle" in a tongue-in-cheek comment. Lederman is a Nobel Prize winning physicist and extraordinarily qualified to comment on this issue, but his coining of "The God Particle" creates no scientific precedent or meaning; it's just his personal editorial. Most other researchers dislike the term and view it as a joke that got away from Lederman.

The OP is asking if the term "The God Particle" was coined (or used at all) in a peer-reviewed original research article of a scientific research journal, and it has not. In fact, Higgs himself dislikes the term, as do the majority of his colleagues, as its discovery would solve only one of many enduring questions in this field of physics, and the term "God particle" seems to serve little purpose but to unnecessarily aggrandize the work and antagonize religious groups.

"The God Particle" is, as far as I know, not used seriously in any academic journals; it's commonly used in popular science books and magazines, and occasionally wide-scope academic journals like Science may have editorials that comment on the use of the term in the context of popular consumption of physics, but in journals for and by physicists I don't think the term has ever been seriously used.