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Blog post: swansont: Boson Betting

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After Particle Search, Some Wallets May Lose Mass

 

[The Higgs discovery] prompted a worldwide settling of scores as physicists — inveterate gamblers — examine the data to decide whether it is time to pay up on longstanding bets about the existence of the boson, which has been the object of a 40-year manhunt.

 

I'm not sure inveterate gambler is correct. This is more like betting on the Super Bowl or the NCAA basketball tournament, on which casual bets are made (or so I hear). I've heard stories of how Vegas is more hesitant than other cities to host physics conferences because physicists don't gamble as much — we know a bit about probability and tend to understand the gambler's fallacy, and spend time scribbling on napkins talking shop than going to the casino, more so than the typical conference attendee.

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