Advanced concept R&D engineer Marshall Barnes has announced that he wrote Stephen Hawking last week to accept his bet of $100 concerning the ability of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to be able to find the Higgs Boson particle. The email, sent both to Stephen Hawking's email box and to his assistant's, Sam Blackburn, read:
Dear Professor Hawking:
According to a recent announcement, you have said that you are willing
to bet $100 that the Higgs Boson particle won't be discovered at CERN
with the LHC. I am willing to consider your wager. I am writing to
inquire of the terms of your bet, as far as a constraining time period
for this discovery to take place, etc, so that I can evaluate it more fully.
Unfortunately, it has not been made clear by the news reports as to
whether your bet was for the initial test of the LHC or when they
actually begin to run it at full power, or some other condition.
Please contact me here with the details. If I find them satisfactory, I
will not only be willing to accept your wager, but raise it by $900,
just to make it interesting. I think I have a way for the winnings to go
to the winner's favorite science cause without it coming out of the
loser's pocket. It will then be rather beneficial to a fitting cause and
get some publicity as well.
With All Due Respect,
Marshall Barnes
As of this date, Wednesday September 17th, Marshall has heard no reply from either party.
