Evidencing Eureka

An article (a cute one I should say) mentions a press conference from CERN giving the latest update in the search for the Higgs boson, which arouse my interest as, aside of the exciting subject, I've never watched any scientific press conference before.

So here it is. (The embedded streaming didn't work for me, but some browsers should be able to play one of the download links directly.)

I quite like the tone of this one. We get a procedural picture of the real work involved:

"What we have seen today is a fantastic demonstration of how an experiment works, from the operation in the cavern to the data-taking, the data-processing, reconstruction, computing, the quality calibration, all the way to the analysis and interpretation of the result. So a simple plot showing a mass distribution contains a lot of work." -- FG

The romantic touch:

"We are discussing something that is the last chapter, we hope, of a story which lasts 47 years." -- GT

The ethics:

"Those are really preliminary results. They're very interesting, they're intriguing, but really preliminary. First of all, as it is the duty of the scientific community, we will speak more solidly through papers that will be submitted on final results we hope to be able to come out sometime end of January, beginning of February [...]" -- GT

The mild humor:

"It *is* really exciting. I can tell you. But nonetheless, we take questions." -- RH

And apparently a number of excited enthusiasts have added their own opinions into the mix, or reinterpreted the news to make their own conclusions, so the scientists have learned to be carefully accurate with their statements:

"First of all, it's not an evidence. Be careful [to ensure that] we're using scientific words at the precise meaning. We're talking of intriguing, tantalizing hints [...]" -- GT

"Don't believe all the blogs. Okay? Believe only what has a stamp from the scientists and not the blogs. Please." -- RH

It is also pleasant to listen to people who know exactly where they are:

Question: "Is it possible to find the Higgs with the present dataset and improved analysis?"
RH: "A quick answer, Madam?"
FG: "No."

And to close, the inspirational quotes:

"Of course it will be good to find new physics, new things, and we have some ideas of how, for instance, new physics could manifest itself. But we should not forget that we are researchers, and the foundation of research [is] really looking for something that is also unexpected, or something new. So we have to remain open, because we don't know what Nature has chosen. And so we may be soon confronted with some surprises, and this would be, I think, for us, the best reward -- something unexpected." -- FG

Question: "Before, you spoke about the next 20 years, the physics beyond the Standard Model, and then about the rest of-- 96% of the universe to explore. And I want to ask, is there an end to the scientific question, and if not, then why?"
GT: "Because we are-- this is the mankind. I mean, mankind started asking questions, and we will continue forever."
FG: "Remember what Isaac Newton used to say: 'What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.'"
RH: "Each time we find something new, we have new questions to ask. And that's the fascinating thing of science, yeah? You answer some questions which you know how to pose. And then you find, suddenly, new questions. And that will go on, I'm sure. And it's very difficult to find the moment 'when do I know everything?' That's impossible, at least for me. So, there's a lot to do."

Notes:
The above has been transcribed from the video, with minor edits for clarity.

RH: Prof. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, CERN Director General
FG: Prof. Fabiola Gianotti, LHC ATLAS
GT: Prof. Guido Tonelli, LHC CMS