VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Tesh|DATE|1382353821|CONTENT|I&#039;ve been out of the country for a while. Just before I left Peter Higgs got the Noble prize and it brought back to me the translation I did of his interview in Spanish in which Dawkins got raised. I didn&#039;t know how to use systems very well then and had had such difficulty I never put it on to this site as I promised. I n view of today&#039;s TftD Day I&#039;m putting it on now over several of these for anybody still interested. I;m starting with a story I think is better known now but was new to me at the time and I loved it. so for anybody who doesn&#039;t already know:...
[I’m starting about two-thirds of the way through the interview.   They have been discussing his work over 30 years and how he reacted to the news from CERN and his subsequent fame; and then gone on to the increasing media attention given to science.  I love this story which then leads straight into the exchanges in which Dawkins is raised and which I will put into my next posting separately.] 
Interviewer: [In any case] the media impact of the Higgs Bosun is undoubtedly due to its nickname of “the god particle” as it’s popularly known. I‘ve heard that you don’t like this name at all – why not? 
Higgs: In the first place, I’m not a believer.  But even if I were I  wouldn’t like it because it leads   [incita] *people into confusing  physics and theology and that seems to me a bad thing.  One mustn’t forget that the origin of that name is a book by the physicist Leon Lederman whose original title was going to be “The Goddam Particle”  - meaning that it was so very difficult  to find it.  But the editor changed it because the other title seemed much more attractive to him! So really it was  a joke but people don’t know this story so they  take ‘the god particle’ too seriously.
Interviewer: Of course. I don’t know if you know that in Spain a spokesman of the Catholic Church welcomed ‘the god particle’ as he considered it such a positive thing that physicists were helping to strengthen religious faith? 
Higgs.  No, I didn’t know, but the truth is  it doesn’t surprise me. They also tell me that some evangelical groups are beginning to refer to  ‘the god particle’ in an attempt to convert people to their beliefs. I find all this lamentable. 
[*the verb  incitar has a wider range of meanings in Spanish than in English working through from lead, encourage, provoke,  - and incite into rebellion! Take your pick!] 
Lorna|EMAIL|lornacrossman@yahoo.co.uk|IP-ADDRESS|86.158.192.34|MODERATIONFLAG|