Here's a basic explanation as to what the Higgs is.
"The Higgs boson or Higgs particle is a proposed elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics. The Higgs boson is named after Peter Higgs who, along with others, proposed the mechanism that predicted such a particle in 1964. The existence of the Higgs boson and the associated Higgs field explain why the other elementary particles in the standard model have mass." -wiki
Just from an indirect standpoint the search itself has resulted in advances in computer software technology.
Yes from studying the atoms we got electronics and see how far this science brought us. From a transistor bigger than a quarter to millions squeezed into a small computer processor. The discovery might be applied some day for space travels, that's amazing!
That's incredibly short sighted. Quite often real world application will come unexpectedly. Usually through the process of just trying to make the discovery do we later find real world applications. Even if we don't develop any direct real world applications in developing technology from it having this discovery leaves us working on advancements with one less blind spot.
The sooner the better, preferably. I can't make a judgement on whether it was money well spent until we're further. We've crossed the Rubicon at this point, but I'm far more interested in what we do with the knowledge, not the knowledge itself.
So are we suppose to get practical without the theory?
Not at all. I'm not criticizing the program, in fact I think quite highly of it for its own sake. But I'm going to withhold any proper excitement or judgement until I see, at the very least, ideas for practical application.
Good question, I'll get back to you when someone figures that out.
What do they do?
Dark Energy is thought to be what's causing the universe to accelerate in it's expansion. Dark Matter is thought to be what's helping to hold galaxies together and simulated models indicate it's necessary for the formation of galaxies. from my understanding we have been able to indirectly observe it as well through a lensing effect.
