The Large Hadron Collider just discovered three new sub-atomic particles

[thomdunn]

Originally published at: The Large Hadron Collider just discovered three new sub-atomic particles | Boing Boing

…

[urbandetail]

The only thing I want to know is if they were able to knock us off the dumbest timeline and back on course to something better.

[lastchance]

@thomdunn

…a pentaquark made up of a charm quark and a charm antiquark and an up, a down and a strange quark. It is the first pentaquark found to contain a strange quark.

This sentence could have been an excerpt from a lost work of Lewis Carrol.

[TK_1420]

A reminder of this excellent rap-based explainer for what’s going on at CERN

Large Hadron Rap

[QuickBrownFox]

I wish that I was smart enough to really grasp what is happening with this amazing machine, or that there was someone who could explain it all in terms that the typical layperson could wrap their head around such mind boggling things as quarks and leptons and muons etc.

[anon29537550]

@thomdunn

it’s already helped researchers discover three new kinds of sub-atomic particles, or quarks.

Not exactly. It has located new and previously unknown combinations of the already known flavors of quarks. Sounds pedantic, but I was stunned by that line until I read further.

[micah]

Or a D&D manual.

[MrShiv]

All subatomic particles are (thought to) be of two kinds:

1. Elementary particles, which are supposedly indivisible.
   a. Leptons, including electrons, neutrinos, and several other relatives, most of which are seen as products of various nuclear reactions.
   b. Quarks, which come in six “flavors” and are never found alone.
   c. Bosons, of which five elementary types are now known, including our friend the photon. Four of them convey forces (electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces). The other (Higgs) somehow creates mass via the “Higgs field”. A graviton has been proposed as a carrier of gravity force.
2. “Composite” particles that are made of various combinations of elementary particles. Most All “normal” matter is made of leptons and quarks. So a hydrogen atom is made of one lepton (the electron) and three quarks (that make up the proton).

See? Easy!

[llamaspit]

So when can I get an anti-gravity backpack?

[anon29537550]

@MrShiv

See? Easy!

[anon59592690]

@MrShiv

Quarks, which come in six “flavors” and are never found alone.

[micah]

@MrShiv

Quarks, which come in six “flavors” and are never found alone.

In my experience quark is usually paired with spaetzle.

[anon59592690]

Is that sprinkles but without mass so like, non-fat?

[MrShiv]

I assume I’m Ross in this scenario, just off camera.

[anon29537550]

With a puzzled look on your face, of course.

[anon61221983]

[Brainspore]

[sylvia]

Was wondering when Quark from DS9 would make an appearance–thank you!

[VeronicaConnor]

@lastchance

This sentence could have been an excerpt from a lost work of Lewis Carrol.

I was just going to say, I love how particle physics jargon basically sounds like a bad RPG.

[ValiantAP6]

@QuickBrownFox

or that there was someone who could explain it all in terms that the typical layperson could wrap their head around

I’ve been thinking about creating a publishing platform that pushes this information at super fast speeds, like the LHC, I’m thinking of calling it Quark Express.

I’ll see myself out.