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

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

8 Likes

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.

28 Likes

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

25 Likes

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

12 Likes

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.

7 Likes

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.

29 Likes

Or a D&D manual.

9 Likes

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! :slight_smile:

23 Likes

So when can I get an anti-gravity backpack?

5 Likes

Season 2 Lol GIF by Friends

10 Likes

Kristen Stewart Awww GIF

9 Likes

In my experience quark is usually paired with spaetzle.

8 Likes

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

7 Likes

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

6 Likes

With a puzzled look on your face, of course.

7 Likes

star trek rom GIF

12 Likes

24 Likes

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

6 Likes

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

7 Likes

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.

6 Likes