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SELEX at Fermilab Discovers New Particle
sellthesedownfalls writes "Scientists at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will announce on Friday, June 18 the observation of an unexpected new member of a family of subatomic particles called 'heavy-light' mesons. The new meson, a combination of a strange quark and a charm antiquark, is the heaviest ever observed in this family, and it behaves in surprising ways -- it apparently breaks the rules on decaying into other particles. See the Fermilab Press Release."
Heavy-Light Mesons!
My bad, I sneezed into the particle accelerator. Sorry guys.
Now, I think this is the lifetime of the usual shorter-lived mesons, but still...
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
I feel so dirty.
Stand clear of the doors. The doors are now closing.
First, let me state that I have the greatest respect for the scientists looking for the secrets of the cosmos, and I eat this shit up like crazy whenever I get the chance. I think it's the greatest stuff ever, and hope that every politician who voted against the Superconducting Supercollider burns in hell forever.
That said: can you imagine 500 years from now when teachers are in class, getting past Newton and saying "Oh, and then the 20th century when Einstein and Heisenburg had their theories. Remember how we talked about Gallileo dropping objects and measuring the speed? Well, those 20th century guys did that with quantum mechanics. Get this: they smashed subatomic particles together to figure out what they were made of! Here's a picture. Now, stop laughing - and Jimmy, I see your eyes glazed over, stop downloading porn through your bainjack and pay attention."
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Farnsworth: It's a single atom of jumbonium. And element so rare, the nucleus alone is worth more than $50,000.
Bender: How much more?
Farnsworth: $100,000.
"Why can't everyone just be straight with me?"
"Because we live in a bendy world, dear."
Look at what they had for lunch on 06/17:
Aztec Tortilla Soup
Hot Italian Sub $4.75
Chicken Picata $3.75
Thai Beef $3.75
Roast Beef Cheddar on Kaiser Roll $4.75
Beef Strombolis $2.85
Marinated or Cajun Chicken Caesar Salads $4.75
It's a wonder they got any work done that day...
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
It really is turtles all the way down.
Have you read my blog lately?
"The distribution of the D0 K+ combined mass for all candidates in the data sample including Anti-particle combinations (D0bar K-). There are two clear peaks. The lower, at a mass of 2570 MeV/c2, is the known DsJ(2573) meson, discovered in 1994. This peak's width is more than the detector resolution showing the the "natural width (Gamma)" of this state due to its short lifetime. The value measured for the natural width of 14 MeV/c2 is consistent with previous measurements. The detector resolution is better by a factor of 2 in this D0 K+ decay mode than in the Ds+ eta0 mode making Selex more sensitive to the lifetimes of these state in this decay mode."
Shit man, I could of told you that.
"Cap'n - I think if we reverse the heavy light mesons, we can interuupt the Klingon's charmed anti-quark field just long enuf to escape!"
Shatner: "Scotty, you only have 60 seconds, hurry!"
And, BTW, congrats to the Fermi team. I have plenty of friends employed there, I always like to see new discoveries. Good job, guys.
The fire at Los Alamos has had one significant consequence. A secret scientific document was discovered in a bunker whose security systems were mostly destroyed by the fire. This document was leaked to the public last weekend.
Actually it reveals nothing that we didn't already suspect. But it does show that besides arsenic, lead, mercury, radon, strontium and plutonium, one more extremely deadly and pervasive element is known to exist.
This startling new discovery has been tentatively named Governmentium (Gv) but kept top secret for 50 years. The new element has no protons or electrons, thus having an atomic number of 0. It does, however, have 1 neutron, 125 deputy neutrons, 75 supervisory neutrons, and 111 team leader neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, that are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since it has no electrons, Governmentium is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.
According to the discoverers, a minute amount of Governmentium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take less than a second. Governmentium has a normal half-life of approximately three years. It does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the deputy neutrons, supervisory neutrons, and team leader neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium mass will actually increase over time, since, with each reorganization, some of the morons inevitably become neutrons, forming new isodopes.
This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as the "Critical Morass."
http://www.appleseeds.org/governmentium.htm
Please direct all bug reports to
Yeah; they're all hole, no donut.
I tell you, man, this Atkins thing is going *way* too far.
... Wellcome our new subatomic, particle supercharged, dually quarked master
NO SIG
"It's like watching a water bucket with a large hole and small hole in the bottom," Russ said. "For some reason, the water is pouring out the small hole six times faster than it's coming out of the large one. Something unusual must be going on inside the bucket."
Doesn't this attempted decryption of the universe break a provision in the DMCA? If that's not applicable, then I'm sure Microsoft will be getting a patent on it any day now.
>Look
You see a meson.
>Examine meson.
It's too small for you to see.
>Examine meson with microscope.
The meson appears to be composed of too smaller particles, a quark and an antiquark.
>Examine quark.
The quark is strange.
>Examine antiquark.
The pleasant blue glow leads you to conclude that this is a charmed antiquark.
>Rub antiquark.
Your fingers are too big and clumsy.
>Rub antiquark with cue-tip.
You suddenly feel lucky.
Two elf-nymphs enter the room. They look at you expectedly...
I, myself, am charmed by strangeness.
As a taxpayer, I like to know that research will have practical benefits.
So, if the Fermilab folks could tell us whether this will lead to any or all of the following useful devices, I would greatly appreciate it:
1) Warp Drive
2) A way to make all the stars in the galaxy go supernova at once
3) Bring back all the socks that vanish in the dryer
4) Mr. Fusion
5) Flying Cars
Godel's theorem related to physics states that there will never exist one set of axioms that will describe every phenomena we encounter. Hawking gave an interesting lecture on Godel and Physics... I'm sure its on the web somewhere.
The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
if mathematics can not be axiomized then neither can the laws of physics but sure try it out if you want.
The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend