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SELEX at Fermilab Discovers New Particle

Posted by michael on from the ad-infinitum dept.

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."

2 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Re:False Alarm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    allegedly true story:

    when CERN finished the construction of LEP, back in the day, they had a problem when they turned it on. the beam wouldn't align to collide and they had no idea why.

    upon further inspection, the problem was (allegedly) caused by a bottle of Heineken left behind in one of the beam tubes by a construction worker...

  2. A good quote by heyitsme · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I was just reading my copy of Fermilab Today (I am writing this from the lab) and saw this article. Then it appears on slashdot!

    The best description of this phenomenon comes from James Ross in the official press release:

    • "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."