Slashdot Mirror
First Creation of Anti-Strange Hypernuclei
runagate writes "Brookhaven National Laboratory has created a heretofore unknown form of matter. The matter we normally encounter, and are composed of, has nuclei of protons and neutrons that contain no strange quarks. It was known that anti-strange matter could exist, and using the Solenoidal Tracker at Brookhaven's RHIC, scientists detected a couple of dozen instances of antihypernuclei. The 'Z' axis of the Periodic Table has already been extended in the positive direction by the discovery of hypernuclei, but this new discovery extends it in the negative direction for this new type of 'strange' antimatter — which may exist in the core of collapsed stars and may provide insight into why our universe appears to be made almost solely of matter and not antimatter." The Register's coverage reproduces a helpful diagram.
I can follow stuff like this, but every time I hear it, Treknobabble comes to mind. Strange quarks, you say!
Living With a Nerd
Quote: "Hypernuclei bring a third dimension into play, based on the strangeness quantum number of the nucleus, thus allowing the territory of antinuclei with nonzero strangeness." ... Just when I thought I was starting to get it ... :-\
L'esperienza de questa dolce vita (The experience of this sweet life) - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
"Atomsmash boffins' reverse alchemy bizarro-stuff triumph"
"Sometimes there is more strangeness than none at all. Or less."
the article is complete with a "Bootnote"
so i'm under the impression of having advanced quantum physics described to me by a drunk with a cockney accent. i guess that's helpful...
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I have, of course, discovered and documented both at work. prior art does exist.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I'm guessing that with a name like "negatively strange antihypernucleic antimatter", Star Trek et al. will be all over this. Countdown until the term appears in sci-fi shows...
Probably... But what I'm really hoping is that scientists -- and by extension sci-fi shows -- adopt El Reg's proposed term for negative strangeness "hypermundanity".
Just imagine Data saying that. "Captain, the gaseous anomaly we've entered contains high levels of hypermundanity."
"*yawn* Tell me about it, Commander."
The enemies of Democracy are
I like The Register, but it seems all their article (sub)titles are generated in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven as well...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
As I'm on my way out, my last words will be "It's spelled Nobel..."
Thanks. I wanted to say something meaningful! :(
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
No, seriously, I'm asking.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
if you're driving you car near the speed of light
Hypothetically you've already crashed, so the headlights wont help.
I've always wondered but I never bothered to check Wikipedia... I think I spend too much time in meatspace.
Thanks a lot!
Nothing lasts forever but the certainty of change.
Particle physicists have basically been fucking with us for years, haven't they?
sic transit gloria mundi