The physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory nearly slipped one by me. Physicists discovered that a particle, much smaller than an atom so that it is kind of difficult to see, called, in physics parlance, the "neutral B meson," can reverse its identity three trillion times a second. Like when an alchemist changes ordinary lead into gold, this little mother transmogrifies from regular matter to anti-matter. This type of transformation is not unusual or surprising; after all, it has happened to a human being. Captain Kirk was split into two by a defective transporter, one good and one evil Captain Kirk, which, come to think of it, is not really the same thing because the neutral B meson itself switches every 4/10 ths of a trillionth of a second from its regular matter version into its upside-down, mirror-image, evil-twin, antimatter opposite and then back again in "flavor oscillations."
Did you ever wonder how physicists think up these things? Do they sit in a room and one of them says, "Hey, I got an idea. Why don't we get a neutral B meson to change from regular matter to antimatter and back? I think that would be cool!"
And another one chips in, "Do you think that in the future people will be able to shoot fire out of their eyes?"
And yet another says, "That's evolution, you dork! But that would rock! That antimatter thing would be pretty interesting."
"Okay. Let's do it!"
Posted by Bill at April 21, 2006 03:20 PMHaving a friend who spent her entire career proving how old fish were,I've often wondered where inspiration comes from, but I'm only a mere mortal....
Posted by: Anji at April 23, 2006 03:44 AM