Word: gluon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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What caused the new optimism was a tiny, ephemeral bit of matter that has neither mass nor charge. Known whimsically as the gluon (pronounced glue-on), it is believed to carry the so-called strong force, which helps bind together the other tiny particles-some 200 at last count-that make up the minuscule world of the atomic nucleus. When physicists first postulated the sticky little gluons more than five years ago, they were only theoretical concepts: no one knew whether they really existed outside their equations or were just some more scribblings on the blackboard...
...this time the physicists saw three jets: as they interpreted the results, two were from a quark and its antimatter equivalent, the antiquark; the third apparently from a gluon...
...this was highly exciting news to the nearly 600 physicists from 38 countries gathered at the Fermi accelerator. If gluons really exist, they are the first strong proof of an esoteric yet extremely important new physical theory called quantum chromo dynamics, or QCD. Although more experimental work will be necessary to establish the existence of gluons, already some bold theorists are using QCD in an ambitious attempt to succeed by other means where Einstein failed. That could eventually mean a union of all four of nature's basic forces -gravitation, electromagnetism and the nuclear strong and weak forces. Predicted...
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