Word: k
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...K. B. BRAGG Baltimore...
...theta puzzle on the world's two most powerful atom-smashers, the Cosmotron at Brookhaven and the Bevatron at Berkeley, Calif. The atom-smashers have, in their few years of operation, raised more problems than they have solved. One of their most baffling stunts was to produce the K meson, a short-lived particle knocked out of atomic nuclei. In all significant ways K mesons are alike, but some of them, called "tau K mesons," decay into three pi mesons; others, called "theta K mesons," decay into only two pi mesons. For mathematical reasons which physicists can explain only...
Most physicists tried vainly to solve the tau-theta puzzle in a way that preserved parity. Showing less respect for scientific propriety, Drs. Lee and Yang suggested last summer at Brookhaven that perhaps the trouble lay not with the K mesons but with parity itself. If parity could be violated on occasions, the odd behavior of the K mesons would be easy to explain...
...through childhood, K. was extremely meditative, usually preferred to be alone. He often had mysterious dreams and fits, during which he sometimes fainted. In late puberty, K. experienced elaborate auditory and visual hallucinations, uttered incoherent words, and had recurrent spells of sudden coma. He was frequently found running wildly through the countryside eating the bark of trees, and was known to throw himself into fire and water. K. believed he could 'talk to spirits' and 'chase ghosts...
Contrary to the judgment that would be given by most U.S. physicians, K. was not "mad" in the opinion of his fellows. He became one of the most respected members of his community-a leader in the practice of medicine. For K. is a shaman among the Yakut, a primitive tribe of fishermen and reindeer hunters in the arctic wastes of eastern Siberia. Moral drawn by State of Mind: one man's madness in one society is another's greatness in a different culture...