Word: meson
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Role of the Meson. Last week 500 ultra-physicists gathered in Manhattan at a meeting of the American Physical Society to discuss this unfinished business. The meson (pronounced mees-on) was the star of the convention. Most physicists agreed that this subatomic particle, which weighs 200 times as much as an electron, was the key to the problem...
Little is definitely known about mesons, except that they are formed in large numbers in the upper atmosphere. One theory: cosmic rays hit air atoms, knock high-speed protons out of their nuclei. These hit other atomic nuclei, somehow producing mesons. Mesons live only two-millionths of a second; then they disintegrate with a burst of energy. All, or nearly all, the matter in.the meson spontaneously turns into energy. If physicists could generate mesons on a large scale, their great problem might be solved...
...only reliable meson generators are the mysterious cosmic rays from outer space, which spend most of their force inconveniently high in the atmosphere...
...data would be studied with bated breath, would yield new understanding of the birth of mesons. Eventually, perhaps, the grateful physicists might repay the Army with a cataclysmic meson-bomb...
...committed itself to an extensive program of basic atomic research. At the Knolls, outside Schenectady, the company will build a 300-acre research center to house its dangerous new activities. Meanwhile, armed with their 100,000,000-volt betatron and other high-voltage machines, its scientists are studying the "meson," a mysterious, sub-atomic particle which may hold the key to a revolutionary course of atomic power...