Word: proton
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...largest proton accelerator in the world is under construction at Brookhaven, Long Island. The machine, owned by the Atomic Energy Commission will be operated by Harvard in conjunction with eight other institutions through Associated Universities...
...physics' most exciting recent discoveries is the antiproton. It resembles an ordinary proton (present in the nuclei of all atoms), except that its electric charge is negative instead of positive. There may be (but probably are not) places in the universe where antiprotons can exist permanently, but on earth they are short-lived. As soon as one of them touches the nucleus of an ordinary atom, it is annihilated. Both its own matter and the matter of a proton or neutron in the nucleus turn into a flash of energy...
...wheel-like star tells what happens when one of the alien particles is annihilated. The antiproton (P¯ ) enters from the left. It is moving fast at first, but gradually slows down and merges with the nucleus of some unfortunate atom. There it combines with a proton or neutron, and both particles vanish, turning into 1,876 million electron volts of energy. The resulting explosion-extremely violent on the atomic scale-drives off fast-moving fragments that trace the lines of the star...
...Berkeley scientists turned their 6.2 Bev. proton beam on a copper target. From it emerged a secondary beam of sub-atomic debris (protons, neutrons, mesons, etc.) which presumably contained antiprotons. To prove that it did, the scientists shot the secondary beam into a "maze" (of magnetic fields and mass-or speed-measuring instruments) which only a particle with the anti-proton's properties could pass through. A few of the particles did pass through it, leaping every hurdle and checking in triumphantly at the far end. None lived very long, of course. After a fraction of a second, each...
Anti-Matter. As a result of the new discovery, it is now theoretically possible to create anti-hydrogen. The atoms of ordinary hydrogen have a proton in their centers with a negative electron revolving around it. Anti-hydrogen would have an antiproton and a positron (positive electron). Both these "anti" particles are now available, but since anti-hydrogen cannot live in peace with ordinary matter, it will be hard to create and even harder to preserve for more than a few millionths of a second...