Word: proton
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...Times to the Moon. The protons keep together like a swarm of bees, and each time they circle the track, they get a boost of electrical energy that increases their speed. Round and round they go, 4,000,000 times in 1.85 seconds. After they have traveled 300,000 miles (1.25 times the distance to the moon), they are moving at almost the speed of light, and each proton carries an explosive cargo of energy...
When hit by a fast-moving proton, they shatter into many fragments. The list of these sub-atomic objects (mesons, V-par-ticles, etc.) is growing rapidly, and with it grows the baffled curiosity of the physicists...
There is good reason to believe that proton projectiles of much greater energy will be needed before the mystery of the nucleus can be cleared up. At present only the primary cosmic rays (which have to be sought by rockets or balloons) can supply such energies, but the new accelerator will shoot beams of "primaries" right into the scientists' instruments...
...even create negative protons, which would be really sensational. Ordinary protons are positively charged. Combined with one or more negative electrons, they form the familiar atoms of ordinary matter. But scientists have already created positive electrons (positrons). This suggests that it may be possible to create negative protons (not yet named nega-tons). Combined with positrons, these should form "reversed matter." An atom of "anti-hydrogen," for instance, would have a negative proton as its nucleus, with a positron instead of an electron revolving around...
Astronomer Fritz Zwicky of Cal Tech thinks there is another way to pack matter tightly. Normal atoms contain one electron for each proton in the nucleus. If the electrons could be persuaded to unite with the protons, each pair would form a neutron. This reaction does not take place under normal conditions; the electrons circle forever, and the protons stay in the nucleus. But Zwicky believes that under the strange and violent conditions that exist in certain large stars, electrons may unite with protons...