Word: subnuclear
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...usually by smashing apart nuclei of atoms in huge accelerators. Most of the particles live for only a tiny fraction of a second before they decay into more stable atomic components Like electrons. Until now, all of these particles have occupied predictable places in what physicists jocularly call their subnuclear "zoo." The puzzling new discovery is a total misfit...
Except for the space program, there is hardly a costlier quest in all of science than exploration of the inner universe of the atom. To peer more deeply into that hidden world-in which more than 100 strange subnuclear particles have already been discovered -scientists have been forced to build ever more powerful atom smashers. Trouble is, the cost of such monsters is now so high-$250 million, for example, for the 500-billion-electron-volt (BeV) accelerator now nearing completion at Batavia, Ill.-that high-energy physicists are anxiously looking for alternate ways of getting a bigger bang...