Word: tings
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...researchers will be awfully disappointed if all they succeed in doing is to fill out the known family tree of particles. Too much predictability can make science dull. Says Samuel Ting, an M.I.T. physicist and one of the head researchers at CERN: "I will only consider our experiment a success if we discover something really surprising -- new types of quarks, for example -- that would explode the standard theory...
Anyone able to take particle physics beyond the Standard Model will automatically win prizes, prestige and added power in the profession. The quest has attracted some of the most driven personalities in science. The leaders, including Ting, CERN director Carlo Rubbia and Stanford's Burton Richter, are known for their relentless ambition, feisty competitiveness and monumental egos. All have already won Nobel Prizes, but that seems only to have increased their desire for greater achievements. In the rush to get results, they push their staffs mercilessly and are furious -- at least in private -- whenever they come in second...
Richter has already made his share of breakthroughs. In 1974 he found and named the psi particle, which gave physicists conclusive evidence that quarks really exist. For spotting the psi, Richter shared the Nobel with Ting, who found the same particle at the same time and called it the J. The particle now bears both names, but, says Richter, "when you're talking to Ting, you'd better call it the J/psi. When you're talking to me, call it the psi/J...