Subatomic Particle Discovery At CERN Confirms Knowledge About Quarks, Physicists Say

Picture shows the silicon strip tracker of the Compact Muon Solenoid barrel, at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

GENEVA -- European researchers say they have discovered a new subatomic particle that helps confirm our knowledge about how quarks bind – one of the basic forces in the shaping of matter.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said Friday the particle was discovered at one of CERN's two main experiments involving thousands of researchers, in collaboration with the University of Zurich.

Joe Incandela, the physicist in charge of the experiment involved with the discovery, told The Associated Press the particle was predicted long ago but finding it was "really kind of a classic tour de force of experimental work."

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Comments

[Dwight Bogan]

07:28 AM on 05/01/2012

Benjamin Franklin and others in his time did work in Electricity that would not see pratical applications for many years after they were gone. I guess those people wasted their time and money too.

[The Man on the street]

07:02 AM on 05/01/2012

Nice, but... wake me when they discover Gravitons & how to use them like electrons!

[frank1946]

06:12 AM on 05/01/2012

So now Mankind can drive further into the Mysteries of existence ?

The Tree of Good and Evil gives up it's secrets about what and how we are.

Mankinds Progress is driven by the power of his Knowledge.

Meanwhile the Euro and Europe Fizzle ?

[Tunghoy]

05:50 AM on 05/01/2012

The baryon has a mass of roughly 5900 MeV, and was discovered by the CMS experiment at CERN. The results have an almost 7-sigma probability, or most conservatively 5-sigma. 

Since this article doesn't give a lot of detail, you can read the official announcement and find the original paper just published by CMS on their site:
http://cms.web.cern.ch/news/observation-new-xib0-beauty-particle

[Joebudgie]

04:25 AM on 05/01/2012

More complaints of wasting money on research. I guess some people thought the folks who studied and developed open heart surgery were "wasting money", too? Forget trying to fix a broken body, just pray in church and die or maybe limp along a few years. I've paid taxes since 1959 and I vote for research, of all kinds. The ahetty2000's of the world can just sit in church and gossip and pray while the rest of the world continues to work towards learning more about our universe. for a healthier, longer, more comfortable life.

[OGMoney]

10:46 AM on 05/01/2012

+1 completely agree

[mrkr]

01:43 PM on 05/02/2012

It's a fundamental difference in world views that cripples these people from seeing outside themselves. Truly tragic to have so much human potential and never realize any of it. Truly disappointing sometimes to live among them.

[ahetty2000]

02:11 AM on 05/01/2012

What a WASTE of money and resources. Anyone with half a brain knows that God created the world, and man in his own image..

YEAH.. RIGHT!!!!!!!!

[SidTheScienceKid]

01:56 AM on 05/01/2012

Is this article really just three paragraphs ? There is not enough information in this article even to pity it !!!!

[Tim Day]

12:28 AM on 05/01/2012

Maybe that atty is right....he did time travel

[hemidaytona]

11:39 PM on 04/30/2012

Funny how these scientists even with all of their knowledge and tools still are unable to create life. Yet we are to believe that life just started all on it's own somehow.

[MagicActor]

12:23 AM on 05/01/2012

Only if you're stupid enough to think that's what they say.

[MrAmericanMadeOnly]

01:08 AM on 05/01/2012

Well I hate to tell you, but Nothing can start on its own, .. If There is indeed Nothing, then there Will Still Be NOTHING forever, and that is the way it would stay, Forever. !
In EVERY Case someting had to be started... ( EVERYTHING.! ) This means that Everything in THIS whole Universe From the VERY Begining to what will be the End had to be in some kind of a Designed Formula, that was " Created, " and some how was set into motion. It could even have been some kind of a " Timed," or Timed Released Designed Formula.
We as People have Created " Timed Formulas, and Timed Released Formulas " in Medicines, Weapons, and Other things. !.. So why is there any DOUBT of This Universe ever being " Created, " by a " Creator.? " .. (. You CAN'T Have EVOLUTION, unless it was first Formulated, Designed, and Created.!. )
.. So how will it EVER be PROVEN that there was NO Creation envolved.. It CAN'T be PROVEN, because it Isn't Logical. !

[morr rva]

10:07 AM on 05/02/2012

You Creationists puzzle me. You say "Everything has to be created," and use that as an argument for the existence of God. Yet when asked where God came from, you say "He has always been." But if God has always been, then everything has _not_ been created, because God has not been created, and the basis of your argument is invalid. A God that has "always been" is no more & no less valid than a Universe that comes into existence from the Big Bang.

[Tmiley]

09:59 PM on 04/30/2012

I have been reading some of the posts that point out we are waisting money finding these discoveries. The fact is to learn how the universe works is the best way we can spend money. The men at Cern are working in pure research and their discoveries will fuel practical research far into the future.

[croshatch]

12:42 PM on 05/01/2012

True. Unfortunately there are too many who always want immediate payoffs. They only think of today and the small, personal world they live in. They can't look toward the future.

[cerebrogasm]

07:13 PM on 06/23/2012

You'll find the denigration of basic science (as in - fundamental research) is highest among those that do not understand science. We have lost a significant number of scientists involved in basic research by de-funding them - the under-educated electorate can make no cognitive connection between fundamental research and discovery - unless it has something to do with giving them better cell phone and high definition digital video options. Is it a stretch to reason why this research is taking place in Geneva and not here, in America?

[smp276dp]

09:46 PM on 04/30/2012

They could be caled disCERN

[mbkeefer]

09:28 PM on 04/30/2012

Took a bit of digging, but what they found was the decay pattern of an excited Xi-b particle. Why this was not mentioned in the article above is a puzzle. Otherwise, one would think CERN had managed to somehow detect gluons.

[Scott Cornett]

08:10 PM on 04/30/2012

Nerdjoke of the day: I like my women (or men, as you may prefer) like I like my quarks: charming and strange!

[InSanityRaven]

09:11 PM on 04/30/2012

I prefer mine as a bottom-Xi...strange, bottom, and down on me!

Sorry that it sucks, but I just had to do that.

[pstanfield38]

08:09 PM on 04/30/2012

HOLY CRAP! WE KNOW HOW QUARKS BIND! Thank god for the people at CERN. All that time, all that money. It's all finally paid off. No more pollution, no more war. No more children starving because there's no food. We're saved!!!

What? It's not all that? Really?

C'mon people. Billions of Euros has been spent and all that's coming of it is a physics question my son will get wrong on a test because he's worried about how he's supposed to pay for a class he has no logical need for but has to take anyway.

[bmutc01]

08:54 PM on 04/30/2012

Yeah, because clearly discoveries in physics have never contributed to our understanding of the universe and our quality of life.

[johnmarlin]

09:06 PM on 04/30/2012

Excellent reply to a ridiculously ignorant post.

[Zombiesmakemehappy]

09:09 PM on 04/30/2012

You're right, understanding what we know as reality and the universe we live in is SO not important.

[secondcoming]

07:20 PM on 04/30/2012

the reason all matter forms is being it is in a sea of "marmalade" _ the residue left over before the big bang, it's there, we can calculate and measure it but we have yet developed the right instrument to view it other than through the reactionary behavior of atoms, or the big picture our solar system, or the universe itself. it's the neutralizing force that allows matter to accumulate and form.