‘Impossible’ Particle Discovery Adds Key Piece to the Strong Force Puzzle | Quanta Magazine (quantamagazine.org)

"Polyakov’s analysis suggested that the four quarks banded together for a glorious 12 sextillionths of a second before an energy fluctuation conjured up two extra quarks and the group disintegrated into three mesons."

The contrast between the precision of "12 sextillitionths of a second" and the vagueness of "an energy fluctuation" that "conjures up two extra quarks" is somewhat hilarious. This is fascinating otherwise.

tags: sciencephysicsresearch

link published in /2021/10/17

Some of my favorite photos I've taken over the years are of the boys doing something they love. For Jake, I think of all the photos I've taken of him flying...and these, the shots of him looking out the window, camera (app) in hand, on a commercial flight. The plane window always seems to do something amazing with the light, but his gaze out the window, which reminds me of his passion for flying, is why I love these shots so much.

I bet I've taken dozens of these over the years, and it never gets old. This one is special to me, though, because it's one of the first I've been able to capture in probably two years as COVID has kept us grounded (it's nearly the first — this is from our return flight and I did take a few on our outgoing flight).

And I suspect the mask Jake's wearing will remind me of that in the future.

I love the window seat, but, for me, it's the second best view on a plane.

This is the first.

tags: flyingpilotprouddad

photo published in /2021/10/17