h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Particle physics has always fascinated me, the terminology captured my young imagination. Mesons and such, all very "Dan Dare" and early pictures from Wilson cloud chambers. As I got older, I realised that this is one area of science where the old Newtonian philosophical approach has prominence. Herein lies a caution, as the search for particles widens, so do the conditions applied to nominate or describe particulate behaviours and properties. During the 1970s, the research was initially to break apart as far as possible and particles were usually named by the behaviour or shape of the tracks or the effects on other particles. The 1980s saw the means to add particles to each other "If we jam a 'thison to a thaton we should have a thingyon but do we need a whatsiton to act as a bind agent?" A few wallops later, there it is...a DIY thingyon. The whole discipline is now in danger of being used to validate any stated possible particulate concept which may be in keeping with current philosophy; Dark Matter for example. A science which is able to create new matter is also capable of generating self-fulfilling prophesies and therefore, misleading the very processes of research they are being used to explore. But it really is such an exciting area of knowledge...mind boggling. Thank you for the article.