Number 140 (Story #2), August 13, 1993 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein PENGUIN EVENTS ARE SEEN AT CORNELL . The B meson, made in high-energy electron- positron collisions, is a composite object, made of a b (bottom) quark and one of several types (flavors) of antiquarks. The B quickly decays, usually by a process in which the b quark itself decays typically into a c (charm) quark and a W boson. This decay is both flavor-changing---the b becomes a c---and charge-changing since the charge of the b and c are -1/3 and +2/3, respectively. The CLEO Collaboration, working at Cornell's CESR electron-positron collider, has now observed the first flavor-changing, non-charge-changing decays of the b quark, in this case into an s (strange) quark and a photon. (Actually, in the lab bare b or c quarks are never observed, but rather the mesons (such as the B or K*) which contain the quarks.) The Feynman diagram for this rare process vaguely resembles a penguin, whence the name penguin event. These events, some theorists believe, have a bearing on the issue of CP (charge conjugation and parity) violation. (R. Ammar et al., Physical Review Letters, 2 Aug.)