Exotic particles
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OUR WORLD IS MADE UP OF ORDINARY STUFF.  LOTS OF PROTONS AND NEUTRONS, ALL
MADE OF 3 QUARKS APIECE. BUT PROTONS AND NEUTRONS HAVE STRANGE COUSINS
CALLED MESONS.  

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THESE ARE THE BLACK SHEEP OF THE PARTICLE FAMILY AND THEY'RE FORMED WHEN
QUARKS COME TOGETHER IN UNUSUAL WAYS. PERHAPS INSTEAD OF THREE QUARKS
BOUND TOGETHER, IT'S TWO QUARKS. OR FOUR.   NOW A GROUP OF RESEARCHERS HAS
SEEN AN ALL NEW EXOTIC PARTICLE FOR THE FIRST TIME.  THEY THINK THIS MESON IS MADE
OF ONE QUARK, ONE ANTI-QUARK, AND ANOTHER PARTICLE CALLED A GLUON. 

CASON: "We have never observed a gluon as part of the structure of any particle so it's
very different from anything else that we have observed." 

NEAL CASON IS A PHYSICIST AT NOTRE DAME, AND HE'S ONE OF THE SCIENTISTS WHO SAW
THIS PARTICLE WITH AN ACCELERATOR AT BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABS.  WELL, THEY
DIDN'T SEE IT EXACTLY.  THESE MESONS ARE EXOTIC FOR A REASON--THEY PARTY HARD
AND DIE EARLY.  IN FACT, THEY FLASH INTO EXISTENCE FOR SO SHORT A TIME THAT THERE'S
NO WAY ANYONE CAN ACTUALLY DETECT THEM.  WHAT CASON AND HIS COLLEAGUES
DID DETECT IS WHAT THE MESON TURNED INTO. 

CASON: "A meson has a very short lifetime and because of this you can't observe it
directly, but for example a meson can decay and does decay into other mesons which
eventually decay into other . . . particles which are stable enough for you to make
measurements on."

THAT'S A LITTLE LIKE TAKING A PILE OF GLASS SHARDS AND TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT
KIND OF A VASE IT WAS BEFORE IT HIT THE FLOOR.  WHICH IS WHY CASON WILL KEEP
DOING MORE EXPERIMENTS BEFORE CONFIRMING JUST HOW EXOTIC HIS NEW PARTICLE IS.