Strange Particles

For John, BLUF:  I wonder if we have to move the experiments into outer space.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A Major Physics Experiment Just Detected A Particle That Shouldn't Exist

From Live Science, by Staff Writer Rafi Letzter, 1 June 2018.

Here is the start:

Scientists have produced the firmest evidence yet of so-called sterile neutrinos, mysterious particles that pass through matter without interacting with it at all.

The first hints these elusive particles turned up decades ago.  But after years of dedicated searches, scientists have been unable to find any other evidence for them, with many experiments contradicting those old results.  These new results now leave scientists with two robust experiments that seem to demonstrate the existence of sterile neutrinos, even as other experiments continue to suggest sterile neutrinos don't exist at all.

That means there's something strange happening in the universe that is making humanity's most cutting-edge physics experiments contradict one another.

I love science and I love the way it works.

However, in science old ideas have to be bludgeoned to death by new scientists, because yesterday's truth clings to life with real tenacity.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff