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[PokeyJoe]

I'm physics challenged.

With this information, the scientists hope to . . .

develop a fusion engine, like the one in Back To The Future

or . . .

[Gary Boldwater]

*PINK MATTER ALERT*

[BenLurkin]

"Where we're going, we wont need any roads!"

[JeepInMazar]

Scientists at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility in Bloomington have made the first unambiguous detection of a rare process, the fusion of two nuclei of heavy hydrogen to form a nucleus of helium and an uncharged pion.

This is not big deal, I've been seeing this and thinkikng about it for quite some time now. < /joke >

[VadeRetro]

As a result, isolated neutrons decay into protons in about 10 minutes.

An oddly incomplete description of this decay. Most accounts say a free neutron decays to yield a proton, an electron, and a neutrino. In fact, it was the variable energy sum from the easily observable parts of this decay (the proton and the electron) that led to the hypothesis that something harder to observe (the neutrino) must be in the mix as well. It was the first hint scientists had that neutrinos even exist.

The usual description of proton decay does not violate something called the conservation of electric charge. The writer of the article seems unaware of any such law.

[aruanan]

The pion is one of the subatomic particles responsible for the strong force that holds every nucleus together.

I thought the pion was one of the things responsible for the force that holds every Latin American authoritarian social structure together.

[farmfriend]

Science ping.

[Carry_Okie]

blam...!

[Nucluside]

Bump!

[SunkenCiv]

ping

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from April 9, 2003.

Scientists at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility in Bloomington have made the first unambiguous detection of a rare process, the fusion of two nuclei of heavy hydrogen to form a nucleus of helium and an uncharged pion. The pion is one of the subatomic particles responsible for the strong force that holds every nucleus together... "Scientists have searched for this rare fusion process since the 1950s," said IU physicist Edward Stephenson, the leader of the research team. "The process would not happen at all if nature did not allow a small violation of what is known as charge symmetry. If this symmetry violation had happened to be in the other direction, hydrogen would not have survived after the Big Bang, and the universe would not have the hydrogen fuel that keeps stars shining, including our sun, making human life possible. Sometimes large consequences hang on delicate balances in nature." One effect of this charge symmetry violation is that the neutron is slightly heavier than its charged partner, the proton. As a result, isolated neutrons decay into protons in about 10 minutes... The rate at which the rare fusion process occurs is expected to be a key piece of information in finding the cause for this violation of charge symmetry, he said.

• Radioactive Decay Not Always Constant? [8/08/2006]
• Surprise To Physicists -- Protons Aren't Always Shaped Like A Basketball! [4/08/2003]
• Physics: Proton radius smaller than believed, European scientists say [7/07/2010]
• The proton - smaller than thought [7/12/2010]

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