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How Subatomic Particles Get Named

guardian.co.uk — Christening a particle is not easy. Do you name it after the person who proposed its existence, or the person who discovered it? Or do you give it a label that is abstract, poetic, whimsical, onomatopoeic, or just plain descriptive?

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  • yayster, on 06/30/2008, -17/+2Whoo hoo! First Comment!
  • dudefather, on 06/30/2008, -2/+23Dr. Freeman. You really shouldn't be out there. At the moment of synapse, as I teleport, this chamber will be bathed in deadly particles that have yet to be named by human science. Perhaps when I have the leisure to do the work myself, I'll name one after you. That way you won't be completely forgotten.
    • Duositex, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1I wish I knew what this was a reference to, but I liked it anyway. Especially the part about bathing. I mean.. who doesn't like a nice bath?
  • serif69, on 06/30/2008, -2/+5Protons are made up of smaller subatomic particles called Fred.
    • sockpuppets, on 06/30/2008, -1/+4And bitchier companion particles named wilma that use microscopic purple elephants as vacuum cleaners.
  • agnistus, on 06/30/2008, -2/+0Particles are wierd and funny.
  • deathfix, on 06/30/2008, -5/+11Can we name one after Steven Colbert?
    • JasonCox, on 06/30/2008, -1/+1You took the words right out of my mouth.
    • gfxlonghorn, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1Only if you learn how to spell his name right?
  • Kristijan12, on 06/30/2008, -0/+3They should be named as the person who discovers them proposes, but only in the case that the person who proposed its existence didn`t already gave it a name.
  • julianrod, on 06/30/2008, -0/+4But where does it stop??? Where does it end????
    Molecules, atoms, quarks, the little things that make quarks... Cut it out already!!!
  • Metasquares, on 06/30/2008, -0/+2I thought that atoms were so called because they were the smallest unit of an element. That is, there is no "gold particle" or "boron particle"; below the atomic level, such things lose meaning.

    But I Am Not a Particle Physicist, so take that with a hefty dose of sodium and chlorine atoms - and the particles thereof.
    • TheCatsPants, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1The smallest unit of an element, yes. The subatomic particles are also defined. Each atom nucleus is composed of a mix of protons and neutrons, and surrounded by a cloud of electrons. Each different mix gives the properties particular to that element: mass, magnetism, chemistry, radiation etc. The protons and neutrons themselves are composed of configurations of quarks......
    • Dustmuffins, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2There are several behaviors which can only be accounted for by using different theories like string theory, with 11 dimensions.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoretical_physics

      String Theory is a one of the more common ones.

      Also, WTFCONFUSING
      • LemurHorde, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2I second the WTFCONFUSING. I looked at a friend's theoretical physics papers and it seemed to be in some sort of really bizarre language posing as English. Manifold, brane, worldsheet, conformal, module, half-space, ambient, metric, class, bundle, holographic, generator... and so on apparently had little in common with the common English definition. On top of that, throw in a bunch of acronyms, and append hyper, super, and n-dimensional to many of the words. Finally liberally sprinkle a bunch of ""strange name'-hyphen-'another strange name' 'something'-tion". In some sentences the only thing I could understand was "and."
  • dafragsta, on 06/30/2008, -2/+2I propose that we have a colbertron.
  • balazs, on 06/30/2008, -0/+4I'm sure having to name things like gluons, bosons, fermions, quarks, neutrinos, positrons, leptons, hadrons, mesons, etc is rather challenging.
  • fudged71, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2particle physics is ridiculously cool. I love just browsing through Wikipedia articles, just trying to piece together in my mind what goes where.
    Can't wait for the LHC to start!
  • keitarofujiwara, on 07/01/2008, -0/+2crap! even subatomic particles are divided into wimps and machos
  • gordoncam1, on 07/01/2008, -0/+6Dark Unknown Nonreflective Nondetectable Objects = DUNNOs. . nyuk nyuk nyuk . . good one.
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