Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience

onager

(9,356 posts) Wed Apr 18, 2012, 01:53 AM Apr 2012

Mysterious Particle Found After Decades of Searching

Meet the Majorana fermion! This was posted in Science over the weekend, but I just saw it on Yahoo and thought I'd re-up it here:

An elusive particle that is its own antiparticle may have been found, and, if confirmed, would be the first time a phenomenon predicted decades ago has been seen in a real system.

Some researchers suggest that in the future, this mysterious particle called a Majorana fermion could be useful in carrying bits of information in quantum computers...

Until now, the only suggestion of the particle's existence was a theory posed by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana in 1937, who predicted the Majorana fermion.

http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-particle-found-decades-searching-130005728.html

Ain't it purty?

4 replies

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Highlight:

Mysterious Particle Found After Decades of Searching (Original Post) onager Apr 2012 OP

sort of frankie May 2012 #1

Now if only they could find my skullcandy earphones which disappeared over the weekend... Adsos Letter May 2012 #2

I have a foolproof method for finding missing headphones: laconicsax May 2012 #4

It is reading stuff like this that makes me hope that scientists find Goblinmonger May 2012 #3

frankie

(53 posts)

1. sort of

Reply to onager (Original post)

Tue May 1, 2012, 09:41 AM

May 2012

Technically, they created a "quasiparticle", which is a confluence of inter-particle effects that act together in the same way that a real particle should.

Cool result, but not the same as finding a new standalone particle.

Adsos Letter

(19,459 posts)

2. Now if only they could find my skullcandy earphones which disappeared over the weekend...

Reply to onager (Original post)

Thu May 3, 2012, 12:49 PM

May 2012

But no, they spend their time messing around with this "mysterious particle" stuff.

laconicsax

(14,860 posts)

4. I have a foolproof method for finding missing headphones:

Reply to Adsos Letter (Reply #2)

Thu May 3, 2012, 01:59 PM

May 2012

Buy a new pair. You'll find the old one within a day or two, then return the new pair.

Goblinmonger

(22,340 posts)

3. It is reading stuff like this that makes me hope that scientists find

Reply to onager (Original post)

Thu May 3, 2012, 12:58 PM

May 2012

Ulysses by James Joyce as incomprehensible as I find this stuff about particles.

It is pretty cool, though.

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