TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Interviews on Water Use Are Thirsty Work Learning which water sources villagers use and how far they carry heavy jerrycans of water is itself thirsty work in the Rwandan heat. feeds.nytimes.com |
Health Dividend Seen in Deeper Emission Cuts Projecting a reduction in pollutants that cause respiratory illnesses, and the avoidance of health costs linked to heat waves, floods, reduced food production and infectious diseases. feeds.nytimes.com |
Short on Roof Space? Adobe Plants Fuel Cells Stymied by the fact its operations are in urban skyscrapers rather than on a sprawling campus, Adobe installs about a dozen 100-kilowatt Bloom Energy fuel cells on top of a parking garage in downtown San Jose. feeds.nytimes.com |
Letters: Miracle Drug, but No Cure (2 Letters) Letters to the editor. feeds.nytimes.com |
Murray Gell-Mann talks quarks He started from the patterns of particles created by cosmic rays, took a name from James Joyce, and changed the way we see fundamental physicsMurray Gell-Mann clearly has a flair for names. The patterns of particle masses led to his "eight-fold way", and the word quark is supposed to sound a bit like a duck – it is pronounced "kwork". But the spelling comes from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, where it rhymes with Mark. In his book The Quark and Jaguar he has a go at justifying this, but I'm not convinced.I am very convinced by his lucid description of how unnecessary concepts get in the way, and how ditching "what everybody knows" can lead to sudden progress. Of course, for all of you out there with budding new theories, this is only true if the data back you up. The data backed up Gell-Mann spectacularly: his quarks (and the gluons they exchange) lie behind all the jets we are seeing now at the LHC.Jon Butterworthguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |