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Article

Mesons

MAY 01, 1950
The most penetrating cosmic rays have turned out not to be of cosmic origin at all, but the short‐lived results of cosmic ray bombardment of the atmosphere. Called mesons, these particles are suspected to be of fundamental importance in nuclear structure. In the last few years much exciting experimental work in this field has been done at the University of Bristol in England and two physicists there write about the particles of which so much is expected.
Ugo Camerini
Hugh Muirhead

The story of how the existence of the meson was established starts much earlier than the finding of the first of these new particles. The story begins, as most tales of new scientific discoveries begin, with scientists obtaining experimental data which cannot be interpreted in terms of previously accepted ideas. In this case, the apparently inexplicable data came from studies on the properties of the cosmic radiation.

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More about the authors

Ugo Camerini, Bristol University.

Hugh Muirhead, Bristol University.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 3, Number 5

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