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Scott Rosenberg

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Dept. of primordial ooze

January 14, 2004 by Scott Rosenberg Leave a Comment

I am not nearly enough of a physicist to understand the full implications of the possible creation at the Brookhaven National Laboratory of “a primordial form of matter” known as quark-gluon plasma. As reported in today’s Times, this “goo” last existed during the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang.

What I can say for certain is that the term “quark-gluon plasma” is a winner. Science is learning not to label things with latinate polysyllables. Today’s physics is powered by short, chewy, phonically rich terms that fire the imagination.

Quark-gluon plasma! I can just see Bill Griffith’s Zippy the Pinhead, polka dots pulsating, chanting the words like an offering to the void.

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