From Ian Robinson
I read with interest Feedback’s observation about references to penguins in
nuclear physics papers
(5 June).
According to a recent copy of Physics Review the tale is even
stranger. Only a person in a highly altered state of consciousness would
recognise a penguin in the particle diagram in question. Apparently, the term
was coined after a wager over a darts match between two American physicists. The
forfeit for the loser was to use the word “penguin” in his next paper.
This would appear to be the latest manifestation of a long tradition at the
more esoteric fringes of physics. With quarks exhibiting strangeness and charm,
barns being a unit of a minuscule area, and quark/gluon soups, I do wonder if
university physics departments are offering free drugs to entice students in.
ian@corp.u-net.com
