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Truth and Beauty Quarks

In the 1970s, physicists predicted the discovery of two quarks called T and B for top and bottom. Some poetically-minded physicists argued that the T and B quarks should instead be called truth and beauty, but the terms top and bottom eventually won out. For the record, beauty lasts about one picosecond before decaying — at least when you’re talking about quarks. This is part of a complete episode.

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