So I am so tripping right now. I just found out about muonium. It’s lighter than regular matter and has nothing to do with cows. Why do I care? I don’t know. I’m a little high. And a lot nerdy.

I barely learned about muons a few months ago. Another one of those atom smasher stories. That was hard enough for me to wrap my head around.

Usually, “they just discovered a particle” quantum physics news goes in one ear and out the other. I can’t keep up with all the subatomic particles they keep finding in labs. It’s voodoo to me at this point.

I pay attention to science news, but they keep finding things out. When I was in school, atoms looked like the solar system. People on the news were going nuts over something called a God particle a while back, but I didn’t bother to dig into it. I usually don’t care as long as it’s not gonna blow me up. I might get curious about it later.

Muons grabbed my attention, because they already have a commercial use. Like electrons only bigger? Still trippy, but particles you can shoot at stuff is something I get. They have lasers now.

Now I find out there’s a kind of matter called muonium, like a little bitty atom. With an anti-muon (anti-matter!) and an electron. So it’s an “atom” that’s lighter than hydrogen. It’s another one of those things in the atom smasher that lasts a fraction of a second, but it’s long enough to make compounds like muonium chloride and Sodium Muonide (!). It’s too much for my brain.

They discovered it in 1960. Never came up in school. That kinda pisses me off. Anyway, it’s all of my life late, but now I know another physics thing. Now when are they going to figure our how to make something out of it?

#Physics, #Muons, #Muonium, #Science, #Nerd Alert