Proton Pusher

Atoms don't stand a chance any more; the atom-smashers are laying for them all over the place. Newest and most powerful of the smashers is Columbia University's cyclotron at Nevis, an estate at Irvington-on-Hudson that once belonged to James (son of Alexander) Hamilton. The 2,500-ton monster generates a beam of protons with 380 million electron volts of energy. Such voltage is too powerful for mere atom-smashing, which is considered scientific child's play nowadays. The Nevis machine was designed for probing deeper secrets of matter.

Earlier cyclotrons smashed atoms by knocking out of them a few protons or neutrons. Their more powerful successors smash atoms to smithereens, and send protons and neutrons flying every-which-way. Out of the disrupted nuclei come more elusive particles: the mysterious mesons which have atomic scientists in a dither of curiosity.

No one is sure how many kinds of mesons there are, or what their properties are. Mesons are supposed to have some connection with the "binding force" that holds atomic nuclei together, but there is no complete theory to explain how they operate. Columbia's physicists hope that their new cyclotron, which generates plenty of mesons, may dig out many of their secrets. One possibility: that two colliding mesons may both vanish, suddenly, turning wholly into energy.

Another exciting project is to find out what happens when two protons slam together. At energies hitherto available, nothing much happens; the protons behave as if they were indestructible. But no physicist would care to bet on it--consid ering past surprises. Columbia's cyclotron may prove powerful enough to smash protons to bits and reveal a whole new level of sub-atomic structure.

The Nevis cyclotron is not only the most powerful; it even sounds different. Like most big atomic machines, it is guarded by Geiger counters to measure its radioactivity. Counters often ring a bell at intervals. An imaginative young scientist fixed the ones at Nevis to make a woeful sound like a baby chick that has lost its mother hen.

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