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Malcolm Gladwell and Wendy Kaminer

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yo

By Malcolm Gladwell
Posted Tuesday, June 9, 1998, at 1:37 PM ET

The Times had one of my absolute favorite kinds of stories this morning, which was the news analysis on neutrinos in "Science Times". Best quote: "... results from Super-Kamiokande and other recent experiments suggest that jarring possibility that the three kinds of neutrinos now believed to exist might have to be joined by a fourth, and even a fifth and sixth." How much do I love the use, in this context, of the word "jarring?" Of course, I haven't the slightest clue what any of this is about and nor, I suspect, do most people. I used to find this very troubling, that I--a science writer--should have no idea what a bunch of physicists are talking about. But now I kind of like the feeling. It very similar to the feeling I get when I watch golf on TV. (Can someone tell me the difference between a wood and an iron?) It's just comforting to know that there are people out there who are really good at something. And, of course, what better evidence is there of being really good at something than being utterly unintelligible to the rest of us? Second favorite quote: "the muon neutrinos are disappearing somewhere along the way, presumably oscillating into another flavor--not electron neutrons (that would be too easy) but either tau neutrinos or one of the hypothetical sterile neutrinos." Hypothetical sterile neutrinos?

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