ILL Researchers Trap The Most Neutrons Ever Bottled, Setting a Science Record
Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France Marek Ślusarczyk via WikimediaWhen subatomic science gets wack, physicists get ILL European researchers working at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France, have trapped the largest number of neutrons ever held in place at one time. But while they've smashed the previous record (also held by the ILL), it's still not quite enough, the lead researcher tells BBC. Still, the new approach that got researchers this far may be able to trap far greater numbers of neutrons with a little finessing. Neutrons may seem like the boring cousin to the more active and interesting protons and electrons that make up atoms, but neutrons hold some mysteries that could shed light on the Big Bang and the formation of the cosmos (life, the universe, everything, etc.). They can also mysteriously become other subatomic particles, like protons, electrons, and electron antineutrinos--a pretty neat trick of physics. But...