The existence of these quarks was theorized in 1964 by Gell-Mann and George Zweig. High-energy physics underwent an extraordinary advance with the introduction of particles whose names were proposed by one of the scientists responsible for their introduction: Murray Gell-Mann. Let us consider the context that led to this prediction. One of the most celebrated events in physics during the last decade was the confirmation of a theoretical prediction made almost half a century ago: the existence of the Higgs boson. In this article, I will discuss the decade between 20, and we will see that this is what has happened in some cases during the second decade of the twenty-first century, significantly after the “revolutionary years” of the early twentieth century. I hasten to add that the concept of “normal science” is complex and may lead to error: the development of the fundaments-the “hard core,” to use the term introduced by Kuhn-of a scientific paradigm, that is, of “normal science,” can open new doors to knowledge of nature and is, therefore, of the greatest importance. The second half of the twentieth century saw the consolidation of these branches of physics, but we might wonder whether important novelties eventually stopped emerging and everything boiled down to mere developments-what Thomas Kuhn called “normal science” in his 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. This interaction is mediated by the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle The Higgs mechanism explais how the Higgs field confers mass on the other particles through their interaction with it. Higgs mechanism equation on a blackboard. 1949), the invention of the transistor (1947), which could well be called “the atom of globalization and digital society”, and the development of particle physics (later called “high-energy physics”), astrophysics, nuclear physics, and solid-state or “condensed matter” physics. There are too many to enumerate here, but it will suffice to mention just a few: the construction of quantum electrodynamics (c. In fact, there were so many that it would be no exaggeration to say that they changed the world. Still, the most prolific “consequences-applications” emerged in the context of quantum physics. ![]() In Einstein’s world, relativistic cosmology rapidly emerged and welcomed as one possible model of the Universe the experimental discovery of the Universe’s expansion (Edwin Hubble, 1929). In the case of quantum physics, we are referring to quantum mechanics (Werner Heisenberg, 1925 Paul Dirac, 1925 Erwin Schrödinger, 1926). That is what happened with physics once the new basic theories were completed. ![]() Now, we know that revolutions, whether in science, politics, or customs, have long-range effects that may not be as radical as those that led to the initial break, but can nonetheless lead to later developments, discoveries, or ways of understanding reality that were previously inconceivable. Physics is considered the queen of twentieth-century science, and rightly so, as that century was marked by two revolutions that drastically modified its foundations and ushered in profound socioeconomic changes: the special and general theories of relativity (Albert Einstein, 1905, 1915) and quantum physics, which, unlike relativity, cannot be attributed to a single figure as it emerged from the combined efforts of a large group of scientists. The article concludes with a look at the presence and importance of physics in a scientifically interdisciplinary world. String theory and supersymmetry are also considered, as is quantum entanglement and its uses in the area of secure communications (quantum cryptography). These include dark matter, black holes, and multiple universes. A deeper look reveals the additional need to address other discoveries where physics reveals its unity with astrophysics and cosmology. This article looks at some of them, beginning with the discovery of the Higgs boson and gravitational radiation. In recent years, although physics has not experienced the sort of revolutions that took place during the first quarter of the twentieth century, the seeds planted at that time are still bearing fruit and continue to engender new developments.
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