50 years ago, physicists thought they found the W boson. They hadn’t
Excerpt from the August 21, 1971 issue of Science News
![an computer illustration of streaks of yellow bouncing around in loops - showing how the debris from a proton-antiproton collision moved. the straighter path of a high-energy electron is also shown](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/062421_eg_50ya-wboson_feat.jpg?fit=1030%2C580&ssl=1)
An experiment at CERN in 1982 captured this image depicting debris from a proton-antiproton collision. The path of a high-energy electron (indicated by a red arrow, bottom right) detected in the smashup’s aftermath was consistent with the expected decay of products of a W boson.
CERN