To most of us, 93-to-1 odds would make for a clear-cut bet. To physicists? Not so much.
On Dec. 15, the New York Times reported that Santa may have brought physics a new subatomic particle, a hitherto unknown entity materializing in the giant collider at CERN, near Geneva. It wasn’t a sure thing, but according to the Times, the odds are in the scientists’ favor, with only a 1-in-93 chance that the data pointing to the particle represent a statistical fluke.
