A different sort of religion

[David Casseres]

On 8/13/06, Anville Azote <anville.azote at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Gell-Mann actually invented the word "quark" as a bit of euphonious
> nonsense, then found a literary source after the fact.  You can look
> it up in James Gleick's biography of Gell-Mann's colleague Richard
> Feynman, or in the book of Feynman's letters edited by his daughter
> Michelle (amongst probably other places).

Quark in German is the name of a soft cheese, not just euphonious
nonsense.  Accounts i've read say that this was what Gell-Mann had in
mind originally.  It tickled him to call the sub-particles "cheese."