40 years for a 1-in-10-billion event. That is insane patience.
‎What I love about this is it shows how science actually works - not one eureka moment, but decades of people building better detectors just to catch one tiny decay that shouldn't even happen that often.
‎If this points to particles beyond the Standard Model, this could be one of those papers we look back on in 10 years as the starting point.

Chikasunbeats

CERN scientists have finally found evidence of a particle decay so rare that it happens only once in roughly 10 billion decays, ending a search spanning more than 40 years. The breakthrough could help physicists uncover hidden particles and forces that lie beyond the reach of today's most powerful accelerators.

science

![](https://www.sciencedaily.com/images/1920/particle-collision-physics-accelerator.webp)

> CERN scientists have finally found evidence of a particle decay so rare that it happens only once in roughly 10 billion decays, ending a search spanning more than 40 years. The breakthrough could help physicists uncover hidden particles and forces that lie beyond the reach of today's most powerful accelerators.