Sensitive particle detectors record the paths and energy of the particles, and sophisticated computer software helps physicists analyze the results. In 1980, Thorndike's team earned its first look ever at the process by producing b and anti-b quarks with enough energy to escape from each other. Others say the diagram illustrating the process could conceivably resemble a penguin if one connects the dots and squints one's eyes. Scientists believe penguin decay has the potential to reveal new insights beyond the Standard Model, the term scientists use to describe their current understanding of the particles that compose the universe. Thorndike has been intrigued by the smallest forms of matter since his days as a graduate student at Harvard University.
Particle physics is a lot like mountain climbing.
It's the pursuit or challenge of it that draws you in. You'll find that a disproportionate number of physicists hike or climb mountains. Thorndike joined the University in 1961 and promptly established his own research program. He took a break from b quarks in 1987 to study at an electron storage ring in Japan during a year-long Guggenheim fellowship. The annual award, one of the highest given to an experimental physicist, was established in 1985 in honor of W.K.H. Panofsky, a former director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University.