Being capable of asking the right question is a crucial skill. Dick Feynman tells a story in his book, "Surely you're joking, mr. Feynman": at a meeting with a bunch of military big shots he is shown the blueprint of a building meant to store radioactive material, he sees a symbol that he guesses represents a ventilation opening in the wall, and risking his reputation points the finger at it, asking what happens if the opening is occluded. The question turns out to be right on the money, and as a result his reputation gets a boost, plus the building does not blow up.
Usually, asking oneself questions is the best way to learn things. You read the chapter of a book of particle physics; what you read makes a lot of sense to you; you feel you mastered the text. And then what happens ? Somebody asks a questions on the material, and the illusion is shattered: you do not even know where to start putting together an answer. You studied, true, but you did not make an attempt at asking yourself meaningful questions on the topic.
So let me ask you questions, to suggest you the way to learn particle physics. I will ask simple questions, but the answers might hide a subtlety or two... I will have answers in a few days, and you are of course invited to provide your own draft answers in the comments thread.
1 - Why do hadron collider experiments (such as CDF and DZERO at the Tevatron 1.96 TeV proton-antiproton collider, or ATLAS and CMS at the LHC 14 TeV proton-proton collider) put so much emphasis in the detection and measurement of electrons and muons, with dedicated detector subsystems, while they do not seem to care for the identification of tau leptons ?
Hint: Do you remember the story of the drunkard looking for the lost watch at night under the lamp ?
2 - Why does the neutron take almost 15 minutes to decay, while the top quark decays in less than a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, if they both decay through the exact same mechanism, namely charged-current weak decay ?
Hint: the proton is almost as massive as the neutron...
3 - Why did the discovery of neutral currents did not win a Nobel prize ?
Hint: somebody who later did win a Nobel prize was also looking for them...
