Letter: Always searching for another particle

From Andy Bebington, London, UK

Michael Brooks introduces us to the search for a particle that combines an axion and a flavon – an axiflavon – or a combination of this plus a Higgs, or some more convoluted combination (18 August, p 28). This reminded me of reading in New Scientist in the mid-1960s of the search for the omega-minus, a particle needed to complete a symmetry model of particle physics. We needed to find one then, we need to find one now – plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose?

The editor writes:• Yes, the omega-minus was discovered, confirming our model of the quarks (27 February 1964, p 523). The axiflavon is slightly different in that it wouldn't in itself confirm any grand theoretical framework.