Stanford group shows apparent evidence for quarks

After twelve years of effort, William Fairbank and his collaborators believe they have found evidence for fractional charge on two levitated niobium balls. His collaborators are George LaRue, who is writing his PhD thesis at Stanford University on the Millikan oil‐drop type experiment, and Arthur Hebard (now at Bell Labs), who also wrote a PhD thesis on the Stanford experiment. They reported their results in a postdeadline paper given before a packed room at the Washington meeting of The American Physical Society. The announcement caused great interest and excitement. Many are adopting a “wait and see” attitude, but it is clear that the Stanford experimenters have given a great deal of attention to eliminating sources of error.