i think the second panel is the man politely asking permission

Oh cmon everyone knows Duke Silver

Tons of fundamental particles were merely hypothesized until people actually built particle accelerators large enough to detect them. Theories are how scientists puzzle out what’s worth exploring next. (See the eightfold way )

The reason particle physics might seem to be moving slower than it used to is just because we’ve found all the “easy” stuff. The more elusive particles are going to be a lot trickier to wrangle.

Ruh roh