So, you've met Cyclops. Time now to meet some of his other friends.
Let's start from the top, shall we?
Meet Prof! His name, as you may have guessed already, is rather a nick-name, derived from the word Professor. His friends call him that because this cute, little, green guy is one of the most brilliant brains in the Universe! Perhaps you can tell from his big, wide, enquiring eyes! Nothing escapes this little fellow! He observes everything, and wants to know everything! You see him siting on a book, don't you? Well, he's read them all! Pretty much like Cyclops, he loves reading and speaks every language in the Galaxy!
But he is also so smart and inquisitive! It is amazing how so much knowledge can fit in such a small brain! We asked him once how did he become so smart. Here is what he told us: "It is important to read and study. Without input, you cannot have any output! But the really smart thing, that will make you stand out, is to master the art of finding and asking the right questions! If you only read, but do not observe as well and do not ask questions about what you see and what you read, you will know a lot, but you will not invent or discover anything new!". We couldn't agree more, so this is what we have been doing ever since we met him!
Now, meet Quak, the little one-eyed guy at the shelve below. He seems a bit shy and reserved, I know. But don't let that fool you, it's only because he is thinking right now. He is the most brilliant of the three! When we say brilliant, we mean way brilliant!.... astronomically brilliant!... like Einstein-and-Bohr-and-Fermi-rolled-into-one kind of brilliant!
We can prove it! We'll let you in on a little secret:
You may have heard about the quarks?... the fundamental particles in physics, that all mater is made from? Well, their name is wrong! Their proper name, is QUAKS!... You guessed it, didn't you?... named after this little guy! He came up with the theory first! But he didn't publish it, you see, because he was so tired when he finally cracked the problem, so he took a nap. Naps in space-time can take a very long time, especially if you are very tired. We are talking about years on Earth-time. So when he woke up, he discovered the theory was already published by some scientists on Earth! When he told the scientists that he had done it first, they sympathised with his argument and as a compensation, they agreed to name the particles after him. But something went wrong in the galactic broadband connection that day, so they didn't hear his name properly and instead of quaks they called them quarks!
Ah, well! Never mind, he is not bitter at all about it. He is now working on anti-matter and the great unification theory.... What?... Oh! No, I have no idea what these are myself! All I can say is that they are very complicated indeed! You know,... like fractions!... and dividing with decimals! Thank God, we only have to stick to the stories and leave these problems to Quak, Cyclops and Prof!
But maybe yourself who are so much more clever that us, when you grow up, you will join them and find all the answers to these wonders of the Universe! And then other people, like us, will write books telling your story!
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