Production & decay of bottom quarks in the SLD detector at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), California. The computer display shows in cross-section the inner part of the detector; the yellow lines represent the central 'barrel' of silicon CCD detectors. An electron & positron, accelerated to high-energy in SLAC's collider, annihilate at centre & create a Z particle which immediately decays to a bottom quark & antiquark. These particles live too briefly to be seen, but the quark & antiquark give rise to short-lived B mesons which in their turn produce the sprays of particles (green tracks) to left & right. (See A142/444 for close-up of central area).