Yak Particle Physics · 8:07pm Oct 12th, 2019
According to her temporary science teacher “...Yona has taken to the subject like a yak to smashing!”
Yona evidently has a future as a particle physicist. For further details read Jon Butterworth’s Smashing Physics, published in the US as: Most Wanted Particle, and in German as: Der Kosmos im Crashtest. If you have an hour or two to kill, you can watch his lecture here...
...or read my new Particle Gadgeteering post: Collider Physics – The Art of Smashing Particles.
Yak’s have an established connection with sub-atomic physics research. Prince Rutherford takes the name of the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford, who discovered the atomic nucleus by using scattering of alpha particles off gold film to show the positive charge of an atom was all concentrated in a tiny nucleus. Professor Rutherford was named The Crocodile by one of his colleagues, according to the Cambridge University website, “either because of his fear of having his head bitten off by him, or because his voice could be relied upon to precede his visits, just like the crocodile's alarm clock in "Peter Pan".
Thanks to everyone who has sent me a story pitch, or expressed interest in my project to commission particle physics themed stories. I will get back to you. I've received some really interesting story ideas and it has been great fun reading them. As I said, I won’t make any decision soon. I want to give everyone interested time to think about possible stories, and as it was pointed out that many writers are now busy with their entries for the Imposing Sovereigns II contest, I’ll wait until the end of November before selecting a definite list to commission.
And this will give me time to write some more particle physics blog posts that might give you more ideas. 
Smashing is a very important part of studying modern physics, and neither of us are being sarcastic about that.
5136604
Sometime during my life, "atom smashers" became "particle accelerators." I wasn’t notified of this. No one asked me if I agreed with it. It just happened. Atom smashers became particle accelerators.
Your post reminds me about the-road-not-travelled:
The Supercunducting SuperCollider would have been better.
5136604
And the more we learn, the bigger the smashing has to be.
5136719
Accelerating the particle is just the first part, you then need to direct it into another particle to do the smashing.
5136861
We can only make up stories of the discoveries that might have happened in that AU.