Barns have physical dimensions of area, even though they are used to express probability distributions. So you can imagine “the broad side of a barn” as being so many square meters, but then scale it way way down to a particle physics equivalent, and you get the barn. Which apparently roughly represents “the broad side of a uranium nucleus”.
The probability of interaction between a nuclei and a particle is called a “barn” - because its a bit like shooting the broad side of a barn.
Its a standard Sci unit, too, so real actual papers will use “megabarn” as a real unit of measure.
Its subunit is called a “shed”, because physicists don’t get out enough.
As far as physics stuff goes, I think this is far preferable to using someone’s name.
One of the key enzymes in electrical signaling in your brain is called Pikachurin
Barns have physical dimensions of area, even though they are used to express probability distributions. So you can imagine “the broad side of a barn” as being so many square meters, but then scale it way way down to a particle physics equivalent, and you get the barn. Which apparently roughly represents “the broad side of a uranium nucleus”.