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A search in Yahoo! for "subatomic particles" pointed us to the Science category called High-Energy and Particle Physics, where we scanned a long list for sites that didn't look too technical. We spotted An Introduction to Particle Physics and made our way to the glossary, subtitled "Types of particles and forces." There we entered the mysterious world of quarks, subatomic particles so small that no one has ever seen one in isolation. Here's what we learned: Protons and neutrons inside the nucleus of an atom are made up of even smaller, fundamental particles
-- quarks. It's theorized that a neutron consists of one up quark and two down quarks, whereas a proton consists of two up quarks and one down quark. Other, types of quarks are named strange, charm, bottom, and top. Wait, there's more! Mesons are a family of very small particles thet includes pions, kaons, and B-mesons, which all consist of quarks and anti-quarks. At The Particle Adventure, we toured the inner workings of the atom and learned how particle accelerators have enabled scientists to test their theories of the subatomic world.
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