Particle physics studies fundamental particles and their forces, often through high-energy collisions in particle accelerators. The Standard Model, developed in the 1970s, includes 31 particles, with fermions making up matter and bosons mediating interactions. Neutrinos, which were discovered to have mass in 1998, are also studied in neutrino astronomy. Particle physics yields insights useful to other areas and is responsible for nuclear energy, medicine, and bombs.
Particle physics is the study of fundamental particles and the forces that drive them. Because many of the fundamental particles appear only during relativistic collisions in particle accelerators, colloquially called “atom crushers,” particle physics is also known as “high-energy physics.” Physicists have been banging particles together at extreme speeds since 1929.
The best picture of particle physics we have today is called the Standard Model, painstakingly developed in the 1970s. It was a reaction to the “particle zoo,” a huge proliferation of unusual fundamental particles discovered during high-energy physics experiments in the 1950s and 1960s. The final particle count was approximately 31, including 24 fermions (quarks, electrons, neutrinos and their antiparticles), 6 bosons (one of which, the graviton, has yet to be observed), and an elusive particle responsible for the mass property. itself, which has yet to be observed, the Higgs boson. Basically, fermions make up matter and bosons mediate the interactions between matter. The light from your computer screen is made up of photons which are bosons. They interact with the fermions that make up your eyeball.
Most of the matter around us is made up of only a few fundamental particles: up quarks, down quarks, and electrons. There are also 50 trillion low-mass neutrinos flowing through our bodies every second, traversing the entire Earth almost as if they weren’t even there. Neutrinos, whose name means “small neutral particle,” are so elusive that they weren’t even known to have a mass until 1998. One of the more recent areas of astronomy is known as neutrino astronomy, whereby the neutrino flux from the Sun and from supernovae are observed using huge detectors.
Although only a few particles in the particle zoo make up the matter we are familiar with, particle physics gives us great insight into the structure of reality by showing us the less common variants and how they fit into a unified family. It can be said that particle physics is responsible for the existence of nuclear energy, nuclear medicine and nuclear bombs. Particle physics is considered one of the most respected areas of science because it ends up yielding insights that are useful to other areas, much like mathematics.
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