Particle Physics Everywhere

Environmental & Science Education
Edward Hessler

Particles are us although I'd never thought about it...ever.

Ali Sundermier who writes for Symmetry Magazine tells us about the "particles within."  Our joints are jumping!

Maybe you've wondered where in the world your mass comes from?  Sundermier writes that "Scientists believe that almost all of your body's mass comes from the kinetic energy of quarks and the binding energy of the gluons."

We also make particles...meet particles...interact with particles and if you want to take a deeper look on the inside of us see here.

This leads, though, to the question of what IS a particle. Matthew Francis who writes for Symmetry Magazine provides some ways of thinking about this question.

By Tammcd7 (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

In Ode to a Flower, the late Nobel prize awardee in physics, Richard Feynman made some comments about aesthetics and science. He said "science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts." 

This is one more example, a beautiful one.