What’re we made of?

The question, “What’re we made of?” elicits a common response from most, the periodic table. It’s one of the iconic images in science, yet it doesn’t really tell what we’re made of fundamentally.

Jump to 1800s and we’ve got Thompson discovering electrons and Rutherford discovering nucleus and proposing the standard model of atom. Later, we find that nucleus contains protons and neutrons. Further, we find that protons are made of two up quarks and one down quark, and neutrons made of one up quark and two down quarks.

But it’s all a white lie that these are the fundamental particles!

What’s fundamental is the fluid like substance spread throughout the universe that ripples strangely — Quantum Field!

200 years back, Faraday came up with one of the most revolutionary abstract idea in the history of science — the electric and magnetic fields. Along with induction, in which a moving magnetic field caused the needle to deflect, with no physical contact. This Faraday’s idea of field was the building block of the “quantum field”.

Another day, another set of questions to ponder upon. The mysteries of the universe unraveling as we delve deep into microscopic quantum universe.