The three valence quarks of a proton contribute to its spin, but so do the gluons, sea quarks and antiquarks, and orbital angular momentum as well. The electrostatic repulsion and the attractive ...

Quarks are particles that are not only hard to see, but pretty much impossible to measure. These teensy-tiny particles are the basis of subatomic particles called hadrons. With every discovery in this ...

Deep within the atoms that make up our bodies and even within the protons and neutrons that make up atomic nuclei, are tiny particles called quarks. When you purchase through links on our site, we may ...

Stars are powered by nuclear fusion, in which two or more atomic nuclei have a close encounter and form one or more different nuclei 1. A key aspect of nuclear fusion is that the rearrangement of ...

Melting elementary particles such as quarks can produce amounts of energy so massive it is equivalent to 10 times that of nuclear fusion, researchers have reported. Quarks are the most basic building ...

We’re made of flesh and bone and fat, which are in turn made of protons and electrons, which are (mostly) made of quarks. Which, even though they are the most basic form of matter, are a minuscule ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it. This article is more than 4 years old. Combinations of three quarks ...

Nowadays physicists are confident in their knowledge of nature’s ultimate bits of matter. A handful of building blocks can be easily summarized in a neat little chart. But merely half a century ago, ...

Our Sun is powered by a fundamental phenomenon whereby atoms combine to unleash tremendous amounts of energy. But atoms might not be the only things that participate in this explosive reaction.

In this regular series, LiveScience explores some of the wildest, weirdest parts of our universe, from quantum oddities to hidden dimensions. The building blocks of matter — fundamental particles — ...

The Large Hadron Collider: evidence for intrinsic charm quarks in protons has been found in LHC data. (Courtesy: Maximilien Brice/CERN) A 40-year-old debate about charm quarks in protons may have been ...

Quantum entanglement has made its way to the top. Scientists have measured the strange quantum phenomenon of entanglement in top quarks, the heaviest fundamental subatomic particles known. It’s the ...