elementary particle

In theory, the dynamics of these elementary particles can be calculated using the equations of quantum physics, which when encoded for computers become numbers.

Biology can be reduced to chemistry, chemistry can be reduced to atomic physics, and atoms are made of elementary particles like electrons, quarks, and gluons.

To offer an example that Marletto herself discusses, no one in their right mind would describe the function of a computer in terms of the elementary particles it is made up of.

Now, finding a new element, discovering a new elementary particle or creating a new type of nuclear reactor can take decades, international collaborations of thousands of scientists, and huge, costly experiments.

Such a discovery would at long last herald the breakdown of the 50-year-old Standard Model of particle physics — the set of equations describing the known elementary particles and interactions.