round 400 BC, the Greek philosopher Democritus proffered the idea that all matter was composed of indivisible, featureless constituents. He described them using the Greek word for “uncuttable”: Two thousand years later, scientists found that Democritus had, at least in principle, been correct. But the particles he envisioned—now called atoms—were neither featureless nor indivisible, but instead were made up of large nuclei surrounded by small electrons. In time, the atomic slicing continued, homing in on the ever-smaller components of the universe: nuclei were actually concentrations of neutrons and protons. And these particles, it turned out, consisted of quarks held together by gluons. How did physicists learn these things? And have
