Looking at the microscopic world from a scientific perspective, what is the universe made of?

Human beings have always been curious about exploring the world, and there are two basic questions: How big is the maximum? How small is the minimum? How big is the universe? The current conclusion is that we are in a universe of 13.82 billion light years. This is the size of our universe. Before the multiverse theory is confirmed, 13.82 billion light-years is the maximum limit. Multiverse theory: Multiverse is also called parallel universe. This theory believes that there are a limited or infinite number of other universes outside our universe, which together form a collection of universes. Today we mainly explore how small is the smallest. Since ancient times, people have proposed various hypotheses about the composition of matter.

For example, Aristotle believed that matter is continuous. People can say that matter is divided into smaller and smaller pieces without limit. Mozi from our country also said something with the same meaning: "One foot of a stick, half of it is taken every day, and it will last forever."

Since it can be divided infinitely, there is no smallest way to say it. There is no minimum, only smaller. One can never get a smallest particle that cannot be divided any further.

However, some people disagreed, such as Democritus, who insisted that all matter is composed of atoms (atom means "indivisible" in Greek). Even the human soul is made up of atoms, but the atoms that make up the soul are more "vital" than other atoms. From this point of view, in ancient times, people had disagreements on the theory of the composition of matter.

What’s even more funny is that neither of these two scholars’ main profession is physics. Democritus is a representative figure of ancient Greek philosophy; and Aristotle is even more powerful. He is called An "encyclopedic" scholar is involved in almost all disciplines. From this point of view, being born early does have an advantage, and one can study multiple subjects and achieve success. In today's increasingly complex knowledge system, being able to achieve success in a certain subject is already very remarkable.

The debate lasted for centuries, and it was not until modern times that the issue developed further. What exactly makes up matter?

What is the largest particle in the microscopic world? The answer is molecules. Moving on, molecules are made up of atoms. The size of an atom is very, very small, but it can still be divided further. Atoms are divided into nuclei and electrons, which move around the nucleus. Note that here appears the first particle that cannot be further divided "now": the electron. We call particles that cannot be further divided into elementary particles. Of course, pay attention to the word "now".

The atomic nucleus can be further divided. The atomic nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons, and protons and neutrons are composed of quarks. Quarks are the limit of our current knowledge, that is, elementary particles. It has not yet been discovered what quarks are made of.

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