We usually start with atoms when we think about what makes up everything around us. But atoms are just the beginning. Atoms are made of even smaller parts: protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons live in the nucleus at the center of the atom, while electrons move around the nucleus. But it doesn’t stop there — if we zoom in even closer, we find that protons and neutrons themselves are made of even tinier particles called quarks. Quarks are fundamental particles, meaning they aren’t made of anything smaller (at least as far as we know). There are six types of quarks: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. While, to the best of my knowledge and research, these names have no significance to their appearance or behavior. 

Protons are made of two up quarks and one down quark, while neutrons are made of two down quarks and one up quark. These quarks are held together inside protons and neutrons by something called the strong nuclear force, which is one of the four fundamental forces of nature.

The strong nuclear force is carried by particles called gluons. You can think of gluons like an invisible glu-e that sticks quarks together. Without gluons, quarks would just fly apart, and atoms would never form. But the story doesn’t end with quarks and gluons. Physicists are trying to understand if there’s something even deeper. Some theories, like String Theory, suggest that quarks (and all particles) might actually be tiny vibrating strings of energy. 

On top of that, researchers are searching for even more exotic particles, such as preons, which some scientists propose could be the building blocks of quarks themselves. Although no one has proven that preons exist yet, experiments at particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are trying to find hints.

In short, when you go from protons to quarks, you enter a whole new universe of strange and exciting particles. And beyond quarks? We might be just at the beginning of finding the true building blocks of everything.