What is ‘a thing’? That’s a hard question. Let’s take it easy: you are made of matter, which is made by molecules. The molecules are made by atoms, which are made by elementary particles. Then what are the elementary particles made of? To answer this questions let’s start simple, and wipe the universe clean of matter, antimatter, etc. What is empty space? It is a vacuum where there are no particles, atoms, or molecules. Is it really all that empty? Nothing gives us the building blocks for everything. Empty space is like an ocean. When nothing happens it’s calm. However, when some wind is mixed in, serious waves can create particles. These oceans are everywhere! They’re called fields in our universe. Think about radiation; by exciting what’s known as the electromagnetic field more photons are created (the particle that carries radiation which is also light.)
Every particle is made this way. There are fields for every particle of matter, that live by their own rules. For example, there are electron fields everywhere. Little kinks in the field are electrons. There are 17 particles all together, which are put into three categories. The leptons, quarks, and bosons. Leptons are electrons, muon, and tau (siblings). Then there are quarks, which are the nuclear family, which are always together. They all makeup protons and neutrons which make atoms, and together they are matter. Basically, they make up everything you can sense. Things don’t just ‘exist.’ In some meaning, the properties of a ‘thing’ are just as important as existence itself.
This is when the boson and their field come into play. While the others are made by 
matter fields, bosons are made by force fields. We call a rule of the universe a force. There are 4 forces discovered. Electromagnetism, gravity, and the strong and weak nuclear force. These are the rules of a game; the game being the universe and the pieces being the particles. The forces are how particles interact. They make them into the big things we see. Gravity attracts the sun matters to each other so they can build planets and stars. Electromagnetism isn’t just for magnets. It makes small atomic bombs, building every molecule. They stick together like a tinker toy set. Bosons share information that connects everything. Then, they tell each other how to move. They use the forces to interact with other particles. Quarks can use two methods and leptons can only use one force. They exchange boson, that has a strong nuclear attraction to each other. Then photons exchange with the electrons. Thus, the quarks end up locked like nuclei, while they are attached by their electric attraction.
The universe has lots of big mess phenomenon, like life, that seem complex. However, if you zoom in far enough on anything, you just get 17 particles from the field. Playing a game with four rules. This is the basic form of what ‘things’ are. This theory is called the standard model of particle physics. You are more than nothing; you are reactions in an ocean of energy. Guided by the forces of the universe. But what are forces?
Article By:
Youssef El-Araby
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