subatomic particles
"But the more they look, the more they find. And the reason for that is that it's pretty evident that there is no one thing that's the smallest thing out of which everything else derives. Because when you look at a subatomic particle, it's not a billiard ball as we're taught in physics classes. It's more like a vibrating packet of energy, trading energy back and forth with other subatomic particles and with a background quantum field. And what happens is-it's like a little endless game of tennis. So every subatomic particle is like a shape-shifter. It's sending information back and forth, and changing as it does so with other subatomic particles."
"All subatomic particles are like school children. When the teacher is present, they behave properly; when she is absent, they run helter-skelter, like waves."
"The bewildering variety of subatomic particles are like a tiny string that 'vibrates at different frequencies and resonances': 'If we were to pluck this vibrating string, it would change mode and become another subatomic article, such as a quark."
"The leading theories of matter do not favor the idea that subatomic particles are like little billiard balls of differing masses. For example, string theorists speculate that all particles are made of the same stuff; namely, vibrating bits of string. Except that they each vibrate at different frequencies. Problem is, string theory is purely theoretical and really falls more in the mathematical domain than the scientific domain, inasmuch as there is no supporting evidence for the theory. If it does turn out to be true, even the neutron is mostly empty space because the string is supposedly one-dimensional, with a theoretical cross section of a Planck length. "
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