Any particle made of quarks held together by the strong nuclear force, including protons and neutrons, the building blocks of atomic nuclei.
From Greek 'hadros' meaning thick or stout, chosen in physics because hadrons are the 'thick' or heavy particles (compared to lighter particles like leptons).
The Large Hadron Collider smashes hadrons at nearly the speed of light to recreate conditions from microseconds after the Big Bang—we're literally using ancient Greek words to describe humanity's most advanced physics experiments.
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