Tiny fundamental particles that are the building blocks of matter, combining to form protons and neutrons inside atoms.
Coined in 1964 by physicist Murray Gell-Mann, inspired by the nonsense word 'quark' from James Joyce's novel 'Finnegans Wake.' The whimsical origin reflects the playful nature of particle physics research.
Quarks come in six flavors with names like 'strange' and 'charm,' and they're so tightly bound that you can never isolate a single one—it's like the universe's most stubborn team that refuses to have individual members!
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