谜团一:基本粒子到目前为止,已发现的粒子有几百种,它们当中绝大多 数在自然界中不存在,是在高能实验室里“生产”出来的。通过对这数百种粒子性质的研究,科学家认为构成物质的最小单元不再是原子,而是夸克和轻子,它们是更基本的粒子。人们对微观世界认识的尺度一下子深入到原来的十亿分之一。 Mystery One: Basic Particles So far, there have been hundreds of particles that have been discovered. The vast majority of them are not found in nature and are “produced” in high energy laboratories. By studying the properties of these hundreds of particles, scientists believe that the smallest units that make up matter are no longer atoms, but quarks and leptons, which are more basic particles. The scale of people’s understanding of the microcosm has gone all the way down to one-billionth of the original.