The Particle Physics of You by Ali Sundermire, November 3rd, 2015.

Not only are we made of fundamental particles, but we also produce them and are constantly

bombarded by them throughout the day.

14 billion years ago, when the hot, dense spec that was our universe quickly expanded,

all of the matter and anti-matter that existed should have annihilated and left us nothing but energy and yet a small amount of matter

survived. We ended up with a world filled with particles and not just any particles, particles whose masses and

charges were just precise enough to allow human life. Here are a few facts about the particle physics of you that will get your electrons jumping.

About 99% of your body is made up of atoms of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. You also contain much smaller

amounts of other elements that are essential for life. While most of the cells in your body regenerate every 7 to 15 years,

many of the particles that make up those cells have actually existed for millions of millennia.

The hydrogen atoms in U were produced in the Big Bang, and the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms were made in burning stars.

The very heavy elements in you were made in

exploding stars. The size of an atom is governed by the average location of its

electrons.

Nuclei are around 100,000 times smaller than the atoms they're housed in.

If the nucleus were the size of a peanut,

the atom would be about the size of a peanut, the atom would be about the size of a baseball stadium.

If we lost all the dead space inside our atoms,

we would each be able to fit into a particle of lead dust,

and the entire human race would fit into the volume of a sugar cube.

As you might guess, these spaced out particles make up only a tiny portion of your mass.

The protons and neutrons inside of an atom's nucleus are each made up of three quarks.

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