Hey Jorge, what image do you have in your mind when you think about an atom?

Hmm, I guess I probably think of, you know, that image of the little balls going around

in Hulu Hulu orbit around a little cluster of other little balls.

It's amazing how compelling that picture is even though it's totally wrong.

What?

I mean, the universe doesn't agree with me.

It's not that cooperative.

And that image is mostly about the electrons.

What do you think about when you think about the nucleus of the atom?

Hmm.

I guess I always just picture like little proton and neutron little balls, just cluster

together kind of like you take a bunch of marbles and then stick them together.

Well, as you might have guessed, I'm going to tell you that's also wrong.

Hi I'm Jorge, I'm a cartoonist and the creator of PhD comics.

Hi, I'm Daniel, I'm a particle physicist and I'm doing my best to make the universe

cooperate.

It's generally uncooperative.

It doesn't just tell you its secrets, you know, just just lay out for you.

The fact about nature, it makes you go on a hunt, it makes you ask the hard questions.

But doesn't that make the answers more worth it, you know, when you have to fight for it?

I don't know, I'm the kind of person who reads the last page of a mystery novel first

because I just want to know who did it.

...