The Dawn of Physics Beyond the Standard Model; June 2003; Scientific American Magazine; by Gordon Kane; 8 Page(s)

Today, centuries after the search began for the fundamental constituents that make up all the complexity and beauty of the everyday world, we have an astonishingly simple answer-it takes just six particles: the electron, the up and the down quarks, the gluon, the photon and the Higgs boson. Eleven additional particles suffice to describe all the esoteric phenomena studied by particle physicists [see box at right]. This is not speculation akin to the ancient Greeks' four elements of earth, air, water and fire. Rather it is a conclusion embodied in the most sophisticated mathematical theory of nature in history, the Standard Model of particle physics. Despite the word "model" in its name, the Standard Model is a comprehensive theory that identifies the basic particles and specifies how they interact. Everything that happens in our world (except for the effects of gravity) results from Standard Model particles interacting according to its rules and equations.

The Standard Model was formulated in the 1970s and tentatively established by experiments in the early 1980s. Nearly three decades of exacting experiments have tested and verified the theory in meticulous detail, confirming all of its predictions. In one respect, this success is rewarding because it confirms that we really understand, at a deeper level than ever before, how nature works. Paradoxically, the success has also been frustrating. Before the advent of the Standard Model, physicists had become used to experiments producing unexpected new particles or other signposts to a new theory almost before the chalk dust had settled on the old one. They have been waiting 30 years for that to happen with the Standard Model.