At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the electron, proton, and neutron were discovered and identified experimentally. From cosmic ray experiments and accelerator experiments, this initially satisfying list of elementary particles has been expanded to include six spin-? leptons, nine spin-? baryons, four spin-3/2 baryons, twenty spin-0 pseudo-scalar mesons, and seven spin-1 vector mesons, plus the antiparticles of each.
The first theoretical approach to order all of these particles in a systematic way in terms of certain internal symmetry properties was the Standard Model of Elementary Particles. It was based upon six hypothetical unobserved spin-? particles called ?quarks.? All of the heavy elementary particles called hadrons are formed from these quarks. In this model the strong interaction is mediated# by the exchange of gluons, the electromagnetic interaction is mediated by the exchange of photons, and the weak interaction is mediated by the exchange of W ? and Zo particles.
In the Standard Model, use of the Higgs mechanism for symmetry breaking allowed the electromagnetic and weak force to be combined into the electroweak force. In a similar way the Higgs mechanism allows the strong interaction to be unified with the electroweak. An attempt to unify all of the forces in nature, including the gravitational force, has lead to a string theory of 26 dimensions that can be represented by a ten-dimensional rotating string theory assuming supersymmetry. One of these dimensions is time.
Both the Standard Model and the Superstring Model of Elementary Particles are closely integrated with cosmology and the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe. This approach represents the earth and the universe as very old compared to Biblical revelation. Furthermore, there is no role for God in creating or daily sustaining the universe. The universe supposedly came about as a chance quantum fluctuation that produced the ?big bang.? According to this approach, the design of the universe is inherent in the properties of the elementary particles that resulted from the ?big bang.? All matter and life itself are built from these elementary particles. Their inherent properties are supposed to determine the design of all matter and the nature of living things.
