Going to smaller and smaller distance scales reveals more fundamental views of nature, which means if we can understand and describe the smallest scales, we can build our way to an understanding of the largest ones. (PERIMETER INSTITUTE)

Ask Ethan: Are The Smallest Particles Of All Truly Fundamental?

We can go to deeper and deeper levels, finding more fundamental quantities as we do. But is there a truly fundamental quantity?

What is the Universe, at a fundamental level, truly made out of? Is there a smallest possible building block, or set of building blocks, that we can both construct everything in our entire Universe out of and also that can never be divided into something smaller? It’s a question that science can say a lot about, but it doesn’t necessarily give us the final, ultimate answer. It’s also the question that Paul Riggs wants us to look at for this edition of Ask Ethan:

Is there theoretical or experimental evidence which unambiguously establishes the existence of fundamental particles?

There is always room for uncertainty in physics, especially when it comes to speculating what we’ll find in the future. But whether that ambiguity is reasonable or not is up for us to decide.

In 1860, a meteor grazed Earth, and produced a spectacularly luminous light display. These natural sights, along with the natural phenomena we’re accustomed to, might lead a logical mind to try and deduce what fundamental building blocks might underpin all of our reality. (FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH / JUDITH FILENBAUM HERNSTADT)

If you wanted to know what the Universe was made of, how would you approach the problem? Thousands of years ago…