During the past several thousand years scientists have worked on a labor of love to present a portrait of the fundamental stuff of our chemical world. Each brush stroke has contributed to allow a fuller understanding of how our universe is made up. We know that all matter is made up of atoms -- the word is taken from the Greek atomos for "indivisible" -- and we have arrived at our quest of comprehending how these atoms assemble and rearrange to transform substances into others. Our heritage is rich, and we see far.

Now scientists are telling us that the atoms themselves are made up of yet smaller particles -- quarks. The recent discovery of the "top" quark completes for the nuclear scientists an orderly collection of these curiosities. They tell us that unlocking the secrets of these particles may explain the very creation of the universe itself. It appears that the portrait is not yet finished.

All of this is driven by curiosity of Man to answer the physical riddles of the Universe. The same inquisitiveness that drove the alchemist to toil over his crucible, the miner to pick up a nugget here and there and wonder what this new glistening rock really was, the nuclear chemist to split the atom -- is reflected in the modern scientists as he ponders over sprays of exotic particles that spew from collisions of relativistic leptons and baryons. It is as if we are now analyzing the condiments in the kitchen itself, tearing each spice apart into its constituent flavors. Scientists are suggesting that they may even tackle the question of why matter exists at all. This universe is indeed full of wonders.

To find a specific chemist or scientist, press the button for the link to his/her last name:

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