Everything you have ever touched, seen or been made of comes down to a surprisingly short list of fundamental particles and the forces between them. That list is the Standard Model of particle physics — one of the most successful theories ever devised, and yet one its own creators find unsatisfying. This episode is a tour of the universe's basic ingredients.

You'll come away understanding what quarks and leptons are, how three of nature's four forces are carried by particles, what the Higgs boson actually does, and why physicists are certain the Standard Model is not the final word.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: CERN – "The Standard Model"; Symmetry Magazine – "The Standard Model, explained"; Frank ...