Quanta Magazine asks a simple‑looking question: how many elementary particles exist? Writer emailed several experts, including Cambridge’s David Tong, who replied the answer may not be an integer. Physicists probe the Standard Model at the LHC, smashing protons to reveal every field excitation the theory predicts. The debate matters because counts shape how theorists organize symmetries.

A textbook poster shows 17 particles, but antiparticles double the twelve fermions to twenty‑four, and charged W bosons add a partner. Adding the eight distinct gluons pushes the tally to 37. Quarks carry three color charges, so six flavors times three colors and their antiparticles yield 36 quarks, inflating the count to 61 distinct entities. Only color‑neutral combos appear, so each color state counts.

Physicists further split each particle by chirality or polarization. Left‑ and right‑handed versions of fermions, plus three polarization states for massive bosons, multiply the list to 118 entries—from a right‑handed anti‑red charm quark to a longitudinal W⁻. Tong’s “non‑integer” remark reflects the deeper issue: counting degrees of freedom may never produce a simple integer. Such detailed inventories help experimentalists design searches for rare decays.