The Proton

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery and growing understanding of the Proton, formed from three quarks close to the Big Bang and found in the nuclei of all elements. The positive charges they emit means they attract the fundamental particles of negatively charged electrons, an attraction that leads to the creation of atoms which in turn leads to chemistry, biology and life itself. The Sun (in common with other stars) is a fusion engine that turn protons by a series of processes into helium, emitting energy in the process, with about half of the Sun’s protons captured so far. Hydrogen atoms, stripped of electrons, are single protons which can be accelerated to smash other nuclei and have applications in proton therapy. Many questions remain, such as why are electrical charges for protons and electrons so perfectly balanced?

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Frank Close 15 episodes
  Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford
• Helen Heath No other episodes
  Reader in Physics at the University of Bristol
• Simon Jolly No other episodes
  Lecturer in High Energy Physics at University College London

Reading list

• A Map of the Invisible: Journeys into Particle Physics
  Jon Butterworth (William Heinemann, 2017) Google Books →
• The New Cosmic Onion: Quarks and the Nature of the Universe
  Frank Close (CRC Press, 2017) Google Books →
• The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
  Frank Close (Basic Books, 2013) Google Books →
• The Particle Odyssey: A Journey to the Heart of Matter
  Frank Close, Michael Marten and Christine Sutton (Oxford University Press, 2004) Google Books →
• Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
  Richard Feynman (Basic Books, 2011) Google Books →
• Mr Tompkins in Paperback
  George Gamow (Cambridge University Press, 1993) Google Books →
• Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics
  James Gleick (Abacus, 1994) Google Books →
• The Particle Zoo: The Search for the Fundamental Nature of Reality
  Gavin Hesketh (Quercus, 2017) Google Books →
• How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog
  Chad Orzel (Oneworld Publications, 2010)
• Feynman
  Jim Ottaviani (First Second, 2013) Google Books →
• Suspended in Language: Niels Bohr's Life, Discoveries, and the Century he Shaped
  Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis (G.T. Labs, 2009) Google Books →
• The Large Hadron Collider Pop-Up Book: Voyage to the Heart of Matter
  Anton Radevsky and Emma Sanders (Papadakis, 2013) Google Books →
• The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe
  Steven Weinberg (Basic Books, 1993) Google Books →

Related episodes

• Nuclear Fusion
  
  30 Oct, 2014 530 Physics
• The Neutron
  
  14 Apr, 2016 530 Physics
• The Electron
  
  29 Sep, 2022 530 Physics
• The Neutrino
  
  14 Apr, 2011 530 Physics
• The Sun
  
  1 Jan, 2015 520 Astronomy
• Antimatter
  
  4 Oct, 2007 530 Physics
• Higgs Boson
  
  18 Nov, 2004 530 Physics
• Plasma
  
  13 Oct, 2016 530 Physics
• Chemical Elements
  
  25 May, 2000 540 Chemistry
• Nuclear Physics
  
  10 Jan, 2002 530 Physics

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: b09zt3mr

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09zt3mr

Auto-category: 539.7 (Atomic and nuclear physics)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello, there are enough protons in the sun for it to last a thousand billion years and it's only about halfway through them, so that's a relief.