Standard Model of Elementary Particles: Fermilab 1987

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein starts The Disordered Cosmos by appealing to the neatly ordered story of the Standard Model of Particle Physics that deepened her attachment to physics. This attraction also produced internal tensions as she learned about the (white, male) history of quantum mechanics: "I learned that I particularly enjoy a neatly ordered tale of an organized universe that can come off like a delicately constructed sum of its parts.. The way I have inhaled particle physics enmeshes me with this historical trajectory. But I am still also one natural conclusion of a Black child dreaming of quarks—not because quarks could serve state interests, but because quarks nourished the soul. The Standard Model? It is how I fell in love for the first time.”