Every single particle fits into one of just three classes, or kingdoms: bosons, fermions and anyons, the latter just discovered in the past year. You can think of these groups as akin to the taxonomic tiers of organic life, each as different from the others as plants are from animals and bacteria.
All of observable reality arises from this trio of building blocks and their peculiarities — the standoffish fermions, the gregarious bosons and the eccentric anyons come with enormous implications for the ordering of the cosmos, and for human technology. But just how do these basic ingredients produce the stunning diversity of substance and phenomenon we see around us, not to mention the exotic behavior most of us never see?
