Abstract:
Murray Gell-Mann, who passed away at the age of 90 years was a giant of modern particle physics. His most well-known contribution is the proposal that protons and neutrons are not indivisible but are made up of smaller particles called ‘quarks’. The complete story of strong interactions of which the discovery of quarks is only a part and which is intimately connected to Gell-Mann’s work is presented here in an elementary manner. © 2019, Indian Academy of Sciences.