The significance of the number eight extends beyond the periodic table, finding parallels in the field of particle physics. In 1961, Murray Gell-Mann, an American physicist, and Yuval Ne'eman, an Israeli physicist, proposed the Eightfold Way classification of subatomic particles. This system organizes particles into groups of 1, 8 (most frequently), 10, or 27. One of the early achievements of this classification was the prediction and subsequent 1964 discovery of the omega-minus particle, necessary to complete one of the octets. This success led Gell-Mann to propose the concept of quarks, laying the foundation for the modern quark model of hadrons.