2011 marks 100th anniversary of discovery of atomic nucleus . Nearly a year after the proton beams were successfully circulated in the main ring of the collider , the project 's overseer , the European Organization for Nuclear Research , or CERN , invited Motherboard.tv to come by for a visit . The first atom was discovered in 1905 by German physicist Fritz Zwicky and his wife Elsa, who were working on a theory that the universe is made up mostly of particles called quarks -- subatomic particles CERN is home to the Large Hadron Collider , used to study smallest known particles .
2011 marks 100th anniversary of discovery of atomic nucleus . The first atom was discovered in 1905 by German physicist Fritz Zwicky and his wife Elsa, who were working on a theory that the universe is made up mostly of particles called quarks -- subatomic particles CERN is home to the Large Hadron Collider , used to study smallest known particles .