Why neutrons and protons are modified inside nuclei

I want to take a second to rep my absolute favorite podcast, Physics Frontiers.°<p>It&#x27;s not a &quot;pop-sci&quot; podcast - they take a couple of interesting modern physics papers and discuss them; no more, no less. A lot of it is way over my head as a chemist, but that&#x27;s part of what makes me love it. The topics are always understandable, even if it takes self-study to get the nuances.<p>One guy is a physicist and the other is a sculptor who, I assume, taught himself physics.<p>Just a thing that would likely appeal to one who cares about particle physics and is not well satisfied by the preponderance of &#x27;physics&#x27; podcasts that endlessly re-explain what entropy is or what wave&#x2F;particle duality means.<p>I wish more science podcasts dealt directly with modern research, and this one is a great example...even if they&#x27;re skeptical about Copenhagen and prefer pilot-wave &quot;realism&quot;.<p>° <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;physicsfm-frontiers.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;physicsfm-frontiers.blogspot.com</a>

The article on Semi-empirical mass formula [0] is also interesting read, especially deconstructing the formula and seeing what impact each term has (e.g. asymmetry term and the difference between the relation of number of protons to the number of neutrons).<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Semi-empirical_mass_formula" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Semi-empirical_mass_formula</a>

Silly question, I&#x27;m sure, but: Why do we think that nuclei contain distinct neutrons and protons at all, rather than simply being conglomerations of Up and Down quarks with the constraint that color charge must be zero and electrical charge must be integral?

where can i find simple explanation of how they distinguish elastic vs inelastic collisions? They talk about the ratio of elastic vs inelastic collisions as a function of incident particle energy which is where I am confused. Excuse my ignorance - I am interested though not schooled in the particulars of particle physics. They also talk about cross section - I imagine they calculate that based on the frequency of collisions - just like Rutherford did.

Could this lead to a different approach to fusion?

Could this pairing have something to do with radioactive decay?<p>That neutrons and protons are interacting with themselves and each other, but that these interactions would have nothing to do with a unstable nucleus radiating a particle would make me slightly unhappy.

This is offtopic, but do neutrons and protons have a similar dual wave &#x2F; particle nature like photons do? What about quarks and all the sub-particles?

Does this draw into question whether there is such thing as a &quot;nuclear field&quot;?