A short description of the foundations of reality - quantum fields.

From our human point of view, created as a result of biological evolution, the world is made up of small particles combining into more complex structures (from atoms, through molecules of chemical compounds, to structures visible to the naked eye and even megastructures such as planets and stars).
However, when we study the microworld, this point of view gradually breaks down and we have an increasing problem with indicating whether matter is particles or waves.
Most of what a person comes into contact with can be reduced to: protons, electrons, neutrons, photons (protons and neutrons have a complex structure, which will be discussed later).
So what we encounter (commonly) - we managed to reduce to 4 elements.
Our ancestors (from the 19th century) did not know this. For them, the world was made of dozens of types of atoms (depending on how far we go back in history, this picture, of course, was constantly changing).
Our ancestors did not understand almost everything they touched.
We are in a different situation. Of the "material" things, we really don't understand only dark matter and dark energy, which basically have no direct role in our lives - their role is only perceived on the scales of galaxies and the universe.

Protons and neutrons turned out to have an internal structure in the form of up and down quarks placed in a "soup" of gluons.
This is still a simplified picture (recent simulations using AI and all the results of experiments that humanity has done - suggest that the proton also consists of a charm quark), but we are moving forward all the time.

Time to move away from the partial approach and move to waves - and basically to quantum fields. The wave is an intermediate view between particles and quantum fields.

Particles whose internal structure, despite numerous experiments, we have not been able to study, we consider fundamental elementary particles.
These are:
so-called bosons interaction particles (like photons, gluons and other bosons),
quarks or particles that make up the mass of matter (which make up the proton and neutron)
leptons, i.e. particles that supplement matter with a tiny fraction of mass (such as electrons and neutrinos)

All these particles have their antiparticles.
The existence of antiparticles fits perfectly with quantum field theory (QFT). If the appropriate field excitation can be observed as a particle, the opposite excitation will be an antiparticle.
The particles in the QFT are just the result of the interaction of the quantum field under study with the quantum field that we will use as a measurement tool.
If we direct one quantum field (in the form of a particle, such as an electron or a photon) towards another quantum field (tested), the effect of interaction will give us a result in the form of finding some property of the tested quantum field. But it can also happen that we don't get any result.
When a given measurement is repeated many times - we can determine the statistical properties of the tested field - such as the probability of interaction, which we will call the probability of the particle's existence in a given place.
However, it is always the interaction of two or more fields.
In this sense - particles do not exist. Only quantum fields exist. Reality in the light of the QFT is not material.
This material everyday character that we perceive only appears when so many interactions are involved that the field nature of reality ceases to play a direct role.

What exactly is the nature of quantum fields we do not know. The very name of the field - comes from such an ordinary arable field. We only know that we can imperfectly measure the distribution of the values of some fields in space and that it works out well for us experimentally.
Some measurement results agree up to the 15th place with the theory. Or rather, with simplifications of the theory - because in the overwhelming majority of cases - calculations are too difficult for us and we are only able to approximate them quite accurately using perturbation calculus. We are unable to obtain exact analytical solutions.
It is generally assumed that there are the following quantum fields:
- 6 quark fields
- 6 lepton fields
- 8 gluon fields (strong interaction)
- Higgs field
- EM field - for photons
- field of W bosons (weak interaction)
- Z boson field (weak interaction).
Together, 24 quantum fields - they form the entire measurable reality in the microworld.
But this division is also different.
If quantum gravity exists, it would have to be written 25.
Assuming there is only one gluon field, 24 becomes 17.
If we additionally unify the fields of W and Z bosons (weak interaction) with the EM interaction - 15 remain.
If we assume that successive generations of quarks and leptons can also be unified because they are distinguished only by their interaction with the Higgs field, then we will have: 7.

With full unification that humanity can count on, we can reduce the number of quantum fields to 7.

Whether this is so - no one knows yet.
But it would be quite an interesting achievement: to reduce everything we deal with to 7 quantum fields*

* assuming that dark matter and dark energy are more the result of deficiencies in our theory of gravity than deficiencies in the Standard Model.
And there are indications of both shortcomings in Einstein's theory of gravity and a new unknown force that is eluding us and that would complete the Standard Model.
So we still have some things ahead of us.
But I wouldn't advise getting too excited. Our ancestors did not understand the basics of 99.99% of what surrounded them. We understand 99.99% of what surrounds us.
Our ancestors did not know the strong force - which is strongest on small scales. We know. If something is hiding from us - it can't be anything strong.
And if what we do not know is weak - it has little impact on our everyday life. It can, of course, manifest itself on galactic scales (like gravity) with tremendous force.