The force binding atomic nuclei is a special case of the “strong force,” one of the four fundamental forces in nature, and is extremely difficult to investigate, because it acts very quickly and violently. Around 50 years ago, it was proposed to study the strong forces by firing protons at each other at very high energies.
将原子核结合在一起的力其实是一种特殊的“强相互作用力”，是自然界中4种基本力的其中之一，而且对其的研究极端困难，因为这种力不但作用时间短而且极为剧烈。大概在50年前，研究强相互作用力的方式就是使两个质子在极高能的情况下相互对撞。