Comment by mfb- on 13/03/2025 at 09:55 UTC

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View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

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Yes, and we can even test that they are *exactly* the same.

All these particles are fermions and two identical fermions cannot be in the same state (Pauli exclusion principle). But that rule only applies if they are exactly identical. If different electrons were a bit different, then they could all be in the ground state and there wouldn't be any chemistry. Similarly, if protons or neutrons would be slightly different then we would get completely different nuclei.

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There's nothing here!