Old and new exotic phenomena in the world of elementary particles

This paper traces the history of elementary particle discoveries, beginning with the muon and ending with the t-quark and the τ-neutrino. Experimental work and basic theoretical concepts are reviewed. Recent neutrino oscillation research and attempts at finding exotic particles and creating artificial quark–gluon plasma are described. The physical beauty of experiments is emphasized and the elegance of both theoretical predictions and of the interpretation of discoveries is revealed. Possible research directions for the near future are discussed.