Physics of light flavoured quarks

Familiar objects like protons and neutrons are composite objects made up of light quarks and gluons. These objects are confined inside protons and neutrons and due to the nature of the strong interactions that bind them, extracting their properties is a huge challenge, but crucial for our understanding of nature. In this talk, which would be accessible to any physicist and student of science, we will describe the state of the art in the physics of light quarks, beginning with a discussion on the extraction of the coupling constant of the strong interactions. Some recent experiments that probe the lifetime of crucial particles such as the neutral pion, and a description of the upcoming experiments to measure the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon will also be covered. Some technical details will be mentioned for sake of completeness, but in as accessible a manner as possible.