Electrons cannot be a part of the nucleus because they are not subject to the nuclear force. However, an electron is attracted to a proton, thanks to the electromagnetic force, and tends to remain near one.

So, if a nucleus is made up of 1 proton, there is likely to be a single electron held in the vicintinty of the nucleus, in the outer regions of the atom, by the electromagnetic force.

The nucleus and its nearby electrons make up the atom (from the Greek for 'unbreakable', because at the time atoms were first dealt with, it was thought they could not be broken down into smaller units).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom

If you could shove that electron into the proton you would have a neutron. A free neutron decays into a proton and an electron (plus gamma) with a half life of 11 seconds.

How would you put an electron inside of a photon? Has this been done?

Is this what happens in a neutron star?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/smashing.html

Lots of energy is required as in the gravitational collapse of a star. Some people think that some neutron stars may actually be strange matter stars.

http://www.creationofuniverse.com/html/creation_atom01.html


....The events that may be defined by physics start at 10-43 seconds, which is the smallest time unit. This is a time frame incomprehensible to the human mind. What happened in this small time period of which we cannot even conceive? Physicists have hitherto been unable to develop a theory that explains in full detail the events that took place at that moment....

No, I mean matter that has an excess of strange quarks, as in Strange Matter.

Greek philosopher Democritus, who some 2400 years ago foreshadowed atomic theory by saying matter was composed of tiny atoms, also believed those atoms were in constant motion.

The motion, he said, was eternal, but it could be changed by outside pressure.

Thus, he suggested, when a vapour is condensed into a liquid, its atoms are slowed and pushed together.

Some modern scientists see Democritus's thoughts about the movement of atoms as a primitive forerunner of a fundamental tenet of physics, the law of the conservation of motion.

The Ionian of the 5th century BC, suggested that evwerthing was composed of tiny particles he called atoms, from the Greek word for indivisible.

Although all atoms were composed of the same substance, some were thought to be round and slippery and thus tended to flow; these were the atoms of water.

Others had rough, jagged surfaces like the atoms in iron and therefore clung together.

The atomic theories of Democritus enjoyed a brief popularity, then fell into obscurity; more than twenty centuries would pass before anyone thought to revive them.