[Wonder Warthog]

"How about basic chemistry?"

Firstly, this isn't chemistry (I'm a chemist). It's nucleonics.

"A proton plus an electron does NOT create a neutron. A neutron is an elemental subatomic particle with no charge and you can’t create one by “mashing” an electron and proton together."

Wrong. Neutrons can and do decompose into protons and electrons (beta decay), so the reverse process is certainly not impossible.

[PapaBear3625]

Wrong. Neutrons can and do decompose into protons and electrons (beta decay), so the reverse process is certainly not impossible.

It's called electron capture (where the nucleus captures an inner electron and a proton becomes a neutron) and it does occur in nature as a recognized isotope decay mode. See link. Beryllium-7 decays into Lithium-7 via electron capture.

[Red Badger]

"A proton plus an electron does NOT create a neutron. A neutron is an elemental subatomic particle with no charge and you can’t create one by “mashing” an electron and proton together."

I thought that is what the Large Hadron Collider does.......