My Phd was in science education. Not physics though, that was for the smart ones. 
I said to my 10 year old recently, now that he is learning science, that I have always been impressed that science was able to develop models - the various depictions of ‘atoms’ - that align in some ways with what the Dhamma says about material phenomena. We learn about electrons and neutrinos and what not, and how atoms are incredibly tiny: the concepts of physics taught in school. It does sound similar to kalapas…
But science still thinks these atoms while changing still last, they have a permanence.
These scientific models are not so easy to visualise accurately. Do we imagine the old planetary models with electrons whizzing around the core? or we try to see something more sophisticated? Still hard to picture isn’t it.
The nature of kalapas is also hard to grasp - but we know they arise and pass away instantly, they are not different from their charateristics. They can be known directly in the sense that right now color is appearing or hardness or sound…Insight can begin a little to see about the nature of rupa.
see this topic also