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There are ≈ 80 known stable elements, and the lightest 18 comprise 99.9% of the ordinary matter of the universe. These same 18 elements, H through Ar, comprise the initial linear portion of the Segrè chart, the plot of all matter both ordinary and exotic, containing hundreds of stable isotopes and thousands more that are unstable. The Segrè plot is initially linear because (aside from H) the vast majority of ordinary matter (99.8%) contains an equal number of protons and neutrons. Equality of nucleon numbers in baryonic matter is the simplest, most profound, yet least understood physical property of matter. And one that may be understood quite simply if we allow up and down quarks to alternate within and between nucleons, which in turn results in nucleon alternation. It is axiomatic that if two particles alternate within a sequence there will always be nearly equal numbers of each particle regardless of the length of the sequence, in this case, equal numbers of protons and neutrons.