Starting from a simplified survey of Fermi’s neutrino theory, it is shown that the nuclear background energy in the vacuum is polarized by quarks, thereby not only explaining the narrow range of the strong interaction, but also giving an explanation for the left-handiness of neutrinos. Recognizing that such a vacuum polarization explains the cosmological dark matter and dark energy phenomena, it is hypothesized that the elementary constituents of the nuclear background energy and the cosmological background energy are the same. The hypothesis is supported by an assessment of the quark’s “naked” mass.