When radioactivity was first discovered, around 1900, three types were identified: alpha, beta, and gamma.
They were initially named in order of their penetrating power through matter.
Since their first discovery, it was found and demonstrated experimentally that beta particles were negatively-charged electrons, and gamma rays were uncharged photons.
In 1900, Becquerel determined that the charge/mass ratio of beta particles equalled that of electrons in cathode rays.
Around 1914, it was demonstrated that gammas are electromagnetic radiation, i.e., photons.
How, then, can electrons be photons and vice-versa? Electrons have charge and mass, photons have neither charge nor mass.
Good questions.
Gammas are photons. Radio waves are em radiation. Radio waves are not photons. Gammas are not em radiation. EM radiation is emitted by photons, it is a part of every photon.
An electron is a photon that has formed a loop by biting its own tail. At which time the em radiation splits, some going out (negative charge), some going in (which is then annihilated)(Williamson explains)(he says that the loop has a twist, hence all of the negative em radiation always goes outwards)(or most of it).
Jeans called an electron "bottled light".
Catt i think called an electron "a rolled up photon".
A positron has the positive charge going out, negative charge going in (where it is annihilated).
Electrons do not orbit a nucleus. Photons orbit a nucleus. In that sense we have 2 kinds of electron. One kind orbits nothing (& has the form of a loop). The other kind orbits a nucleus (& need not be a complete loop)(ie it need not bite its own tail).
Mass is a bit of a mystery. Firstly photons do have mass. The question arises -- how come a photon gains lots of mass when it becomes an electron. Williamson mentions a possible way.
Mass is the ability to annihilate aether. Something that has more mass annihilates more aether.
However, i have my own theory. A photon propagates along a line, hence the inflow of aether giving us what we call mass flows in perpendicular to the line, ie the inflow streamlines converge in 2 dimensions, while the guilty photon leaves the scene at the speed of light.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, an electron is a photon that is constrained in 3 dimension, the inflow streamlines converge in 3 dimensions, to a (stationary) point rather than to a line (which is fleeing at c).
I think that the convergence of streamlines, & the stationary versus fleeing stuff, might explain the difference in gravitational mass tween a photon & an electron.
My new (electon) electricity, ie my electons, consist of photons that hug the surface of a wire, rather than hugging a nucleus. Electons are photons that are constrained in 2 dimensions. Free photons (light) are constrained in 1 dimension. Electrons are photons that are constrained in 3 dimension (usually called confined photons).
Everything that we feel & see is made of photons. Photons are the fundamental (quasi) particle.
When photons form loops they give us every other kind of elementary particle (electrons quarks etc).
There are 3 forms of electricity. My electons (on a wire). Free surface electrons (on a wire). Possibly drifting electrons (inside a wire).
The charge on a capacitor consists of my electons on the negative plate, & induced free-surface-electrons on the other plate. However, my new (electon) electricity is a work in progress. I need to tick all of the boxes.
My electons immediately & simply explain why the discharge of a capacitor takes twice the time predicted by the flawed standard circuit theory. In the meantime everyone around here is talking rubbish about capacitors.