[en] The scattering of leptons (e, μ, ν) hadrons at high momentum transfer has been the incisive probe of the internal dynamics of the proton. Point-like ''partons'' are found inside the proton. These have the electromagnetic and weak properties expected of quarks, and are in dynamical equilibrium with a sea of virtual quark-antiquark pairs and gluons, the quanta of the strong force. Neutrino scattering has probed the weak coupling of the quarks, and their parity-violating handedness. Weak neutral currents (coupling with the Z⁰ boson) were discovered in neutrino scattering, and parity-violating γ-Z⁰ interference was observed in electron-deuteron scattering. The higher momentum transfers that will be available at the HERA electron-proton storage ring, now under construction, will expand greatly the kinematic region available to search for new phenomena at and beyond the W,Z energy scale. (author)