Why Do Humans Smash Protons?

At the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, thousands of scientists are spending billions of dollars to smash protons together in a big underground tunnel. But… WHY?

When protons collide, we get a glimpse at what might have happened close to the start of our universe. That's because these collisions release an enormous amount of energy for how small protons are. But we know that energy and mass are related - so when these protons collide at incredibly fast speeds, that energy can turn into physical mass. Which is crazy! And even crazier: If the energy is high enough, it can turn into mysterious or unknown particles...

Scientists do this to try to understand some of the biggest questions, like “what is the universe made of?”, “where did it come from?” and “how did we get here?”.

If you want to learn more, check out our longer episode AT CERN! And if you like optimistic science and tech videos, subscribe for more of our show Huge If True.

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