Boosting The Search For Nature's Building Blocks
CERN has said that the Linac 4 booster for the Large Hadron Collider is ready. The hope is that with higher speed and luminosity, unknown particles may be found, says astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser.
When it comes to particle physics — the branch of physics that tries to find nature's fundamental building blocks of matter — it's all about energy and momentum. Moving (or kinetic) energy, to be precise.
The higher the speeds of the particles, the more violent their collisions.
Why all the violence?
Well, we are trying to "see" things that are millions of times smaller than atomic nuclei. And we can't just keep cutting matter down to find its smallest pieces.
