The nature of the universe is being defined in our modern times with the help of the world’s largest particle accelerator. Finding answers to unveil the most fundamental questions of life is a never ending challenge, both for those who work with particle physics as a fundamental key to their daily existence and for the rest of us, common people who keep wondering who we are, where we came from and where do we go from here.
2012 was a fantastic year for particle physics, as the God’s particle, or the Bosson Higgs particle, on its scientific name, was discovered. Shortly after that, a 27 kilometers racetrack of superconducting magnets used by physicists to smash giant amounts of protons, went offline. This happened as physicians wanted to upgrade the hyper advanced machine. Scientists, researchers and physicians at CERN control center have been working on an upgrade for more than two years, and on the morning of June 3rd, the particle collider went alive and kicking again.
However, controversial theories debating the equity and fairness of the new theories supporting the Bosson Higgs particle appear. This discovery was awaited for no less than 50 years, being defined as the landmark of the “standard model” of life, namely particle physics in this case, a theory that supports and explains all the fundamental entities in the quantum world and all the known forces acting between them.
This standard model, left with its glorious discovery aside, also represents a dead end, a road with no final destination for the time being. Visions that have been constructed over the years seem to offer no path forward towards nature’s little pieces of the puzzle mingling with other great theories of the 20th century physics, such as Einstein’s cosmic scale description of gravity. Without a link between the two, a red thread to unify the little and the grand, to put them all together in a single structure of information, we can have no idea whatsoever about why our universe is made up by the little pieces of the puzzle, namely the recently discovered particles, forces and properties. In fewer words, we know the facts but they lead to nowhere, for the time being. Gravity and the quantum world must be put together in order to deliver a meaningful answer over the existence of everything there is.
Hopefully, the upgrades made by scientists for the particle accelerator can provide further insights and links to a more comprehensive existential truth. The Large Hardon Collider (LHC) is now able to smash and disintegrate a billion pairs of protons together every single second. This means double its initial rate, at an enormous, record breaking energy of 13 TeV. However, this LHC machine is a hugely gigantic experiment and there are still secrets related to it that are yet undiscovered. Physicists must link the facts with theoretical models and computer simulations in order to decode the hidden meanings of their experiments and properly interpret the amounts of data the LHC collects. This is where all the uncertainty kicks in, as the findings may be pieces of novelty, but how relevant are they in the field of such a profound and mysterious search for meaning?
Physicians must gather their forces and work their best efforts to collect most relevant pieces of information to surpass the dead end particle physics is facing now, and lift its face to new horizons of more insightful discoveries, consequently leading to progress.
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