Back to the Big Bang: Inside the Large Hadron Collider

Come venture deep inside the world’s biggest physics machine, the Large Hadron Collider. This extraordinary feat of human engineering took 16 years and $10 billion to build, and just weeks ago began colliding particles at energies unseen since a fraction of a second after the big bang. We’ll explore this amazing apparatus that could soon reveal clues about nature’s fundamental laws and even the origin of the universe itself. John Hockenberry moderates a discussion among physicists including Marcela Carena, Monica Dunford, Jennifer Klay and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek.

This program is part of The Big Idea Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.

The World Science Festival gathers great minds in science and the arts to produce live and digital content that allows a broad general audience to engage with scientific discoveries. Our mission is to cultivate a general public informed by science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for all the latest from WSF.
Visit our Website: http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/worldsciencefestival
Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/WorldSciFest

Original Program Date: June 5, 2010
MODERATOR: John Hockenberry
PARTICIPANTS: Marcela Carena, Monica Dunford, Jennifer Klay, Frank Wilczek

John Hockenberry Introduction 00:14

What is the LHC? 04:57

Participant Introductions. 08:30

Where are we now with the LHC? 11:58

By smashing particles this creates a mini big bang? 16:58

What can the LHC do beyond Fermilab 21:30

How do you calculate the probability's that these particles are going to occur? 25:52

If you can create this mini big bang the energy changes are observable? 32:00

The search for the Higgs. 38:30

The standard model, Cosmological molasses, and Higgs. 44:25

How will you detect and confirm all of the predictions. 52:51

Departing form experimental evidence with super symmetry. 01:00:08

Are there places in space that have these particles? 01:07:07

Is there a limit to the number of particles you can expect? 01:13:50

Is there a possibility that the cosmological molasses is just a crutch? 01:22:16

The life of a LHC physicist. 01:26:49