Yesterday CERN scientists took another quantum leap into the heart of matter: they were able to make a "mini-Big Bang" by smashing lead ions together. A more accurate description is that the scientists were able to simulate conditions that may have occurred during the Big Bang, rather than creating a Big Bang itself.
Last year, Motherboard went to CERN to check out the LHC in person, and talked to researchers working on the magnificent proton smasher, and at least one batty skeptic. Above, see a freshly re-cut version of the documentary.(And if you have any questions about the Large Hadron Collider, its experiments, and its cabinet of technological wonders, drop them in the comments or Tweet us @motherboardtv – Motherboard is going back for a visit this week.)In the process of colliding the atoms in the latest experiment, melting their protons and neutrons to create a hot dense soup of quarks and gluons known as a quark-gluon plasma, researchers were able to generate the highest temperatures and densities ever produced in an experiment. (That's not the only record set by our largest particle accelerator; see the rest here.)This was only at 7TeV, rather than the full 14TeV that the collider is capable of. The Higgs Boson remains elusive.
Related posts:
Original episode: Big Bangs and Black Holes: Deep Inside the Large Hadron Collider
For the Physicist in Your Life, Age 5-55: The Large Hadron Collider Pop-Up Book (Photos)
Meet The New Cultists Of The Large Hadron Collider
Woman Tries to Stop Particle Collider From Destroying Earth

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Original episode: Big Bangs and Black Holes: Deep Inside the Large Hadron Collider
For the Physicist in Your Life, Age 5-55: The Large Hadron Collider Pop-Up Book (Photos)
Meet The New Cultists Of The Large Hadron Collider
Woman Tries to Stop Particle Collider From Destroying Earth
