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Everything is made of tiny objects called atoms, and these atoms are made from even smaller things, like protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are made from even smaller stuff called quarks.
We have a pretty good idea of how an atom works, but our understanding of quarks is still very fuzzy. To see a normal object, we fire light at it, and see the light bounce off, but quarks are far too small for this. The best way to see how a quark works is to fire other quarks.

But we can’t get hold of individual quarks: they’re trapped inside protons. So we fire protons at each other and try to see which particles bounce out.

Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we discover a new type of particle that’s completely unexpected.

It sounds crazy, but that’s the only way to understand what the stuff everything in the world is made from.

This all takes place at a detector in Switzerland called the “Large Hadron Collider” LHC, basically a 17 mile long tunnel with four huge detectors. The LHC uses 9000 supercooled magnets to control the particles- it’s the coldest place in the Universe. But each collision generates enough energy to be 100,000 times hotter than the sun.

To analyse all the data that comes out, we need the most advanced computer system in the world.