WEBVTT - TechStuff Looks at the LHC 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:17.600 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:19.759 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:21.680 and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.880 Sitting across from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:31.520 Amazing me. I don't. I wouldn't give a franc for 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:36.080 that for that. So today we wanted to cover a 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:39.640 pretty big piece of technology. Actually, yes, we're going to 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.920 get deep into it, and it's a big piece of 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:47.440 technology that looks at teeny tiny stuff. Yeah. Yeah, Well 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.200 we've had quite a few people say that they wanted 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:52.639 us to talk about this, and we've kind of put 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.560 it off because, well, we wanted to talk about it. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.120 I know, it's it's strange. It's the large Hadron collider, folks. 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:01.400 That's what we're gonna talk talk about. And really we 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.240 were going to do a podcast about this about nine 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.840 months ago, but then a bird dropped a bag out 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:13.000 on my head and it just threw everything off for ages. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.240 What really frightens me is that I thought about making 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:17.320 that joke and hadn't yet. Yeah, well I was like 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.120 one of us is going to It's just gonna be 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.959 a race, all right. So um, and if you don't 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.160 know the story about the bird and the bread, we 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.839 will all become Yes, we will allude to it in 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.800 in a moment. But let's talk about large hadron collider, 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.160 what it is, what it does and um, and kind 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.000 of get a grip on the whole idea of adam 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:43.200 smashers and particle accelerators. Yes, this actually is the latest 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.760 if you will enter it in a a a race 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:48.880 that has gone on, a scientific race that has gone 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.840 on for many many years, a game of one upsmanship, 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:59.320 um that that started so long ago. But basically, in 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.400 in in scientific terms, we're talking about the race to build, uh, 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.880 the largest particle accelerator. And it has gone back and 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:12.000 forth between the United States and Europe for many years 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.280 and and basically it seems like, um, the United States 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.280 is sort of seeded uh this to a group of 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.720 scientists or an organization called that calls itself CERN, which 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:28.359 is which stands for the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Yes, 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.480 and if that doesn't make sense, why because in Europeans 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.320 European US there for and that's why to our to 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.200 our listeners in Europe, I love you guys, and we're 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.000 teasing being silly. But yes. The CERN, of course also 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:47.760 famous for a few other minor contributions to technology, the 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.400 Worldwide Web, like the world Wide Web, tim berners Lee 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:55.280 of CERN being the guy who who developed what would 0:02:55.560 --> 0:03:00.560 later become the World Wide Web, so built on top 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:05.239 of the Internet network of networks. So anyway, yes, certain, 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:11.919 definitely a pioneer in science and technology. They were the 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:16.840 ones who spearheaded this whole development of the large Hadron Collider, 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.640 which was, you know, such an enormous project. It involved 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:24.800 more than just certain, It involved the cooperation of various organizations, 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:29.640 research institutions, countries, um. And you know, it's a it's 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:35.400 really a testament to science and to exploration. But it's 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:41.400 kind of an exploration that involves recreating conditions that were 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.720 prevalent immediately following the creation of the universe. But on 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:51.280 the tiniest scale we can manage right now. Yes, yes, 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:55.240 well the scientists seemed to think now. And the reason 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.360 I say seemed to is because I have just a 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:02.480 paltry layman's and reportation of these things. Um. They believe 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:07.680 that there are these these particles that existed UM in 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.120 the creation of the universe that simply aren't there today. 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.760 And it's not because they couldn't be. It's because the 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:18.440 conditions just aren't right now. So they want to recreate 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.719 the conditions that they believe existed right after that UM 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:28.200 by accelerating very tiny things to smash together and and 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:33.680 basically make bits of particles that they think would be 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.719 those those things that they're trying to identify. So basically 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.440 there's a roadmap. They think there's a city there, and 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:43.320 they want to see if they can make it happen. Right, So, 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:47.080 so let's this really boils down to the whole Big 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.640 Bang Theory. So our whole universe was in a hot, 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:55.680 dense state. Really what you went there? Yes? I did 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.760 go there. Hey, some of the characters on the Big 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.440 Bang Theory were some of my early as Twitter followers, 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.680 not the actors, the actual fictional characters of the television 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:08.760 show Big Bang Theory were following me on Twitter for 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.640 a while, which I thought. I was thrilled. Anyway, Yes, 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.960 according to the Big Bang Theory, which is one of 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.840 the I would say the most prevalent theory of how 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:24.240 our universe was formed. Um. The Big Bang theory states 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:29.760 that there was a moment when, which did not last 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.719 very long relatively speaking compared to the life of the universe. 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.240 There was a moment when energy and matter were one. 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:43.080 They were not two different things. Energy and matter kind 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:48.520 of we're coupled together, uh, and then split apart and 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:53.040 then developed into what we see today, into the matter 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:55.440 and energy that we are able to observe today, as 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.640 well as stuff that we may not ever be able 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:03.520 to observe and explosion. Yeah, and so there were these 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:12.799 these fundamental particles that eventually became matter. And by taking 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:18.599 sub atomic particles and accelerating them to near the speed 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:24.920 of light the speed of light and making them collide together, 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.400 you can smash them apart so that they become these 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:36.240 even more basic particles and energies that are what make 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.840 up the stuff around us. So it's it's like reducing 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:45.680 matter that we have today into the proto matter that 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:50.440 existed immediately following the Big Bang. Um, and there's well, 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:52.359 we'll get a little bit more into the Big Bang stuff. 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:55.680 It gets really really complex and complicated. It goes beyond 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.200 the scope of tech stuff, and it gets difficult to 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.000 to explain. I had a friend of mine asked me, well, 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:03.919 what was there before the Big Bang? And said, that 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.440 question is meaningless? And so why is that question meaningless? 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.400 Is it because time did not exist until the universe 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:16.200 came into being during the Big Bang. If you, according 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:19.880 to the theory, as you get closer to the Big Bang, 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.600 you eventually get to a point where time didn't exist. 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:26.320 So before and after are meaningless because those are concepts 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:30.680 that depend upon the existence of time. What's really funny 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:33.080 to me is now, now that you've reached this point 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.000 of the discussion, I feel like philosophy and science have 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.480 become one, and really they have been at that point. 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.720 There's there is a point where science and philosophy are 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.360 one because you cannot or at least philosophy takes over 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:52.120 because you cannot test or observe. And you know scientific 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.320 theory that the whole scientific method is based upon the 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:59.640 idea that you make observations and then you project future 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.720 guess is essentially based on those observations, you test and 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:07.320 you continue to observe, and based upon those results you 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.360 build knowledge. Right, I mean, that's the basic when you 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.960 boil it down. That's the basic scientific method, and you 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:14.760 want to do it in a controlled way, so that 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.840 way you can determine if in fact what you observe 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.920 is a result of whatever the phenomena is you're observing. 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.920 You know, like whatever whatever state you're looking at now, 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.440 is in fact a result of a previous state, or 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:35.320 if it was just a something something else. You know, 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.680 you can't say A causes B immediately, you have to 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:42.080 build that case. Well, that's that's one of the reasons 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:46.400 why this is so such a weird topic in a way, 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.720 because the particle that they've been looking for most famously 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:56.120 is the Higgs boson, and this is a theoretical particle. Yeah, 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.200 this is the thing according to the theories, you know. 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.240 They they're the scientists are going by what we know 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.559 of the universe, and they're they're essentially saying this should 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.440 be able to exist, and we want to see if 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.640 it actually can exist. That is just such a weird concept. Yeah, 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:16.560 It's essentially what you do is you look at the 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.120 math and you say, well, based upon our understanding of 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:24.080 the universe and based upon some mathematical formulas that are 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.720 far more complex than I could ever hope to understand. 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.480 So I want to make that clear. I'm stating this 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:34.200 from the perspective of someone who is interested in the subject, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.880 but it is not an expert. But based upon the 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:43.360 math and based upon our understanding of the universe, we 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.439 think that there is a particle that we're calling the 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:52.280 Higgs Boson particle that would explain why matter has masses, 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.160 because that's a it's a it's a question I would 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.120 never have thought to ask, like, why does why does stuff? 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.280 Why does matter actually have mass? Why do we have 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.000 mass in the universe? That's actually a great question. There 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:06.880 are a couple of reasons why it's a great question. 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.680 One is that, again, energy and mass at one point, 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.079 or energy and matter at one point, we're coupled together 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:16.040 and they split apart. So what was it that did that? 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:20.680 Also was messy the alimony. Also there was the element 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:23.160 of the I shouldn't say element. There was the factor 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.959 of matter and antimatter. Okay, So when you have a matter, 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:30.600 a particle of matter encounter a particle of antimatter, Uh, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.520 they annihilate one another, right, I mean antimatter and matter 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:41.160 cannot coexist? They do all right? Right? Hypothetical person who 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.640 knows what I'm talking about in the room. So yes, 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.640 when matter and antimatter UH encounter one another, they annihilate 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:53.439 each other. So matter and antimatter both were products of 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.920 the Big Banks. So there must have been a little 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:02.920 more matter than there was antimatter, or else we wouldn't 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.520 have matter, but it would have all been annihilated. There 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:10.800 there would be there'd be no us, right because any 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.800 matter and UH and matter would have destroyed one another. 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.959 So by that logic, there must have been more matter 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.800 than antimatter. Well why is that? It's a good question. 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:23.760 The LHC might be able to give us some answers. 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.360 And the reason why the LHC might give us some 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.920 answers is again because by smashing these sub atomic particles 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:36.800 together at incredible speeds, we can recreate in miniature by 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:42.319 several orders of magnitude, conditions that were around, or what 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:45.440 we believe were around, shortly after the universe was formed. 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.800 By observing that, we could start to draw conclusions of 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.560 what happened immediately after the universe was formed and why 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:58.559 stuff is the way it is. These are huge questions, 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:02.040 and I mean it blows my mind to think about it. 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.040 For more than like to go beyond the surface level. 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:08.640 I started getting a bit dizzy. Yeah yeah, well the 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:11.240 uh I was going to get into how they monitor 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.400 and the anti monitor deal with all of this and 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.440 the green lantern core, but that's that will be a 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:20.360 discussion best used for another podcast, maybe pop stuff. So 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:26.319 they created this thing fet down. Yeah, that only took 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.480 you know, sixteen years and ten billion dollars to come 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:34.120 up with. Technically it is one below ground feet as 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.199 as Chris was saying, uh, it is Uh. It's got 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.720 a circumference of twenty seven kilometers, which is just under 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.840 seventeen miles sixteen point eight miles or so. Uh. The 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:46.520 entire thing, like if you think of it as a 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.680 giant circle, because that's what the main part of the 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:54.800 Large Hadron Collider is. It's an enormous circular ring. Um. 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:57.719 It's got eight sectors, yes, all right. Each of those 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.440 sectors has an end cap that could next it to 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:06.920 the next sector. Okay, that end cap is called an insertion. Now, Uh, 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:12.240 within this circle protons beams of protons mainly, although other 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.680 atomic particles can also be accelerated through the Large Hadron Collider, 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:20.880 but primarily it's it's beams of protons reach this speed 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:24.800 of the speed of light. Now you might ask, why 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.200 is it not actually the speed of light? Well, there's 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.600 two reasons. One is that, according to what we know 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.200 of the universe, lights the fastest stuff there is, and 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:38.000 you cannot equal or exceed the speed of light unless 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.040 you're light like, unless you're a photon, you're not gonna 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:43.880 do it well. Put it this way, the traffic ticket 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.160 would be enormous. Yeah, so don't do it. Well. The 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:52.080 other reason is because this this UH the facility is 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:57.160 so large it actually spans the border between UH France 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.920 and Switzerland, so which is why you made the fan. 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.199 It has to stop for customs each time it goes through, 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.880 which delays it a little nice. So anytime it has 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.480 any duty free stuff or you know, it's got to 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.520 declare that it's carrying a certain amount of stuff from 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:16.800 France to Switzerland, mainly cheese, then it has to slow down. 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.360 That's all a lie, and that that that customs part. 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.720 The rest of we've been saying, besides the green lantern 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:27.680 and other silly asides, totally true, yes, but it's um 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.920 it's fascinating in a way to think about because um, 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:35.880 you know, this very big, very expensive machine is necessary 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:41.680 to smash tiny, tiny, tiny particles into even tinier particles. 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.440 And and again, remember we're looking for lots of different stuff. 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.240 Higgs boson is probably the most famous, you know, and 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.160 and the one that's made the news recently as at 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.040 the time we're recording this, right, right, the recent news 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:58.120 states that we have discovered a particle that fits very 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.560 closely to what we would expect the higgs boson to be. 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.760 So it's not that we found the higgs boson necessarily, 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.480 but that we found something that's promising along those lines. Yes, 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.160 So again, we cannot say we found the higgs boson 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:16.680 with certainty. Actually will probably never be able to say 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.560 it with a hundred percent certainty, but we you know, 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:23.640 what we can say is that the findings we've discovered 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:29.520 are promising along those lines. It appears to be, but 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.680 there's no way to know for certain, right and we're 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.600 gonna continue Obviously, they're going to continue to do experiments, 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.200 make sure it's repeatable, make sure that the things that 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:42.040 they have observed are in fact actual observations and not 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:45.640 some form of error. Uh, this is all part of science, 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.360 you know. Science is all about. You've got to replicate 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:50.720 whatever it is you did to make sure that it 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.480 is in fact a real effect. What did you do? 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.040 I don't know. But beyond the Higgs boson, we're looking 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:01.800 at other stuff too, like, for instance, our universe is expanding, yes, 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.400 all right, and uh, and it expands at a particular 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.560 rate and that rate is very difficult to explain based 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.480 upon the observable amount of matter in the universe. So 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:16.800 the way the galaxies we're talking massive massive systems, not 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.840 you know, not solar systems, we're talking entire galaxies, the 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:24.960 way that they behave seems to contradict our knowledge of 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.760 what the universe, how the universe should behave based upon 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.800 the amount of matter we believe exists within the universe. 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:37.200 So we have to figure out why is that? Why 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.440 is that the case? And one of the theories proposed, 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.720 and a very popular one since really the ninety nineties, 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:49.960 is that there's the stuff that we cannot observe, that is, 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:54.120 it's it's undetectable by humans. Right now, we don't have 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.760 the ability to figure out where and what it is. 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:00.160 But that scientists, for lack of a better term, call 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.720 it dark matter. So it's the stuff that we cannot detect, 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.120 but that at least in theory, must exist in order 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.800 for the universe to behave the way it behaves despite 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:15.400 the way we understand the universe. And by saying, okay, well, 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:17.760 what if there's this stuff that we cannot see but 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.480 it does exist and it otherwise behaves like matter, What 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:23.760 if it's out there, how much of it would it 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.159 we need in order to balance out the way galaxies 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:29.760 do behave and the way we think they should behave 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.360 and uh, And once we kind of created that theory, 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.639 there's also a theory that kind of partners with this 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:41.479 about dark energy, which is, you know, again, an energy 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:47.040 component that we cannot directly detect. We detect its uh, 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:51.760 its effects, but not the actual energy itself. This would 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:55.720 account for the way the universe is expanding and the 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.719 way galaxies move in relation to one another. Um and 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.960 you know, again, this is not a perfect explanation because 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.479 it really just says we don't really know. These are 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:11.080 sort of placeholders until we can figure out more. Well, again, 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.720 because the Large Hadron Collider will recreate conditions similar to 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.800 those shortly after the Big Bang, there's hope that perhaps 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.399 we will find some sort of evidence that supports or 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:26.080 perhaps contradicts the theory of dark matter and dark energy. 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:32.160 Beyond that, there's also the wonderful world of string theory, 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.960 which I'll admit to you guys. I mean, like I said, 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:38.080 I am not an expert. So what I've been talking 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.919 about so far is stuff that I have a weak 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:46.840 grasp on, right like I can, I can almost get 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:51.040 my head around it. But it's still pretty perplexing to me. 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:56.080 String theory just kicks my brain out my ear and 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.640 says you do not belong here, never show your face 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.800 here at end. Because string theory is again a completely 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:09.560 theoretical model that is based primarily upon mathematics that would 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:16.800 reconcile what we call the standard theory with UH, something 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:21.959 that the standard theory could not explain before. Um. So 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.320 standard theory is kind of our our explanation about how 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:32.520 the universe works, right um, and it has UH. It 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:36.960 encompasses three of the four fundamental forces we understand about 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:41.600 the universe. Those those three forces are the weak nuclear force, 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.800 the strong nuclear force, and electromagnetic force. But the fourth 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:51.040 fundamental force, the one that it does not explain, is gravity. 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:55.159 String theory is one attempt to reconcile everything we know 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.199 about the universe and sort of it's kind of like 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.760 the whole unified theory approach you might have you've heard 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.280 of the unified theory, right, Yeah, this idea that there 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.639 is there's got to be an explanation that brings together 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.800 all of these elements so that we have a working 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:15.280 model of why the universe behaves the way it does. Well. 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.240 The string theory is kind of an approach to that. 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:21.680 It is again theoretical, it's all based on mathematics. Uh. 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.800 A lot of the different string theories suggests that there 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:29.679 are at least eleven dimensions to the universe. Uh. We 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:34.520 of course cannot directly observe all of these dimensions. We know, 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:40.760 you know, there's certain spatial dimensions that we are aware of, length, height, depth, 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:43.560 that kind of thing. There's also the dimension of time, 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:50.120 which we perceive as a linear progression. Though again time 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.400 is relative. If you move, you know, depending upon the 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.280 speed that you are moving throughout the universe, time is 0:20:57.280 --> 0:20:59.840 going to pass at a different rate between you and 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:05.359 a stationary observer, which is crazy as well. Also, by 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.760 the way, alternative theory of why the universe is expanding 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:10.919 the way it is at the speed at What it 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:15.240 is is that it's not accelerating or anything like that. 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.720 It's that time itself is slowing down, but we are 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:23.000 incapable of perceiving that ourselves. It's just time is slowing 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.120 down in the context of the universe as a whole. Again, 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.720 I can't even grasp that. So string theory boils down 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:34.199 to this idea that everything in the universe, when you 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:38.360 get really, really, really really down to it, is made 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.960 up of these strings. And the strings can either be open, 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:44.960 meaning that the ends are free, or they can be closed. 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.159 So it's like a it's like a rubber band, a loop, 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.480 and they vibrate at different frequencies, and how they vibrate 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:56.199 determines what they are. So a string vibrating a certain 0:21:56.240 --> 0:22:01.320 way would be an electron or what Really, a collection 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.439 of strings vibrating that way would be an electron versus 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:08.760 a proton or a neutron or whatever. Uh. The problem 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.399 with string theory, Among many other problems, one of the 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:15.359 big problems with string theory is that you can't make 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:20.000 an observation to prove or disproved string theory because it's 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:24.720 it's dealing with something that is so tiny and fundamental 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:27.199 that there's no way we can detect it, So you 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:29.640 can't observe it and you can't test it, which has 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:32.560 led some scientists to say string theory is more of 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:35.440 a philosophy that it is a science, because if you 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:38.480 cannot observe or test it, how can you call it science. 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:43.360 It's a mathematical theory that's more in the line of philosophy, 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.040 which you know, I agree that's a fairly valid argument 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:49.679 at this stage. Well, there's some hope that the LHC 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:55.359 could perhaps uncover some evidence that strength that would support 0:22:55.400 --> 0:23:01.160 string theory, mainly supersymmetry, and supersymmetry is a step beyond 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:05.480 the idea of matter and anti matter. So we do 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:09.120 know that there is matter and anti matter. So for example, 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:15.080 the antimatter component or or partner to an electron is 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:19.800 a positron, which is a positively charged sub atomic particle. 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:25.200 So positron and electron are our counters to one another. 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:29.760 They would annihilate each other with extreme prejudice. And then 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:36.960 supersymmetries are suggests that there are other counter particles besides 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:39.760 matter and anti matter. They would say that each particle 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:44.280 would have a superpartner partner and an anti superpartner, which 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:48.720 we would call a supervillain, and that that those that 0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:54.600 perhaps the experiments in the LHC might uncover evidence of supersymmetry, 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:59.119 which in turn would be support for string theory. So 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:01.560 there are lots of different things that the LHC is 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:05.360 looking for, and how it does it is pretty phenomenal. 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:08.520 And as we said, you know, it involves accelerating these 0:24:08.600 --> 0:24:12.359 these particles at near the speed of light and using 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:17.840 an enormous machine to do it, and how that happens 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:24.200 is insane. Well, the collider itself is really one of 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:28.440 of three major parts to to what the the entire 0:24:28.520 --> 0:24:33.480 scientific machine if you will, that they're using over there. 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:40.520 Um the colliders is one the detectors. Therefore huge areas 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:44.520 where the detectors sit and those you know, are are 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:48.320 there to identify the results of the collisions. You know, 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:51.119 there there there are four major ones and two minor 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:54.520 ones that are kind of piggybacked onto the major ones. 0:24:55.800 --> 0:24:59.639 And then there's the grid, which is the computers, grid 0:24:59.680 --> 0:25:03.680 comp grid computers, so a series of network computers that 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:06.960 handle all that data and crunch the numbers. So when 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:08.760 you when we get down. Let's get down to the 0:25:08.760 --> 0:25:12.760 physical way that this system works. And you can't just 0:25:12.880 --> 0:25:15.920 flip a switch and have beams of sub atomic particles 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:18.000 traveling it near the speed of light. It actually takes 0:25:18.359 --> 0:25:21.359 quite some time to ramp up that speed so that 0:25:21.440 --> 0:25:24.520 these particles are moving at the right velocity to make 0:25:24.560 --> 0:25:27.720 them collide with one another. UM. Now you remember we've 0:25:27.720 --> 0:25:30.359 got the LHC. It's a big ring. So these different 0:25:30.400 --> 0:25:34.720 beams are both traveling in opposite directions, and then we'll 0:25:34.800 --> 0:25:40.600 ultimately converge on one of these detector sites around the ring, 0:25:41.920 --> 0:25:45.000 and at that detector site you will have your collisions. Uh. 0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:49.320 So one beam is traveling counterclockwise and the other one 0:25:49.440 --> 0:25:54.280 is traveling anti counter clockwise as uh directions I once 0:25:54.359 --> 0:25:59.200 received for a fan said I, I'm surprised you didn't 0:25:59.200 --> 0:26:01.680 say wittersians. Yes, yes, okay, So that would be clockwise 0:26:01.680 --> 0:26:04.600 and whiter stians. One is traveling clockwise, the other ones 0:26:04.640 --> 0:26:06.560 traveling whitter sians. If you wonder what whitter sians is 0:26:06.640 --> 0:26:13.040