The discovery of a new class of particle may have brought us one step closer to understanding our very existence.
I won’t pretend to have more than a simple awareness of what goes on at the Large Hadron Collider – in fact, thinking about it blows my mind – but it’s still fascinating and exciting to read about the latest discovery.
Scientists have observed evidence of a new type of particle known as pentaquarks.
Large Hadron Collider spokesman Guy Wilkinson explained the significance of this discovery: “The pentaquark is not just any new particle. Studying its properties may allow us to understand better how ordinary matter, the protons and neutrons from which we’re all made, is constituted.”
As someone who only just understands the science jokes on TV series The Big Bang Theory, the science of this particle discovery is beyond me, but it’s a big deal in the world of quantum mechanics.
So what exactly does take place at this famous circular tunnel underneath the border between France and Switzerland?
Well, the LHCb Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment aims to find out why we live in a universe that appears to be composed almost entirely of matter, but no antimatter.
It accelerates particles at phenomenal speeds before causing them to collide and examining the results.
In 2012, scientists at the LHC finally observed the Higgs boson particle. The Higgs boson (nicknamed the God Particle) was what made physics suddenly interesting to the average person as it went towards explaining how everything in the universe is formed.
So now you understand quantum mechanics, yes?