The Infinite Monkey Cage Higgs Boson
Mar 20, 2024
Join Brian Cox and Robin Ince at CERN's Large Hadron Collider as they search for the elusive Higgs boson. Discover the fascinating world of particle physics with comedian Katy Brand, actor Ben Miller, and physicists Tevong You and Clara Nellist. Learn about the Higgs mechanism, particle detection complexities, impact on medical technology, and unraveling the universe's mysteries in a humorous and entertaining way.
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Visiting The ATLAS Detector Felt Spiritual
- Katie Brand describes going down 83 metres to the ATLAS experiment as a strangely spiritual, theatrical journey to the centre of the Earth.
- She felt subdued and close to the 'magic' of where particles are smashed to learn about the universe.
How The LHC And Detectors Work
- Clara Nellist explains the LHC accelerates protons (and ions) to near light speed then smashes them inside huge layered detectors.
- The detector layers record charged tracks, energies and muons to reconstruct the collision 'firework' products.
Higgs Solved A Fundamental Theory Problem
- Tevong Yu recounts that the Higgs mechanism was proposed to give particles mass and make the electroweak theory mathematically consistent.
- Without the Higgs mechanism calculations at high energies produced nonsense, so a new field was needed.