Who Cares about Particle Physics?

Abstract

Abstract Particle physics is too much fun to leave it only to physicists! CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics, regularly makes the news, but why are fundamental research and the discovery of the Higgs boson so important? What kind of research happens at this international laboratory and how does it impact people’s daily lives? Particle physics describes all matter found on Earth, in stars and in all galaxies and now it is attempting to explain dark matter, a form of matter five times more prevalent than but different from the already known regular matter. How do we know this mysterious dark matter exists, and is there a chance it will be discovered soon? About sixty countries contributed to the construction of the gigantic Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and its huge detectors. Dive in to discover how large international teams of thousands of researchers work together to push scientific knowledge forward and how including more women and addressing diversity issues is essential. Here is a book written for every person who wishes to learn a little more about particle physics, without requiring prior scientific knowledge. It starts from the basics to build a solid understanding of current research in particle physics. A good dose of curiosity is all one needs to discover a world that spans from the infinitesimally small to the infinitely large, and where imminent discoveries could mark the dawn of a huge revolution in the current conception of the material world.