Smashing Small: The Quest to Replicate the Universe's Origins in a Particle Collider Scientists seeking to understand the universe's earliest moments have created tiny "big bangs" in particle colliders by smashing particles at nearly the speed of light.
This process replicates the quark gluon plasma (QGP) that existed just after the universe's birth, shedding light on the fundamental conditions required for matter to transition into this extreme state.
Researchers have been pushing the boundaries of what was thought possible by using increasingly smaller particles in their experiments.