The Snake Charmer: The Large Hadron Collider

Abstract

In the late 1970s, physics had come out of many confusing conundrums and had entered into a regime of physics, in which there was a greater precision in the questions that were asked. It was becoming clear that cosmological questions relating to the ultra-large sizes of space, massive objects, and eons in timescale could only be understood by investigating the world of ultra-small, mass of fundamental particles and finest of time scales. In order to understand the creation of galaxies, stars, and planets; the process of generation of the attribute of mass which gives rise to gravitational forces; balance between particle and antiparticle; the presence of dark energy that is causing the Universe to expand; how radioactive processes allowed galaxies and stars to evolve; etc., need an understanding of matter, forces, and energy at particle level. On the flip side, an understanding of the conditions of the Cosmos that existed prior to creation of particles would give clues as to the mechanism of such formation. The unity of the large and the small is similar to the ancient understanding of unity and self-sufficiency, expressed in the symbol of a snake, the Ouroboros, with its tail in its mouth. Plato was prophetic when he described such a creature as the original inhabitant of the earth, because it was self-sufficient (Fig. 13.1).