What's Really Happening At CERN

The world’s most astonishing science experiment, simply explained.

On the border between France and Switzerland is the biggest science experiment humanity has ever built. Over a 100 meters underground, there’s a tunnel 27 kilometers long in a big loop under nearby homes, businesses, and farms. Inside that tunnel, scientists built a blue tube big enough to crawl through, and inside that tube, they put two pipes that they keep colder and emptier than outer space. Down those pipes, they fire particles smaller than atoms in opposite directions…. and push them faster and faster… until when they’re almost at the speed of light… they SMASH TOGETHER.

This underground particle-smasher is also known as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It took thousands of scientists from over nearly 100 different countries $5 billion dollars and 30 years to plan and build.

My question is: Why? Why did they do that??? Why spend so much money and time to smash particles underground? And now… why do so many scientists say what we really need to do is build… a BIGGER one?

To answer those questions, we’re going on a journey all the way to Switzerland, to the particle smasher itself! And you’re never going to see yourself or the world around you the same way…

Chapters:
0:00 What’s happening at CERN?
1:31 What is the Large Hadron Collider?
2:32 How did they build the Large Hadron Collider?
3:43 How small is a proton?
4:51 How do they get protons to hit each other??
6:43 Why build this?
7:43 What happens when particles smash together?
8:47 What are elementary particles?
9:37 What is the Higgs Boson?
10:46 What did they find??
11:33 Why does this matter?
12:52 Why build a bigger collider?
13:48 What is the Future Circular Collider?
14:56 What else could we build?
15:56 Who do we want to be?

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, Huge If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional reading and watching:

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro

Music: Musicbed, Tom Fox

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Welcome to the joke down low:

Why did the Higgs Field get invited to church?
They wanted to have mass.

Find a way to use “mass” in a comment to let me know you’re a real one who made it to the end of the description :)

[yammietomogrady]

Took my daughter there as a gift when she graduated from university . Now she's a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Proud Dad

[BharaniSai]

Loved the final note about how we want an Alien civilization to look at us as a scientific and curious race and not just a planet of conflict and mass destruction

[PeterSalling]

My dad's uncle Knud was the original physicist behind the electromagnet for the Cern particle accelerator. He told so many crazy stories around the dinner table about the stuff they were doing at work. He just passed away three weeks ago... and this video was released three weeks ago?!?... Life is weird sometimes... Anyways, thanks for a cool deep dive into this amazing world.

[mnrise]

My dad works at CERN and i've visited it countless time. This video does a really good job at explaining what they are doing and why ! Well done !

[ParticleClara]

Thanks for coming to visit us at CERN! It was fantastic to show you and the team our experiment and I love how the video came out! ☺

[j.d.cunegan]

Find someone who looks at you the way Cleo looks at the CERN collider. Your passion and awe for this stuff is infectious.

[chriscoy-jqgp]

I love how enthusiastic she is about the subject.

[JAWS-]

It's just amazing how complex the human brain is. It blows my mind that we can build these amazing machines and have the math that stands behind it. Thank you for all the hard work you've provided. I hope a child will find this video down the road and it opens up their mind and they go off with the wonder of it all and change the world.

[frankijupiter]

For context... $17B is roughly 1 week of the US military budget. Just to give a little perspective.

[evanmyers]

That size comparison of a grain of rice as a nucleus honestly blew my mind

[dragoonseye]

As a species, humans are most definitely not on the right track

[thakursaad]

this one was beautiful. I am amazed not only by the topic I learned but also the video quality and your narrative.

SUBSCRIBED 🎉

[RwFce]

Cleo is just out here living our nerd fantasies; working with NASA, Boston Dynamics, F1, CERN, etc. Thanks for bringing us along with you.

[JohnHoggard_aka_DaddyHoggy]

RIP Peter Higgs. As a lapsed particle physicist I actually cried during the Higgs Boson announcement scene. An amazing human and I'm so glad he got to see the actual detection of his proposed/theoretical particle.

[In.Vain.Dwayne]

i just stumbled on your content like 3 hours ago and i am binging, i love how relatable you make things but still soo intriguing

[TheGokyu]

I love your research work! You're an excellent journalist and clearly turn difficult subjects into a walk in the park.

[wompa]

"Yep, it's a bump on a chart." This is part of why I learn so much from your videos.

[emreyurtseven]

Your channel has quickly become one of my favorites Cleo. The subject matter, production, pacing, narration etc. are all superb. Huge props to you and your team for bringing science & technology to masses in such a well executed way!

[CrMizer]

This is really great but its like remodeling the bathroom while the house burns.

[edgerokoth]

Thanks Cleo, you've always inspired to grapple with hard concepts and seek to innovate more