:00:00. > :00:00.In a moment here on BBC News we will bring you Newswatch.
:00:00. > :00:45.How did all began? What happened at the big bang? What is the universe
:00:46. > :00:53.is made of? These are the questions that I have come here to find out.
:00:54. > :00:56.Just outside Geneva, straddling France and Switzerland, is the
:00:57. > :01:05.European Organisation for nuclear research, Cern.
:01:06. > :01:07.A massive coming together of scientists who
:01:08. > :01:10.are looking for the fundamental building blocks of the universe.
:01:11. > :01:16.Their most high-profile discovery in 2013 was evidence of the Higgs
:01:17. > :01:18.boson, the particle that gives everything mass, and confirmation
:01:19. > :01:22.that science's Standard Model of the universe is correct.
:01:23. > :01:30.Under the ground, a series of four particle accelerators
:01:31. > :01:35.gradually bring beams of particles up to close to the speed of light.
:01:36. > :01:41.Then they are smashed together, and the particles are smashed apart.
:01:42. > :01:44.The largest of these accelerators is the one that has made all
:01:45. > :01:51.It creates temperatures of trillions of degrees,
:01:52. > :01:57.and conditions similar to those at the birth of the universe.
:01:58. > :02:04.This is the largest machine in the world, the Large Hadron Collider.
:02:05. > :02:14.My guide is head of the Beams Instrumentation Group,
:02:15. > :02:18.Roger E Jones, who I leave in no doubt at all about how happy
:02:19. > :02:34.What you see here are what we call the focusing magnets.
:02:35. > :02:38.So it's a bit like your lens in a camera.
:02:39. > :02:41.So when you say focusing the particles down, you mean, like,
:02:42. > :02:47.aligning them into a really narrow beam.
:02:48. > :02:51.You can imagine it's a bit like you with the sunlight and a magnifying
:02:52. > :02:57.They focus, all the particles come down here to a very tight spot
:02:58. > :03:00.just beyond the wall, and that is where the collisions occur.
:03:01. > :03:03.And from these collisions, we then look up to see where we can
:03:04. > :03:05.find these new particles that we are talking about.
:03:06. > :03:09.And getting these two extremely fine beams to collide is no mean feat,
:03:10. > :03:16.and it is Roger's team who make that happen.
:03:17. > :03:20.You're in effect the sniper, to get these beams exactly lined up.
:03:21. > :03:33.We then feed back to make the current and we slightly adjust
:03:34. > :03:36.So without you, these beams probably would miss each other.
:03:37. > :03:39.As we turn and head back to the left, it is worth remembering
:03:40. > :03:42.that, although the beams are tiny, the energies involved down here are
:03:43. > :03:45.incredibly high, so high that humans are usually banned from this tunnel.
:03:46. > :03:47.We're really lucky to be allowed down here, and
:03:48. > :03:51.the only reason we are is because the LHC is switched off
:03:52. > :03:54.If this was running, it would be far too dangerous
:03:55. > :04:00.And in fact, we have all been given these little tokens.
:04:01. > :04:03.And if any of these are detected by the sensors down here,
:04:04. > :04:15.Having been down to the tunnel containing
:04:16. > :04:19.the Large Hadron Collider itself, it is time to come up top and meet
:04:20. > :04:22.The physicists conducting the experiments rely on engineers like
:04:23. > :04:32.Giulia Papotti in the Cern control room, to make sure the proton beams
:04:33. > :04:34.are injected correctly, and the accelerators behave themselves
:04:35. > :04:37.Can you describe the kind of satisfaction that
:04:38. > :04:39.You are not dreaming up the experiments,
:04:40. > :04:47.Yeah, our job is to give the experiments good beam conditions,
:04:48. > :04:56.I take pleasure, call it, when there's a problem,
:04:57. > :05:00.Can I just point out, Julia works on a yoga ball.
:05:01. > :05:03.There are some people who would say this could be a big waste of money,
:05:04. > :05:07.what is the point of looking at the origins of the universe,
:05:08. > :05:10.when there are more important things in the world to spend the money on?
:05:11. > :05:24.It is a lot of money, but there's other things that I
:05:25. > :05:30.think are less useful and on which more money is spent.
:05:31. > :05:33.War is so much more, what we spend on one plane is comparable.
:05:34. > :05:36.What we're doing here is the advancement of the knowledge
:05:37. > :05:39.While we are building this we are learning more technology
:05:40. > :05:43.Really, really useful and easy to understand is accelerators for
:05:44. > :05:46.There's a whole world there, and it's the technology that is
:05:47. > :05:52.built for accelerators that is used to cure people.
:05:53. > :05:59.All these lights are just concerning regions
:06:00. > :06:02.of the machine that we either allow access or we don't.
:06:03. > :06:04.Each quarter of the control room runs a different
:06:05. > :06:07.And since the LHC was offline for maintenance,
:06:08. > :06:11.and things were suitably quiet, I was able to grab some time with
:06:12. > :06:13.Paul Collier, Director of Beams, which is officially
:06:14. > :06:17.This island is the one that looks after all
:06:18. > :06:20.So for example, the electrical distribution system, the cooling
:06:21. > :06:24.You must need a hell of a lot of electricity!
:06:25. > :06:30.When the whole complex is running flat-out, we're drawing
:06:31. > :06:42.Does anyone else notice when you go live?
:06:43. > :06:45.Do the surrounding towns - do the lights kind of flicker?
:06:46. > :06:47.No, because we're continually sucking and pushing energy backwards
:06:48. > :06:50.and forwards between us and the outside world.
:06:51. > :06:53.If we didn't have what we call compensators, then everybody's
:06:54. > :06:57.lights would follow the 1.2-second pulse
:06:58. > :07:00.of Cern in the Geneva area, and we would not be very popular.
:07:01. > :07:06.So instead, we have a mechanism which damps this out, which
:07:07. > :07:18.means that the outside world does not see this heartbeat of Cern.
:07:19. > :07:22.The work here at Cern is some of the most extreme research being done
:07:23. > :07:26.So far, we've seen the control room, and we've seen the
:07:27. > :07:34.Now, it is time to see the place where it all happens.
:07:35. > :07:36.One of four locations where those two high-energy proton
:07:37. > :08:16.Nothing compact about it, if you ask me!
:08:17. > :08:27.This is, um, a bit spiritual, really.
:08:28. > :08:32.15m across, this leviathan is a collection of detectors that all
:08:33. > :08:43.focus their attention on what is happening in the very centre.
:08:44. > :08:47.And only because it is down for maintenance, only because it is
:08:48. > :08:54.open, can we take you to its very heart.
:08:55. > :08:58.Right, we're now all going to see something
:08:59. > :09:01.that not many people will ever get to see in their life.
:09:02. > :09:06.So this is where the beam of protons comes - it shoots through here.
:09:07. > :09:10.It collides with another beam of protons that comes the other way.
:09:11. > :09:14.The dead centre of this thing is where the collision happens.
:09:15. > :09:19.The debris is flung out, and this massive detector sifts
:09:20. > :09:21.through that wreckage looking for evidence of new particles,
:09:22. > :09:32.Yeah, alright, compose yourself, Spenley!
:09:33. > :09:34.But it turns out that it is not just overwhelming
:09:35. > :09:38.Stephanie Beauceron, one of many scientists who churn through the
:09:39. > :09:42.data generated by the LHC, likes to come down here as often as possible.
:09:43. > :09:44.As a physicist, your everyday work is basically
:09:45. > :09:51.And sometimes, like everyone in the industry,
:09:52. > :09:59.you're frustrated by forgetting why you're doing this work.
:10:00. > :10:05.So coming here and having a view to the detector with also visitors, and
:10:06. > :10:08.showing them how great it is, just reminds me of really why I'm doing
:10:09. > :10:12.such, because this is amazing to see what we can build all together to
:10:13. > :10:14.make some research and discovery as we are expecting.
:10:15. > :10:19.Switch it off, take it apart, and move on?
:10:20. > :10:21.We still have plenty of things to detect!
:10:22. > :10:32.We have still a lot of unknown, like why do we have more matter
:10:33. > :10:36.We still don't understand what we call dark matter or dark energy
:10:37. > :10:40.Could be coming from new particles that we are
:10:41. > :10:46.Yep, the LHC certainly has its work cut out for it,
:10:47. > :10:58.The collisions may be tiny, but the impact they'll have
:10:59. > :11:02.on our understanding of the universe, and ultimately,
:11:03. > :11:05.mankind's path through it, will be massive.
:11:06. > :11:08.And I'm really sorry, but that is it from Click at Cern.
:11:09. > :11:22.I'm gonna stick a tonne of photos on Twitter, so @bbcclick is where you
:11:23. > :11:57.will find them, and you can check out our website for more throughout
:11:58. > :12:01.Hello, and welcome to Newswatch with me, Samira Ahmed.