1 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:11,520 Five days ago, hundreds of the world's brainiest people 2 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:14,480 descended on a hotel in Chicago. 3 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:21,000 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 4 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,240 They have come to hear news from particle physicists 5 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:25,720 working at CERN. 6 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:30,160 Last year, researchers there had started running 7 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:33,960 the Large Hadron Collider at the highest energy ever... 8 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:37,880 ..and a rumour quickly emerged. 9 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:41,840 They were on the brink of a huge discovery. 10 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:44,960 We started hearing these mysterious noises 11 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:47,800 about something going on at CERN. 12 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:50,800 This may be what I have been spending an entire lifetime 13 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:52,920 waiting for. 14 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:56,920 A strange bump on a graph suggested that they might have discovered 15 00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:58,960 a brand-new particle... 16 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:02,680 ..that could revolutionise physics... 17 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:06,840 Right here, right now at CERN, in 2016, 18 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:10,400 is THE most exciting time and place in the history of science. 19 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:15,200 If you want, really, to change the conditions of humanity, 20 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:17,480 then you need breakthroughs. 21 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:22,560 ..and could change our understanding of how everything works. 22 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:27,200 The discovery of a new particle may mean a complete rethinking 23 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:31,240 of the conceptual basis of the physics world. 24 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:33,520 For the last eight months, 25 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:37,720 it looked like the universe was about to be turned upside down... 26 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:44,240 ..and Horizon has been inside CERN following the story. 27 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:47,240 I doubt that it will be named after me, 28 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,760 but I can think of it like this, that it might be! 29 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:56,200 There was a short circuit on a circuit-breaker developed 30 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:59,520 which arced and damaged the nearby equipment. 31 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:02,840 Two teams of physicists... 32 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:06,600 ..one massive machine... 33 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:08,760 and a dream. 34 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:11,680 Was the bump was just a glitch in the data, 35 00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:15,320 or the biggest physics discovery in over a century? 36 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:17,360 A Nobel prize is possible. 37 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:48,640 Bonjour. Bienvenue a CERN. 38 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:56,960 This is the European Organization for Nuclear Research - CERN. 39 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:02,760 CERN is home to half of the world's particle physicists... 40 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:09,160 ..and the biggest particle-hunting machine that has ever been built. 41 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:14,200 The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC. 42 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,560 Inside this pipe, two beams of protons 43 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:22,360 are sent hurtling around a 27km loop 44 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:25,000 before being smashed together 45 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,680 to create subatomic particles. 46 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,800 In November 2015, researchers here got 47 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:37,480 a tantalising glimpse of what they thought might be 48 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:39,240 a brand-new particle. 49 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:43,880 A particle that could transform our understanding 50 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:46,280 of how the universe works. 51 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,080 Now they're trying to find it. 52 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:05,640 The Large Hadron Collider has been hunting for particles since 2009... 53 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:11,520 ..and it's the job of British physicist Mike Lamont 54 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:13,320 to keep it running. 55 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:19,840 Today, it's having one of its off days. 56 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:23,840 This is not a cock-up. 57 00:04:23,840 --> 00:04:25,560 We stop because, 58 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:26,880 as you can see, 59 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:29,400 there's a huge amount of stuff down here - 60 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,040 big systems, cooling, ventilation, 61 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:34,080 cryogenics, etc, 62 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:37,840 and this stuff needs a bit of periodic tender loving care. 63 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:43,240 With over 4,000 miles of cabling and 100,000 processor cores, 64 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:47,920 the LHC is one of the most complicated machines in the world. 65 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:50,600 She is not a simple beast to operate, 66 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:54,440 and a lot of time we spend wrestling it under control. 67 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:59,600 We need very powerful magnets to bend the beam around in a circle, 68 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:03,000 so basically, these are superconducting magnets, 69 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:06,400 they're cooled with superfluid helium at 1.9K. 70 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:09,280 The fact that this actually works at all 71 00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:13,560 is a real testament to an awful lot of hard work, modern technology, 72 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:19,400 planning, precision on a completely remarkable scale. 73 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:23,280 With the hunt on for a potential new particle, 74 00:05:23,280 --> 00:05:26,080 Mike and his team are trying to run the LHC 75 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:28,120 at its highest ever energy, 76 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,520 and it's making their job more challenging than usual. 77 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:35,240 We had a very interesting month, 78 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:38,040 with a number of fairly major technical problems, 79 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:39,720 including the famous weasel, 80 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:42,160 which took us out for about six days, 81 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:45,000 but from now on, after this maintenance period, 82 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,880 it's pedal to the metal for two or three months. 83 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:56,280 To try and find new particles, 84 00:05:56,280 --> 00:06:00,400 the LHC does something that was once completely out of our grasp. 85 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:08,440 It recreates the conditions that existed just after the Big Bang. 86 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:13,760 The Big Bang was an explosion that happened 87 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:17,280 at the beginning of the universe, when all matter was created. 88 00:06:17,280 --> 00:06:20,040 So, this is the year zero, and if we draw a line... 89 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,960 From this point, the universe expanded, 90 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:26,480 getting cooler, its energy dispersing. 91 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:29,960 ..to where we are in the universe now, where humans exist, 92 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,200 that's 14 billion years. 93 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:37,600 We know that when the universe was 9 billion years old, 94 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:39,440 the sun was formed, 95 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:42,240 and over 8 billion years before that, 96 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:44,920 the first stars were born, 97 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:49,360 but the LHC is able to look even further back in time 98 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:53,280 to when all that existed were the fundamental building blocks 99 00:06:53,280 --> 00:06:55,480 of the universe - particles. 100 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:58,360 So, in a way, the Large Hadron Collider 101 00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:00,360 is like a time machine, 102 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:02,800 trying to create the conditions that happened 103 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:06,240 just in the few millionths of a second after the Big Bang 104 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,880 to see what particles existed when the energy density 105 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:13,320 of the universe was really, really high. 106 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:15,800 To do this, the LHC makes use of 107 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:19,960 one the most famous scientific discoveries ever made. 108 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:26,160 What we're doing is using the very high energy of the protons 109 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:32,240 in the collision using Einstein's equation E = mc2... 110 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:38,760 ..which tells us that mass and energy are equivalent, 111 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:42,520 so we have protons and they're going round and round the LHC, 112 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:45,200 and we have one set of protons going round this way 113 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:46,880 and we have another set of protons 114 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:49,440 which are going around in the opposite direction, 115 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:52,200 getting faster and faster, closer to the speed of light, 116 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:54,160 and more and more energetic. 117 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:56,200 Then we get one proton beam 118 00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:58,400 and the other proton beam 119 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:00,600 going at the highest energies, 120 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:02,680 and then we smash them together. 121 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:07,360 At the moment of collision, 122 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:09,640 the energy is converted into mass 123 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:12,240 in the form of thousands of particles. 124 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:17,360 Although most will be ones we already know about, 125 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:21,600 the hope is that undiscovered particles might also be created 126 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:25,120 that could help explain some of the mysteries 127 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:27,680 of how the universe was formed. 128 00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:35,160 SHE BLOWS 129 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:39,520 But creating particles is just the beginning. 130 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:42,320 Detecting them requires 131 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:46,400 some of the most sophisticated machines in the world. 132 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,800 I come into the cavern hundreds of times in a year 133 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:51,120 and every time I walk in, 134 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,120 my jaw still drops a little bit when I see ATLAS. 135 00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:57,280 We built this thing. We REALLY built this thing. 136 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,120 Dave Charlton runs the snappily named 137 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:05,280 A Toroidal Large Hadron Collider Apparatus, known as ATLAS. 138 00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:09,240 It's the largest particle detector on the LHC circuit. 139 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:12,920 The collisions take place right in the centre of the experiment, 140 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:16,160 about 30 metres away from where we're standing. 141 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:19,280 ATLAS has seven different detecting systems 142 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:22,320 arranged in layers around the collision point. 143 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:25,320 They're poised to capture evidence of the particles 144 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:27,440 that have been produced. 145 00:09:28,680 --> 00:09:33,440 Dave hopes that ATLAS will lead the hunt for the potential new particle, 146 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:36,360 but he's not the only one 147 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:39,680 with a giant particle detector at his disposal. 148 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:46,680 There's another massive detector on the LHC circuit - 149 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:50,160 the Compact Muon Solenoid. 150 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:52,360 CMS. 151 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:57,880 It's run by Italian physicist Tiziano Camporesi. 152 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:05,720 The croissant has become something almost associated to me 153 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:09,480 because I've grown into the habit of bringing croissants every morning 154 00:10:09,480 --> 00:10:12,520 to the crew which is working at the experiment. 155 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:15,120 So now, if I show up without croissants, 156 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:16,960 they are disappointed. 157 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:20,640 No, actually, I like this... I like this habit. 158 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:23,280 You know, when you have a ritual, 159 00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:26,520 you don't want to change it because it will bring bad luck. 160 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:34,640 Tiziano's machine, CMS, is very similar to Dave's. 161 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:41,520 CMS is big. It's a 14,000-tonne object... 162 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:46,880 ..which basically is five storeys high 163 00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:49,760 and something like 26 metres long. 164 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:52,320 But ATLAS is slightly bigger. 165 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:54,400 Look at the size of it. As you can see, 166 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:55,880 it's really a huge experiment. 167 00:10:55,880 --> 00:10:58,440 25 metres high, 45 metres long. 168 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,600 These detectors are purposefully designed 169 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:04,920 to do the same thing in two different ways. 170 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:09,280 You could see it as an oversized camera, 171 00:11:09,280 --> 00:11:12,240 something like a 100-megapixel camera. 172 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:16,320 Nowadays, a digital camera might be 25 megapixels, 25 million channels, 173 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:19,720 but we're able to read out our 100 million channels 174 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:22,360 40 million times a second. 175 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:26,120 The idea is that new particles 176 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:29,120 will be seen by both detectors independently. 177 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:32,320 It can help ensure their findings are valid, 178 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:34,760 but that doesn't stop both teams 179 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:37,600 wanting to be first to make a discovery. 180 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:42,600 We understand that there is some healthy competition 181 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:45,920 between us and ATLAS, so we are convinced that CMS is better. 182 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,080 HE CHUCKLES 183 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,560 There IS a rivalry between the experiments. 184 00:11:50,560 --> 00:11:52,600 We don't want to lose. 185 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:03,640 If CMS and ATLAS detect a new particle, 186 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:08,880 it could be the most important physics discovery in over 100 years. 187 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:14,800 Ah, you've made it! Come on in. We can talk about some physics. 188 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:16,400 It's going to be fun. 189 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:21,680 By the beginning of the 20th century, 190 00:12:21,680 --> 00:12:25,000 particle physicists like Professor Jim Gates 191 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:29,240 had ascertained that milk, bowls, glasses - 192 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:31,720 in fact, everything we see around us - 193 00:12:31,720 --> 00:12:33,640 is made from atoms... 194 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:40,560 ..and that atoms themselves are made of even smaller subatomic particles. 195 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:52,280 From the 1950s, hundreds of particles were discovered... 196 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:57,040 There was this strange quark - 197 00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:59,840 and this was not the order in which they were discovered - 198 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:01,840 and then the top quark... 199 00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:05,360 and the most familiar particle of them all, the electron. 200 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:08,000 All of our electronics come from this. 201 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:09,800 And so we kept discovering particles - 202 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:14,760 neutrino, gluon... 203 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:18,440 But the influx of new particles did little to help explain 204 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:21,000 how the universe really behaved. 205 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:25,320 So, this is the state of knowledge about particles 206 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:27,280 in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. 207 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:30,480 It was a zoo of particles jumbled about - 208 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:32,840 confusion, no order. 209 00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:35,600 It was only by studying their characteristics 210 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:38,240 that physicists could begin to understand 211 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:40,560 how these particles worked together. 212 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:45,760 It turned out that the electron, in fact, has another particle 213 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:48,200 very similar to it called the muon. 214 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:53,320 This family of particles was called the leptons 215 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:56,760 and they were soon joined by another - the quarks. 216 00:13:56,760 --> 00:13:58,280 Quarks are really important, 217 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:02,400 because they are what you need to construct protons and neutrons. 218 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:04,600 And now, with protons, neutrons and the electron, 219 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:06,520 you can construct atoms. 220 00:14:06,520 --> 00:14:12,440 From atoms, you can construct cells, molecules, compounds 221 00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:14,360 and, ultimately, us - 222 00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:16,840 so these guys are really, really important. 223 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:21,520 This group are the known as the fermions - 224 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:23,440 they're particles that make matter - 225 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:28,040 but you can't build a universe with fermions alone. 226 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:32,520 They're held in patterns 227 00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:35,520 and interact through particles known as force carriers. 228 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:40,240 One of them is the photon, the particle of light. 229 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:43,120 It is the carrier of the electromagnetic force - 230 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:45,320 so, we're going to put that up here. 231 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:48,920 Then there are other forces in nature beside the electromagnetism - 232 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:50,520 there's a weak nuclear force. 233 00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:55,800 It has carriers - we call them the W and the Z particle. 234 00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:00,800 This family is completed by the gluons 235 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:03,680 that hold matter together inside an atom, 236 00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:09,440 and the Higgs, responsible for giving the other particles mass. 237 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:15,360 And now we have the modern Standard Model, 238 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:17,680 born around 1973, 239 00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:22,240 where the fermions are all sitting here divided into two families 240 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:23,720 of quarks and leptons, 241 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:26,320 and these guys are the force carriers. 242 00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:29,560 It is the best-tested, most tested piece of science 243 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:31,840 that has ever been constructed. 244 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:36,160 It literally explains tens of thousands of observational facts. 245 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:38,720 It is just an amazing triumph 246 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:42,160 that almost nobody has ever heard of, outside of physics. 247 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:46,880 The Standard Model has served as a map to our understanding 248 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:50,480 of the particles in the world around us for over 40 years... 249 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,720 ..but physicists have hoped, for almost as long, 250 00:15:55,720 --> 00:15:58,240 that it's not the end of the story - 251 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:01,880 that other particles will also exist 252 00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:03,720 that could help explain 253 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:06,840 some of the more troublesome mysteries of the universe. 254 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:11,840 The problem is finding them. 255 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:29,720 I'm not going to disturb these guys. 256 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:31,760 These guys are doing serious work! 257 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:34,160 Fixing the chair, yeah! Fixing the chair! 258 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:36,000 THEY LAUGH 259 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:38,440 At CERN, it takes hundreds of researchers 260 00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,920 writing millions of lines of computer code 261 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:45,120 to scour collisions for signs of new particles. 262 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:50,840 This thing is a raw image, 263 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,080 as they come in, basically unfiltered, 264 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:59,320 from the collisions which are happening 100 metres below ground, 265 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:01,280 under our feet. 266 00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:05,080 What makes the job even harder is that undiscovered particles 267 00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:08,080 will only exist at very high energies 268 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:09,920 like those inside the LHC - 269 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:14,160 and almost as soon as they're created, they decay 270 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:17,680 into the stable particles that we're familiar with. 271 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:19,840 So, I'd like to change this 60... 272 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:22,960 Let's say... Make it 1, or...? 273 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,200 So the teams aren't looking for the particles themselves, 274 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:29,480 but for the trails they leave behind. 275 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:31,280 This is detective work, 276 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:34,720 because, basically, you are seeing fragments of the disintegration, 277 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:38,520 you are trying to understand from the behaviour of the fragments 278 00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:41,160 how the particle was to start with. 279 00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:44,640 It's a task for some of the brightest minds in physics 280 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:46,280 working around the clock. 281 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:51,000 What we really like is a young brain, I have to tell you! 282 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:54,320 Because, I mean, these guys are amazing. 283 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:57,200 I lived through that, I know what it means - 284 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:00,760 once you become in my position, 285 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:03,600 the level of stress becomes a different one. 286 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:08,880 Towards the end of last year, 287 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:11,480 it looked like all the hard work would pay off. 288 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:24,080 28-year-old Dr Livia Soffi is an analyst for CMS. 289 00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:29,560 She was once a European artistic roller-skating champion. 290 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:36,640 I really like to relax, to stay a little bit under the sun 291 00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:39,160 without staying in the office. 292 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:43,000 I really like the lake, 293 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:45,160 because when I was younger, I used to go to the sea - 294 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:47,120 now we cannot go to the sea, 295 00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:49,840 but we have the lake, it is nice, as well. 296 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:51,520 Then we can take an ice cream - 297 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:53,920 there is an Italian ice cream place close to here, 298 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:55,360 so it's very nice. 299 00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:00,680 Last November, Livia found something unexpected in the data 300 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:02,840 coming from the CMS detector. 301 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:08,920 What she saw was a mysterious bump on a graph. 302 00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:15,400 So, basically, the idea is that if you do not have anything new, 303 00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:18,320 you will see the dashed line, 304 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:22,760 and if the solid line, here, the observation, 305 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:25,640 is inside these two bands, 306 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,080 this means that everything is quiet, 307 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:30,120 then the fluctuation is not interesting. 308 00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:34,560 When the fluctuation goes outside the bands, 309 00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:38,080 this means that your expectation and what you observe 310 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:41,000 are not so compatible. 311 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,080 It might not look like much, 312 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:44,920 but the bump indicates that, 313 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:49,000 at the energy of 750 giga-electronvolts, 314 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:54,040 the LHC is producing unexpected bursts of photons. 315 00:19:55,560 --> 00:19:57,640 We have two possibilities. 316 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:01,160 Either our detector is not working - but this is not the case, 317 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:04,280 because we know that it is well performing - 318 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:07,120 or we have observed something. 319 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,920 I have never seen something like this in my life. 320 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:15,440 This could be evidence of a brand-new particle. 321 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:21,120 A particle that disappears into a pair of photons 322 00:20:21,120 --> 00:20:23,080 almost as soon as it's created. 323 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:32,240 And what made the bump even more exciting 324 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:34,640 was that it wasn't just seen in CMS. 325 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:42,200 James Beacham is an analyst at the other detector, ATLAS. 326 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:48,160 To my mind, right here, right now at CERN, in 2016, 327 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,960 is THE most important time and place in the history of science, 328 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,600 because we have just pushed forward, as a species, 329 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:57,600 into an energy regime where we have never been. 330 00:20:57,600 --> 00:20:59,040 No-one's ever looked here. 331 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,280 APPLAUSE 332 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:04,880 On the 15th of December, both ATLAS and CMS 333 00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:06,560 presented their findings. 334 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:13,680 We, of course, observed a little bump at 750 GeV... 335 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:16,920 It was in this seminar that the science community learnt 336 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:19,360 that the mysterious bump was being seen 337 00:21:19,360 --> 00:21:22,640 by both the CMS and ATLAS detectors. 338 00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:26,640 It was an extremely exciting seminar that we had here at CERN, 339 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:28,320 and, to me, watching, you know, 340 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:30,360 and then, suddenly, he shows this little thing, 341 00:21:30,360 --> 00:21:32,080 and I'm like, "This is very intriguing." 342 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:34,400 The implications of such a little bump, 343 00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:38,800 if it turns into, potentially, a new particle, are super-huge. 344 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:41,480 This is completely uncharted territory. 345 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:46,320 The excitement quickly spread out into the physics world. 346 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:49,920 Within weeks, 300 papers had been written by theorists 347 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:54,680 trying to determine what this potential particle might be. 348 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:56,960 When the result was announced, 349 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:01,480 the whole theory group was just crazy - 350 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:03,000 crazy with discussion, 351 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:05,120 crazy to understand what it was... 352 00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:07,320 Er... That's it! 353 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:11,240 This was the moment, it seemed. 354 00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:14,000 We started hearing these mysterious noises 355 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,680 about something going on at CERN, 356 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:21,520 and it had a very prosaic name - the 750 GeV bump. 357 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:23,160 It sounds like a dance, to me. 358 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:26,440 I thought it was a joke - but then I began to look more carefully, 359 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:29,880 thinking that, "Oh, my goodness, this may be 360 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:33,880 "what I have been spending an entire lifetime waiting for." 361 00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:41,640 By the beginning of this year, 362 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:46,040 the race was on for ATLAS and CMS to gather more collision data 363 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,360 to see if the mysterious bump would reappear, 364 00:22:49,360 --> 00:22:52,320 or if it was simply a statistical fluctuation. 365 00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:55,040 The fact that the two experiments 366 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,520 seem to see a hint of something in the same place is fascinating, 367 00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,240 but the statistics are too low with the current data sample 368 00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:02,760 to get too excited. 369 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,160 It's more potential excitement, at this stage, 370 00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:07,080 for the experimentalists 371 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,880 rather than cast-iron established excitement. 372 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:14,440 For the bump to be confirmed as a new particle, 373 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:16,760 the two teams work independently, 374 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:18,680 both trying to collect enough data 375 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:22,640 to reach a level of statistical certainty known as 5-sigma. 376 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:27,320 I mean, to give you a feel for the scale of the statistics 377 00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:28,720 for the Higgs discovery, 378 00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:31,200 we had a few tens of events 379 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,360 that were identified as being signal-like Higgs events, 380 00:23:34,360 --> 00:23:39,120 but we had looked in a million billion events. 381 00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:41,840 So, that's the complexity of the science that we do. 382 00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:43,360 It's really... 383 00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:45,440 I mean, people talk about a needle in a haystack, 384 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:47,840 but it's a needle in a haystack of haystacks of haystacks! 385 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:49,680 A grain of sand in an ocean. 386 00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,360 It's a huge task, 387 00:23:53,360 --> 00:23:55,560 but with the physics world desperate for news, 388 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:57,000 the teams have just three months 389 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,640 to announce if they really have found a brand-new particle. 390 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:06,320 The big thing is our conference in Chicago. 391 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:10,360 The first week of August. By that time, we should have... 392 00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:16,640 ..I think at least doubled the data which we took last year. 393 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:17,920 As you know... 394 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,560 MUSIC: A Kind of Magic by Queen plays in background 395 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,880 This is specific to our experiment. 396 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:31,040 You have to realise that the guy who designed our architecture here 397 00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:35,280 for taking data, he is a Queen fan, 398 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,560 so all of the change of states of the machines, 399 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:41,440 or of the experiments, are basically announced 400 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,040 by a snippet of a Queen song. 401 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:49,840 Everybody has become aware of the meaning and of the Queen songs! 402 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,280 "It's a kind of magic" means that you have managed to start the run. 403 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:06,920 The last time particle physicists were this excited, prizes were won. 404 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:16,240 This is the Nobel medal which I received in 2013. 405 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:22,240 I think it had something to do with some work I did in... 406 00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:24,920 When was it? 1964. 407 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:30,280 Make way, please. 408 00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:34,560 On the 4th of July, 2012, 409 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,520 Peter Higgs arrived at CERN for an announcement. 410 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,640 On the day itself, I found myself 411 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,920 being besieged by crowds of physicists 412 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:49,120 who had more or less camped out overnight 413 00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:51,680 in the hope of getting into the lecture theatre, 414 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:55,800 which was really already fully booked. 415 00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:59,200 So good morning... 416 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,720 Fabiola Gianotti, who is now Director-General of CERN, 417 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,040 was part of a team from ATLAS. 418 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,600 The atmosphere was absolutely amazing, 419 00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:11,480 it was a big, big emotion. 420 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,920 So you can see here some beautiful events, 421 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,120 selected by our pic search. 422 00:26:17,120 --> 00:26:20,080 We were working days and nights, 423 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,440 nourished and pushed only by adrenaline, 424 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:27,080 because we didn't have the time to sleep, to eat - it was fantastic. 425 00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:29,560 So this channel has a tiny rate... 426 00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:34,000 At this conference, CMS and ATLAS confirmed that they had found 427 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:39,960 a particle predicted by Peter nearly half a century earlier. 428 00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:46,200 ..extremely clean, except one big spike here, in this hadron here. 429 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:50,320 An excess, with a local significance of 5.0 sigma, 430 00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:53,880 at a mass of 126.5 GeV - thank you. 431 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:05,320 It was 48 years from the time that the theory was formulated 432 00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,960 as something which might be useful in particle physics, 433 00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,160 to the discovery of the particle. 434 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:12,600 So it was a long wait. 435 00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:18,000 I think we have it. Do you agree? 436 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,760 LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE 437 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:24,840 Everybody cheered and got up, it was rather like the end of 438 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:28,000 a football match, rather than a scientific seminar. 439 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:38,160 Then I went into hiding again and had some lunch and escaped. 440 00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:41,200 Fly home before anybody else tried to capture me. 441 00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:46,480 The Higgs boson was the final piece needed 442 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:49,240 to complete the maths of the Standard Model. 443 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:57,080 But an unpredicted new particle, like the 750 GeV bump, 444 00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:58,920 could be even more significant. 445 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:05,800 If the bump which has been seen recently is genuine, 446 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,640 that is opening up a new era. 447 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:10,240 So it's very exciting. 448 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:17,840 The hope was that if it really is a new particle, 449 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:22,960 the bump could help physicists answer some of life's big questions. 450 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,200 Like, "How stable is our universe? 451 00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:30,960 "Does it have hidden extra dimensions?" 452 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:37,880 And an old bugbear - "What is the universe actually made of?" 453 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:46,640 In the 1930s, evidence emerged that the luminous matter, 454 00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:51,560 the matter which forms the stars, it cannot be sufficient 455 00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:55,800 to justify the dynamics of what we observe in the sky. 456 00:28:55,800 --> 00:29:00,040 There should be something else that gives a gravitational pull. 457 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:05,600 Physicists faced the rather disturbing realisation that 458 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:09,160 they don't really know what makes up most of the universe. 459 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:16,360 So 95% of what is around in our universe 460 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:20,360 is not the ordinary matter that we are used with, 461 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:22,800 and that the Standard Model explains. 462 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:27,360 This is very frustrating for particle physicists, 463 00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:30,440 but particle physicists always look on the bright side, 464 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:32,760 and they see that there is an opportunity. 465 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:41,440 This unidentified stuff has been called "dark matter" 466 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:43,760 and "dark energy". 467 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,400 And the bump could bring us a step closer 468 00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:48,320 to finding out what it actually is. 469 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:59,120 The 750 GeV particle cannot be the dark matter, 470 00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:03,040 because we know that it decays very quickly into two photons, 471 00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,720 meaning that if it were around in the cosmos, it would have 472 00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:09,960 disappeared very quickly, so we know that it cannot be. 473 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:14,240 However, there has been speculations that the 750 474 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:17,560 must be part of a bigger family. 475 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:19,040 Inside this family, 476 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:21,040 there could be one particle 477 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,800 that plays the role of the dark matter. 478 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:27,400 So, even if the 750 is not dark matter, 479 00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:30,120 it could be related to the particle giving rise to the dark matter. 480 00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:32,280 This may have a lot of implications 481 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:35,760 in understanding the structure of the universe, 482 00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:39,200 understanding how this dark matter was formed 483 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:42,400 and understanding its role in the universe. 484 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:48,760 A new particle could well have a profound effect. 485 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,720 But first, they had to find it. 486 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:02,840 It's the middle of May at CERN. 487 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,560 And with just over two months until the important summer conference, 488 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,320 the mission to gather data continues. 489 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:14,800 So we are just getting ready to go to work. 490 00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:16,320 My boyfriend is hiding. 491 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:18,600 SHE LAUGHS 492 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:20,160 You can come out. 493 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:22,720 If he wants to. 494 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:30,120 The LHC has been providing an unprecedented amount of collisions 495 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,320 for the teams on the detectors. 496 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:37,040 We had the longest fill in the history of the LHC. 497 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,320 And this happened over the weekend, so basically, 498 00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:44,680 starting from Friday and then continuing through Saturday. 499 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,280 Dr Magda Chelstowska is part of the ATLAS team, 500 00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:52,840 and it's her job to clean up and format the data as it's collected. 501 00:31:55,400 --> 00:32:00,880 I think of myself as a person who gives birth to the data. 502 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:04,720 So I feel that it is my child, it is my kid. 503 00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:09,400 Because I prepare the data and I polish it and massage it 504 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:14,480 and make it into something which then can go out and be on its own. 505 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,720 The race is on to see which team will be first to gather 506 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:21,360 enough data to find out if the bump is back. 507 00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:24,960 When we know that we are very close to making 508 00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:28,680 a major breakthrough in physics, 509 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:32,120 we of course want to do it as soon as possible, 510 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:37,160 because we don't want the experiment on the other side to beat us to it. 511 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:44,120 ATLAS and CMS are working blind, accumulating and processing the data 512 00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:47,360 without actually being able to see what it's showing. 513 00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:52,800 It means the two teams can't influence either their own 514 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:54,960 or the other's results. 515 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:56,520 THEY CHUCKLE 516 00:32:56,520 --> 00:33:00,360 And with a discovery of this potential significance, for ATLAS, 517 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:05,160 it is up to Dr Marco Delmastro to make sure nothing is left to chance. 518 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:09,640 It's always difficult to see whether this excess is a new particle 519 00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,800 or not, because nature is behaving in a sort of stochastical way. 520 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,440 We will be spending days and nights, basically, 521 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:21,080 going through all the stuff, 522 00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:24,760 from the current that we measure inside the detector 523 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:28,320 to the piece of software that transforms current to energy, 524 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:31,040 and then tell us where the things are in the detector 525 00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:33,440 and how they are constructed, to the very end. 526 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,600 In the back of my head, there is always a small devil 527 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:39,760 sitting on my shoulder, saying, 528 00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:42,400 "Are you sure you checked everything? 529 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,920 "Are you sure that there is nothing wrong in what you're doing?" 530 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:51,120 That is my worry, and still is my worry, so yeah, 531 00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:53,440 I think it is going to stay there for a while. 532 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,200 As the teams crunch the data, 533 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:09,560 speculation about what the new particle might be is rife. 534 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:16,320 Jim Gates hopes it could prove a theory known as supersymmetry. 535 00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:23,840 He has been studying this idea for nearly 40 years. 536 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:27,120 For a long time, the idea of supersymmetry was pooh-poohed. 537 00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,560 In fact, I remember all throughout graduate school, 538 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,400 I had colleagues working on other things that were considered 539 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:35,080 "good physics", and there I was in the corner, 540 00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:38,880 the only student in my team working on this supersymmetrical stuff. 541 00:34:40,720 --> 00:34:44,800 The idea of supersymmetry was born when physicists started 542 00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:50,440 questioning why the Standard Model wasn't mathematically more balanced. 543 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:54,160 So here is the triumph of the study of the standard models. 544 00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:57,320 And many of us who were studying physics then looked at this, 545 00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:01,960 and we noticed that there is a lack of balance here, a lack of symmetry. 546 00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:04,880 To make this obvious, let me put some lines on the table. 547 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:10,560 And you can see that there are 548 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:13,480 two quadrants here that are empty. 549 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:18,360 Physicists are very sensitive to the lack of symmetry or balance. 550 00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:20,520 And we can ask the question, 551 00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:23,160 "What would the world look like if it were balanced?" 552 00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:25,600 And we ask the question with mathematics. 553 00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:29,880 Supersymmetrists found that the Standard Model 554 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,920 could be given balance if a mirror image 555 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:36,520 of each of the particles also existed. 556 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:41,760 They were called "superpartners" or "sparticles". 557 00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:46,960 So if the universe is supersymmetric, 558 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,360 there must be another particle 559 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:52,200 on this side that we call the selectron. 560 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:55,200 And also, that has to occur for its neutrino, 561 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:57,360 which we would call a sneutrino. 562 00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,200 For the muon, there's another particle called the smuon. 563 00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:07,480 We physicists, when we make great triumphs, are so happy 564 00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:11,800 that we get giddy, so we name things in a silly manner. 565 00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:14,840 The idea is deceptively simple. 566 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:16,640 Each ordinary matter particle 567 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:20,880 has an undiscovered supersymmetric force partner. 568 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:23,120 And each force particle, 569 00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:26,800 an undiscovered supersymmetric matter partner. 570 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:32,240 Once we've made this change we are looking at 571 00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:35,480 not the Standard Model but a supersymmetric extension 572 00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:39,640 of the Standard Model, where we get a balance on both sides - 573 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:41,960 there's a balance of the superpartners 574 00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:43,520 to the ordinary matter... 575 00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:46,280 There's a balance for the super force carriers 576 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:48,720 to the ordinary force carriers. 577 00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:51,040 And this is what we've been wondering about for 578 00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:52,960 over 30 years - 579 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,360 is it just mass or is it the universe we look at? 580 00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:01,800 Devotees of supersymmetry believe that their theory solves 581 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:05,120 one of the most worrying mysteries of our universe. 582 00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:12,560 At the smallest scales, the universe is in a constant state of flux... 583 00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:16,640 seething with particles popping in and out of existence. 584 00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:21,520 The best way to understand it is to try to understand 585 00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:24,800 something about what's going on inside of a teapot. 586 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:27,680 We can see the water is boiling, there's bubbles coming out, 587 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:30,440 some are big, they explode, they disappear. 588 00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:33,160 So if you imagine that this surface is the universe, 589 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:36,120 the bubbles popping in and out are actually virtual particles, 590 00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:38,280 they're virtual electrons and photons - 591 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,280 all the particles that make up our universe, 592 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,720 they pop into existence and then they disappear. 593 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,880 This state of chaos is known as the quantum vacuum. 594 00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:56,520 And Jim thinks that without supersymmetry, 595 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:58,720 it might make the universe unstable. 596 00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:05,240 I'm going to use a set of quarters to represent our universe. 597 00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:09,960 And...with a little bit of work I can get it to balance. 598 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:13,400 With the particles of the Standard Model, there's actually 599 00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:16,200 a preponderance of one type of particle over the other. 600 00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:18,680 And now let's follow what happens 601 00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,520 if you let this preponderance work for a while. 602 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:25,360 It's as if you are pressing on the stack of coins, 603 00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:26,840 but because of the preponderance 604 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,240 you are always pressing in one direction. 605 00:38:29,240 --> 00:38:31,920 And what you find is that we are very close to being 606 00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:34,720 in a situation where the universe might collapse. 607 00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:40,280 Now, supersymmetry can help solve this problem. 608 00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:47,280 So, if you have particles - all the ones we know about, 609 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:50,920 as well as the sparticles - they press, but they press 610 00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:53,200 in opposite directions. 611 00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:56,640 And our universe is a much more stable place. 612 00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:59,680 And I know I would sleep much more quietly at night 613 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:01,720 knowing I live in a stable universe. 614 00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:09,400 The problem is that in 30 years of research... 615 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:11,480 no sparticle has ever been found. 616 00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:15,320 But is that finally about to change? 617 00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:21,760 The 750 GeV bump might actually be one of these particles 618 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:25,120 that we've predicted by the mathematics of supersymmetry. 619 00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:28,880 And if that's the case, it becomes the herald for supersymmetry. 620 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:33,280 For me it will mean several things. Emotionally it will be a great high. 621 00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:36,400 I have been a supporter of the idea of supersymmetry 622 00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:40,600 since I was 25 years old, first learning theoretical physics. 623 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:46,560 The dream was to find a magical piece of mathematics. 624 00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:50,880 Simultaneously, an accurate description of something in nature. 625 00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:53,000 It will be a source of intense joy. 626 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:17,200 With the hopes of theoretical physicists around the world 627 00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:22,840 at stake, the pressure is on the LHC to keep providing collisions. 628 00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:27,040 But running this machine at such high energy... 629 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:31,160 ..is putting a huge strain on all its systems. 630 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:36,440 When it's running well, it runs well, 631 00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:40,320 but there are a lot of things that can go wrong and do go wrong. 632 00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:42,080 So it can get quite stressful. 633 00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:48,160 Today, one of the accelerators that provides the LHC with protons, 634 00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:51,800 the Proton Synchrotron - or PS - 635 00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:53,440 has broken down. 636 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:56,320 This is one of the veritable workhorses of CERN, 637 00:40:56,320 --> 00:41:00,880 and really is like the beating heart of the complex, 638 00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:02,760 and at the moment the line is flat. 639 00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:08,640 So we are in some of the oldest parts of CERN here. 640 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:10,720 The PS has been with us since 1959, 641 00:41:10,720 --> 00:41:14,320 so there's some really old kit around here. 642 00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:22,720 And...this beast here is what we call the rotating machine, 643 00:41:22,720 --> 00:41:26,360 if you like, it's a kind of temporary energy storage system 644 00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:30,680 which we use to power and de-power the PS machine, 645 00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:33,480 the main bending magnets of the PS. 646 00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:37,760 It was retired a few years ago, it was pressed back into service 647 00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:41,280 because we've had a problem with the new version. 648 00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:44,480 Unfortunately, last week a problem developed on this - 649 00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:48,200 there was a short-circuit on a circuit breaker 650 00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:52,720 developed downstairs, which arced and damaged the circuit breaker 651 00:41:52,720 --> 00:41:54,760 and some nearby equipment. 652 00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:01,600 Thanks to the failure of this near-50-year-old power supply, 653 00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:06,680 the world's most expensive science experiment is just an empty pipe. 654 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,680 There's a huge experimental community on the LHC out there 655 00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:15,560 really looking forward to getting as much data as they can this year. 656 00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:18,320 And of course, there's a lot of pressure to get the complex 657 00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:19,960 back up and running properly. 658 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,440 I still can't believe it says 1967 on there, actually. 659 00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:31,680 If the LHC isn't running again soon, the worry for the experimentalists 660 00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:34,560 is that they won't be ready for the August conference. 661 00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:37,920 Another day that it's not coming in, 662 00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:41,120 it's a bit frustrating. I like to wake up in the morning 663 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:42,920 to see how much data we took... 664 00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:49,080 ..overnight. But lately I haven't had any good mornings! 665 00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:56,760 In the very beginning, there was a loss of 1.7 inverse picobarns 666 00:42:56,760 --> 00:43:00,320 because of a problem. And then at the end of the run... 667 00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:03,680 But the teams are determined to find a way around the problem. 668 00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:11,240 So, we are considering suppressing our technical stops. 669 00:43:11,240 --> 00:43:17,920 Which basically will put us on track for our goals of achieving 670 00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:21,760 basically something like three times the statistics 671 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,960 which we have accumulated last year... 672 00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:28,640 in time for the summer conference in Chicago. 673 00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,680 At the University of Maryland near Washington, DC, 674 00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:48,040 Professor Raman Sundrum has great expectations 675 00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:49,760 about what the bump might be. 676 00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:53,440 His hope is that it could be 677 00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:57,240 a hypothetical particle that has near mythical status. 678 00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:04,400 A force carrier particle of gravity - 679 00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:06,880 known as an extra-dimensional graviton. 680 00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:12,960 The discovery of a graviton could help solve a puzzle 681 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:17,120 that has baffled physicists for a long, long time. 682 00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:19,920 Gravity seems strong, it seems like it's the first force that, 683 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:22,520 you know, cavemen would have known about, right? 684 00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:25,080 It's the thing that dominates most of our lives, 685 00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:26,760 just being pulled down to the Earth. 686 00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:28,800 But we can sort of see why physicists 687 00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:31,720 think that gravity is in fact the weakest force. 688 00:44:31,720 --> 00:44:34,440 And a quick way to demonstrate that is to just take a simple object, 689 00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:36,440 like a paperclip. 690 00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:37,640 Watch gravity act on it. 691 00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:42,880 But we can act on this paperclip with this magnet, 692 00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:46,640 which seems much smaller, and perhaps much weaker than the Earth. 693 00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:52,520 The entire gravitational pull of the planet can be easily overcome... 694 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:56,160 ..with just a small magnet. 695 00:44:58,240 --> 00:45:02,360 If you work this out you actually find that electromagnetism is 696 00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:06,560 by far and away stronger than the force of gravity. 697 00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:11,280 It's basically one followed by about 30 zeros times stronger than 698 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:13,880 the force of gravity. 699 00:45:13,880 --> 00:45:16,040 That's how weak gravity is to a physicist. 700 00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:20,320 Raman believes there is one mind-blowing way 701 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:23,040 to explain this puzzle - 702 00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:28,480 the existence of a tiny, invisible extra dimension in our universe. 703 00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:33,600 We're used to living in three dimensions of space - 704 00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:37,200 we can travel forwards and backwards, left and right, 705 00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:39,400 and up and down. 706 00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:42,280 If you just look at the vast expanse of the grass, 707 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:43,920 it looks fairly flat, 708 00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:47,560 and so you'd say, effectively, for my purposes, it's two-dimensional. 709 00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:52,640 But if you're small, you can go places humans can't. 710 00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:57,320 And the grass looks rather different. 711 00:45:58,520 --> 00:46:00,400 From the bug's point of view, the grass 712 00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:04,120 does not look that two-dimensional. Doesn't look that flat. 713 00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:06,840 If it really gets in there, it can go up and down these clovers, 714 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:09,000 or up and down a blade of grass, 715 00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:11,400 so it's really in there with the third dimension, 716 00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:13,400 the vertical dimension. 717 00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:17,040 The grass looks 2D to humans because we're so big, 718 00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:20,920 and perhaps the same applies to our apparently 3D universe. 719 00:46:22,480 --> 00:46:26,200 It might be that for human-size creatures like us, 720 00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:29,640 we live in something that looks effectively three-dimensional. 721 00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:31,640 And yet, there's another dimension - 722 00:46:31,640 --> 00:46:35,320 a very small dimension that's sort of hidden to the naked eye. 723 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,480 But if you are a microscopic, subatomic particle, 724 00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:40,640 you might be a little bit like that bug. 725 00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:45,680 If an invisible extra dimension exists, it could mean 726 00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:48,920 that gravity appears weak because we're only seeing 727 00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:53,560 part of its strength. The rest is hidden - in the extra dimension. 728 00:46:55,880 --> 00:46:59,680 And the discovery of a graviton in the LHC 729 00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:02,280 could help prove this extraordinary theory. 730 00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:09,440 That's part of what the LHC is doing when it collides protons. 731 00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:14,040 The collision is incredibly energetic and that energy provides 732 00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:19,600 the kind of quantum mechanical magnifying glass for these particles 733 00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:23,720 to look inside the extra dimension and report back in an indirect way. 734 00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:29,720 If it is a graviton, then that has very great significance. 735 00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:42,600 It's the middle of June at CERN. 736 00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:46,800 For the last four weeks, the LHC has been running so well 737 00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:50,640 that the team from ATLAS have finally gathered enough data 738 00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:52,480 to see if the bump is back. 739 00:47:55,960 --> 00:47:59,040 The machine has been working over the clock and produced 740 00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:03,720 a lot of collisions and now we have almost as much data as we got 741 00:48:03,720 --> 00:48:09,600 in 2015, so it's kind of exciting times because the day has arrived 742 00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:14,640 to look at this data and to see if there's something there or not. 743 00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:17,000 I am VERY optimistic! 744 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:20,480 Well, last time, I was actually quite pessimistic 745 00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:25,400 cos I didn't think that we would get enough data at this point, 746 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:29,840 so now my optimism is going up and up with each day! 747 00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:32,920 My gut feeling - I... 748 00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:38,200 Oh, I'm really oscillating, I would say, and, erm... 749 00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:42,960 Yeah, I still hope there is something there. 750 00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:50,560 The results will be revealed in an ATLAS team meeting. 751 00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:54,640 You have to stay outside. 752 00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:07,760 The secrecy is because ATLAS have beaten CMS to it 753 00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:11,120 and they don't want them to know their conclusions. 754 00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:22,080 An hour later, Marco and the team are out. The results are clear. 755 00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:28,800 750 is here, so you will expect to see a bump somewhere here. 756 00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:30,840 The data is the data, so unless we made 757 00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:34,480 a very bad mistake in processing the data, 758 00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:38,520 you can see by eye that there is no evident excess there. 759 00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:41,560 It's very flat. There is no bump there. 760 00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:47,680 Data that we have looked at from this year, 761 00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:51,160 we haven't seen anything yet, which is a bit disappointing, 762 00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:57,040 to be honest, but that's actually how most of our searches turn out. 763 00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:59,720 We don't allow ourselves to hope, but, of course, 764 00:49:59,720 --> 00:50:02,280 we are humans and we were probably 765 00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:07,160 unconsciously hoping for something more and we're not seeing it. 766 00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:09,960 It might simply mean there was a fluctuation 767 00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:12,480 of the background noise in 2015 that has gone away, 768 00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:15,840 so it's a bit disappointing, honestly, 769 00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:18,760 and, of course, we are not in the position 770 00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:21,400 to draw a definitive conclusion, 771 00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:24,640 but, yeah, it could have been a more exciting day. 772 00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:27,920 The only hope for the bump 773 00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:31,400 is that it's been found by the other team, CMS. 774 00:50:34,240 --> 00:50:39,280 They don't know about the ATLAS results and, three days later, 775 00:50:39,280 --> 00:50:41,560 they're ready to look at their data. 776 00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:46,360 I am very excited. 777 00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:48,560 At least in my life, working life, 778 00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:51,240 it's the most exciting moment. 779 00:50:56,640 --> 00:51:00,760 So now we're going to open the reports. 780 00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:04,640 And there's nothing. 781 00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:08,080 So, no bump. 782 00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:11,360 Nothing is there. 783 00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:15,400 We just see something that is compatible with the expectations. 784 00:51:16,560 --> 00:51:19,880 There was just... There have been many times in the past. 785 00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:21,560 It will happen in the future. 786 00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:25,400 Too bad. Of course, you are hopeful that somebody finds something 787 00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:27,840 cos that's basically why we do the job, 788 00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:31,520 but it basically tells everybody now that we don't need to be excited 789 00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:35,760 because the fluctuation we saw for the moment is gone 790 00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:40,600 and now we have to wait for the rest of the data. 791 00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:46,760 So, I'm looking at it and, er... 792 00:51:49,080 --> 00:51:50,920 And... 793 00:51:50,920 --> 00:51:53,400 there is nothing. 794 00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:01,080 The results are shared with the rest of the team at the weekly meeting. 795 00:52:04,320 --> 00:52:05,400 Can you hear me? 796 00:52:07,040 --> 00:52:14,440 The 750 bump now doesn't look very healthy, put it like this. 797 00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:21,040 So, I'm going to report on the status of the analysis. 798 00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:29,760 I would give it 95% probability that it was fluctuation 799 00:52:29,760 --> 00:52:34,880 and in fact we always said that and we tried to keep very cool about it. 800 00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:39,720 Obviously, I would have preferred that nature had surprised us 801 00:52:39,720 --> 00:52:43,480 because it was a real surprise, this 750 thing. 802 00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:47,120 On the other hand, if this thing had been real, it would have really 803 00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:53,160 meant a complete change of the way we interpret nature, 804 00:52:53,160 --> 00:52:56,200 so it has always been in the back of my mind 805 00:52:56,200 --> 00:53:00,440 that this thing could be a fluctuation. 806 00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:03,440 We got permission to look at data over the weekend 807 00:53:03,440 --> 00:53:05,160 and now if we look at data, 808 00:53:05,160 --> 00:53:10,800 what we can see is the observed 750 is not confirmed. 809 00:53:10,800 --> 00:53:14,280 But in the next months, we'll get four times more statistics 810 00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:19,160 so by that time, one will be able to tell for sure. 811 00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:49,760 It's the 5th of August. 812 00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:53,640 Tiziano and Dave are in Chicago for the conference. 813 00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:05,360 The time has come for them to share the results of their hunt 814 00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:09,920 for the 750 GEV bump with the rest of the physics world. 815 00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:18,240 It's a great pleasure to be here today to talk about the first half 816 00:54:18,240 --> 00:54:21,840 of the highlights from the LHC and the way we've organised this... 817 00:54:21,840 --> 00:54:25,080 Further data has confirmed what the teams feared. 818 00:54:25,080 --> 00:54:26,760 But then, as you will have heard, 819 00:54:26,760 --> 00:54:28,800 we were looking at the 2016 data 820 00:54:28,800 --> 00:54:31,040 and I'm afraid to say in the 2016 data, 821 00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:35,720 there is no clustering around the 730-750 GEV region 822 00:54:35,720 --> 00:54:38,560 and so there's about four times more data and so, from this, 823 00:54:38,560 --> 00:54:41,080 we have to conclude that the 2015 excess 824 00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:43,840 was most likely a statistical fluctuation. 825 00:54:43,840 --> 00:54:47,680 The dream of the 750 GEV bump is over. 826 00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:51,160 It would have been a revolution. 827 00:54:51,160 --> 00:54:55,080 Yep, we would have broken the Standard Model of particle physics. 828 00:54:55,080 --> 00:54:59,240 It would have sent a lot of theories back to the drawing board. 829 00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:04,480 The bump was just a fluctuation in the data. 830 00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:09,840 That it was seen by both detectors was a highly unlikely coincidence. 831 00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:14,440 The bump was a cruel statistical fluke. 832 00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:19,800 It's simply the kind of thing which can happen because basically 833 00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:22,440 when we're dealing with statistics, it's like, 834 00:55:22,440 --> 00:55:25,880 you know, flipping a coin five to ten times, 835 00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:27,280 you can always get heads. 836 00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:31,160 And the disappointing news 837 00:55:31,160 --> 00:55:34,360 quickly reaches the rest of the physics world. 838 00:55:36,040 --> 00:55:39,920 We'd have vastly preferred that it WAS there because it would have 839 00:55:39,920 --> 00:55:44,160 definitely heralded a much richer particle physics 840 00:55:44,160 --> 00:55:47,120 that would play out, guaranteed, in the next few years. 841 00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:51,400 Scientists are human and so we have feelings just like everyone else. 842 00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:53,960 I guess, in my case, I would say disappointment 843 00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:58,240 but not discouragement, and so we have to look a little bit harder. 844 00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:05,080 The 750 GEV bump didn't live up to anyone's hopes. 845 00:56:07,520 --> 00:56:10,440 But the quest to understand the mysteries 846 00:56:10,440 --> 00:56:12,960 of the particle world are far from over. 847 00:56:17,680 --> 00:56:20,960 Back at CERN, the hunt for particles goes on 848 00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:23,840 and they're certainly not giving up. 849 00:56:26,400 --> 00:56:29,280 We are clever beings. 850 00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:34,160 Human beings are clever beings, so our intrinsic wish 851 00:56:34,160 --> 00:56:35,960 and our intrinsic duty and right 852 00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:40,240 is really to be intelligent, clever beings. 853 00:56:40,240 --> 00:56:45,960 Today, the LHC is operating at the highest capacity it's ever achieved. 854 00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:52,000 The machine is performing exceptionally well at the moment. 855 00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:54,440 We really are somewhere where we didn't expect to be. 856 00:56:54,440 --> 00:56:57,960 Things aren't breaking down very often and we're sitting there 857 00:56:57,960 --> 00:57:02,760 for 24 hours at a time with stable beams continually producing 858 00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:06,240 these high rates of collisions to the experiments 859 00:57:06,240 --> 00:57:08,080 and nothing's going wrong. 860 00:57:08,080 --> 00:57:12,040 These bottles have come from ATLAS and CMS. We had a small celebration. 861 00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:14,960 We actually reached design luminosity a couple of weeks ago. 862 00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:18,640 This was actually a quite profound achievement for the LHC. 863 00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:21,880 The Large Hadron Collider is the most ambitious 864 00:57:21,880 --> 00:57:24,840 scientific experiment ever undertaken. 865 00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:27,640 For now, it's holding on to its secrets, 866 00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:30,000 but the teams working there 867 00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:34,200 still hope that they will be the ones to unlock them. 868 00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:37,840 One day. Oh, there's a huge amount more in the LHC. 869 00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:41,400 We've barely started the journey at this point, clearly. 870 00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:44,040 We have another 20 years of data-taking 871 00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:46,600 and we will have huge, huge data samples 872 00:57:46,600 --> 00:57:50,480 and lots of sensitivity to new particles if they're there. 873 00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:52,560 I'm excited about the future. 874 00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:56,000 The one thing where I would not be ready to bet 875 00:57:56,000 --> 00:57:59,200 is whether the discovery's going to happen in the next six months, 876 00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:01,480 the next three years or the next ten years. 877 00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:05,720 It all depends on how kind nature is going to be with us.