Question: How will the research of the scientists at CERN with the Large Hadron Colider expand our understanding of the universe?

Lynne Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2014:

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been built to answer some of the fundamental questions about the universe. 100 years ago we were only just discovering that atoms were comprised of a nucleus containing protons and neutrons, and electrons and we thought for a long time that these were the smallest particles which made up the world. Then we discovered that protons and neutrons were made of smaller particles called quarks. To explain how these fundamental particles interact, particle physicists came up with the Standard Model – as part of this, they predicted that there should be a particle called the Higgs Boson which explains why some particles have mass and also explain why some of the interactions between particles are effective over different distances. So the LHC was built to try and find it. They do now believe that they have found it and if they hadn’t, they would have had to come up with a new theory! Peter Higgs and Francois Englert won the Nobel Prize for Physics for this last year.