Nova: Big Bang Machine

Description

Chasing the Big Bang! On July 4, 2012, scientists at the giant atom smashing facility at CERN announced the discovery of a subatomic particle that seems like a tantalizingly close match to the elusive Higgs Boson, thought to be responsible for giving all the stuff in the universe its mass. Since it was first proposed nearly fifty years ago, the Higgs has been the holy grail of particle physicists: finding it completes the "standard model" that underlies all of modern particle physics. Now CERN's scientists are preparing for the Large Hadron Collider's second act, when they restart the history-making collider, running at higher energy hoping to find the next great discovery that will change what we know about the particles and forces that make up our universe. - Features insight from former spokesperson of the ATLAS experiment at CERN, Fabiola Gianotti -Provides exclusive in-depth access to the ATLAS and CMS teams at CERN the years leading up to, and including, the discovery of the Higgs!