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The Big Question (post-16)
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A view along a section of the 27km long LHC tunnel and collider
A Massive problem
Who's Hidden All The Antimatter?
A Weighty Question
Most Of The Universe Is Missing.
Medical Application

WHAT HAS PARTICLE PHYSICS RESEARCH DONE FOR HEALTH?
Read this introductory article about nuclear medicine then answer the questions below. You will need to dig a bit deeper to answer some questions fully…

When you’re done, your teacher may ask you to use what you have learned to prepare a short presentation.

Particles for medicine: cancer therapy and much more . . .
DOWNLOAD: IS PARTICLE RESEARCH USEFUL.PDF

Why is there a matter universe?

Our best theories for the origin of the Universe estimate it began 13.7 billion years ago as an infinitely hot and infinitely dense ball of energy. In those first instants of time, the universe expanded and cooled. All the particles we observe today, and the interactions between them, condensed into existence in those early seconds and minutes.

If this Big Bang theory is right, antimatter and matter should have been created in equal amounts. Each matter particle should have an antiparticle. This poses an obvious problem, as matter and antimatter annihilate on contact, so you'd expect the universe to just be energy. Or equal parts matter and antimatter, not touching. But it isn't. Somehow, some tiny asymmetry between matter and antimatter allowed matter to get the upper hand, leading to the matter universe we're in.

Getting to the bottom of this mystery is a deep problem in physics. It just doesn't add up, which usually means we've made a wrong turn somewhere - but where?

For this assignment, you will research the latest scientific thinking about antimatter and how the experiments at the LHC might crack this profound puzzle. Your teacher will tell you how they would like you to present your findings.

Key things to find out:

  • What is antimatter?
  • Who came up with the idea of antimatter, and when?
  • Has anybody made antimatter?
  • Why is the LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) experiment using b-quarks and anti-b-quarks to look for differences between matter and antimatter?
  • Could antimatter be used as a power source? Or to make a bomb?

Useful online references:

CERN website homepage
CERN website - Rolf Landua's nice piece on the science (or not) of Angels & Demons, which will be in cinemas in 2008
Hunting beauty (short QuickTime movie about b-quarks and anti-b-quarks and the LHCb experiment at the LHC)
LHC UK website
Take 5 (on this website)
New Scientist magazine

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