Magnets in the LHC. Photo copyright CERN

When protons smash together at velocities approaching the speed of light, tiny short-lived particles are produced. If we can see these particles and learn how they behave, we can answer some pretty important physics questions — like what, exactly, is mass? The Exploratorium has a great website that explains physics' Standard Model — what matter is made of, and how the different components of matter interact. In his op-ed piece in the New York Times, Columbia University physicist Brian Greene describes the particles that physicists are looking for: the Higgs boson, the supersymmetric particles, and the transdimensional particles. Is there really a fourth dimension? Or a fifth or sixth? We may soon find out.

The latest nickname for the LHC is "the why machine." That moniker originated on the physics blog Cosmic Variance. Hopefully this feat of engineering will explain why E=mc2. Or, say some, just open up a microscopic black hole that will swallow the entire universe. This is exceedingly unlikely, but, says the Telegraph, some scientists have still received death threats from folks concerned about the impending end of the universe.

These mysterious particles may or may not be linked to the end of the universe, but they were certainly abundant at the beginning, with the Big Bang. To learn more about the Big Bang and the evidence for its occurrence, check out QUEST's interview with Berkeley physicist George Smoot — he won the Nobel Prize for detecting and analyzing the Big Bang's leftover radiation.

Parts of the Large Hadron Collider were designed and constructed by scientists here in the Bay Area. Scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory designed the LHC’s distribution feed boxes, which connect electrical power to the focusing magnets. And scientist from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center designed the ATLAS pixel detector, which, like a giant digital camera, records what happens after particles collide.

If you're more interested in pictures than particles, then check out National Geographic's photos of the LHC –- it is a beautiful machine.

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Cosmic microwave background and the infant universe.
From the WMAP science team.

The center was founded by George Smoot, who won the Nobel Prize in 2006 and was the focus of a QUEST TV segment. As described in our press release, George donated the bulk of his prize money to the founding of this new center. His donation seeded the center which now has an endowment exceeding $8 million in little more than a year of fund-raising. After watching my girlfriend raise funds for non-profits around SF, I can say that is quite impressive.

The center and endowment ensure that Berkeley remains competitive for years to come in the field of cosmology research. It helps Cal recruit excellent researchers by providing funds for postdoctoral researchers and students. The people supported by the Center can choose any project in the department, projects that I have covered in several of my QUEST articles. It also gives new post-docs the freedom to explore the department before starting on a specific project. This differs from the usual postdoctoral researcher who is recruited by a specific faculty member for a specific project.

The center will also sponsor researchers' visits to Berkeley from other institutions, educational outreach to K-12 science teachers and several collaborative international workshops on cosmology each year.

Berkeley is actually both one of the first and one of the latest institutions to establish a center for cosmology research. In the '90s, we had the Center for Particle Astrophysics, which was funded for 10 years by NSF. I think this was one of the first of its kind.

In the last few years, a philanthropist named Fred Kavli has funded quite a few cosmology centers all around the world. I just learned that the Kavli foundation also funds centers in other fields, like nanoscience research at my alma mater. The foundation funds 15 centers in all, including ones at Caltech, UC San Diego, Stanford, and UC Santa Barbara in California.

If you're a big fan of MASH or Alan Alda, you'll be a big fan of Kavli foundation. I just looked at their web page and see that they have made him the narrator for their astrophysics, neuroscience, and nanoscience initiatives. Maybe we can recruit Donald Sutherland to promote the movie version of the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics.

Kyle S. Dawson is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and development of a proposed space-based telescope at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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