The Tiny Big Bang and the Quest for Atomic Secrets Physicists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider have long explored the mysteries of matter by recreating conditions similar to those that existed in the universe shortly after its birth.
A recent experiment has taken this quest a step further, generating tiny "Big Bangs" using surprisingly small atomic nuclei.
The experiment involved colliding oxygen 16 and neon 20 nuclei at nearly the speed of light, producing quark gluon plasma – the ultra hot matter believed to have filled the cosmos shortly after the Big Bang.