Our universe started with a bang that blasted everything into existence. But what happened next is a mystery. Scientists think that before atoms formed—or even the protons and neutrons they’re made of—there was probably a hot, soupy mix of two elementary particles called quarks and gluons, churning through space as a plasma. And because no one was around to observe the first moments of the cosmos, a coalition of researchers is trying to re-run history.
Using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory, they have essentially created a “Little Bang” and are using it to probe the properties of that quark-gluon plasma. The findings will help cosmologists refine
→ Continue reading at Wired - Science