Los físicos están consiguiendo algo mágico: descubrir las partículas más diminutas de la naturaleza y comprender las leyes que rigen el Universo. Gracias a ello tenemos satélites, móviles, internet, e incluso terapias médicas mucho más precisas. En este capítulo viajaremos hasta Suiza para buscar cerebros entre los aceleradores del CERN en Suiza, el mayor laboratorio del mundo. Desde allí John Ellis nos hablará de la búsqueda de la simetría, Luis Álvarez Gaumé de las islas de desconocimiento, su directora Fabiola Gianotti de la relación entre ciencia y humanidades, Jeffrey Hangst de si algunas antipartículas pueden caer hacia arriba por la fuerza de la antigravedad, la comunidad de investigadores españoles nos narrarán sus vidas entre atracciones físicas, y bajaremos hasta los potentes detectores de esta catedral del siglo XXI
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00:00We are in Switzerland, on the way to the largest physics laboratory in the world,
00:29CERN.
00:31Today we will try to look at nature with the eyes of a particle physicist.
00:35It is a challenge, a complex program awaits us, full of twisted concepts.
00:40But if you open your mind and imagination, I assure you that the trip will be exciting.
00:45100 meters below these Swiss lands, there is a circular tunnel of 27 kilometers,
00:50at lower temperatures than the outer space itself, with 7,000 kilometers of superconducting cables,
00:55the most sophisticated magnets in the world, consuming 30,000 euros of electricity per day
01:00to accelerate protons at the speed of light, make them collide, break into pieces,
01:05that each of these pieces goes in a different direction,
01:08and that with this, particle physicists can investigate supersymmetry, antimatter,
01:14discover the Higgs boson, even if there are parallel universes.
01:18If you do not know CERN, I will tell you that it is like an experiment in the West,
01:27a city full of brains in evolution.
01:30Around me, more than 3,000 scientists ask themselves questions like,
01:34What is the universe made of? How did it all start?
01:37Did you know that we only know 5% of our universe?
01:41Well, here at CERN, they are trying to understand the other 95%.
01:46And to find the answers, particle physicists develop the most brilliant and crazy theories,
01:51and engineer the most advanced technology in the world.
01:54They have even built the LHC, a giant, colossal device,
01:58with which they reproduce what happened in the Big Bang.
02:01Today we will be as close as possible to that Big Bang,
02:04and we will do it surrounded by the most creative minds of today's science.
02:10Let's recap a little.
02:11Matter is composed of atoms that at first were believed to be indivisible,
02:15but throughout the 20th century,
02:17physicists proved that they could be divided into smaller particles.
02:21Electrons, protons and neutrons were discovered,
02:25and later came the muons, bosons, photons and many others.
02:30Everything was getting complicated, but at the same time, the puzzle was beginning to make sense,
02:34and a set of laws and particles called the Standard Model was built.
02:40But there were still unknowns.
02:42A very important one was why some particles weighed more than others.
02:46To explain this, in 1964,
02:49Peter Higgs said that there should be a particle in contact with the others,
02:53making them have more or less mass.
03:06If it existed, it should be so tiny
03:09that the only way to detect it would be with a large accelerator,
03:13which would act as a kind of giant microscope.
03:16And at CERN, they built it.
03:24It's the LHC.
03:26The LHC was only used to detect the Higgs boson,
03:29but its discovery in 2012 was its greatest success,
03:33because it confirmed that the Standard Model was correct.
03:36But what's left now?
03:38Much more.
03:40Things like antimatter, dark matter or supersymmetry.
03:44In reality, it's a constant search
03:47to understand what we, the Earth and the Universe, are made of.
04:03All these are former directors of CERN,
04:05and I'm a bit nervous because I'm going to meet
04:07the first and only director of CERN,
04:10Fabiola Gianotti,
04:12who was also the person who, in 2012, after 40 years of scientific research,
04:15announced the discovery of the Higgs boson, in this very room.
04:36It was probably the best moment of my professional life.
04:41I felt very intense emotions,
04:44a lot of pride for all the collaboration
04:47that allowed us to achieve such an important goal,
04:51such an important achievement.
04:56Do you think that emotion and collaboration
04:58are two fundamental pillars of science?
05:01Ah, yes.
05:03Emotion is part of us as human beings.
05:06It's the backbone of our feelings.
05:09And I think that science also requires a bit of emotion,
05:12which is paired with a bit of creativity.
05:15A good dose of emotion is very useful.
05:18In addition, emotion encourages us to achieve our goals.
05:22When I was reading his biography,
05:24I was a bit surprised that, when he was young,
05:26he was interested in, above all, the humanities,
05:28art, music.
05:30Has he discovered any connection with science?
05:33Yes, the connections are tremendously strong.
05:36In fact, it seems to me that studying physics
05:39was a continuation of what he had done.
05:42There is only one culture.
05:44Knowledge is something that belongs to all fields of learning
05:48and encompasses all activities,
05:50not just science or humanities.
05:52Knowledge is common in many fields.
05:56How can, here at CER,
05:58coexist fundamental research and applied research?
06:02How do you manage to translate basic knowledge
06:04about the universe into everyday useful things?
06:08Well, in several ways.
06:10First of all, because to achieve our goals
06:12in fundamental research,
06:14for example, to discover the Higgs boson
06:16or to address the following great questions,
06:18we must develop cutting-edge technologies in various fields,
06:22from cryogenics to vacuum techniques,
06:25to superconductor magnets,
06:27electronics, computer science, software,
06:29the World Wide Web, for example.
06:31These are cutting-edge technologies
06:33and highly advanced instruments.
06:35But then, everything has applications in everyday life.
06:38In medical applications,
06:40accelerators are used to eliminate tumor tissues,
06:44or in diagnostic imaging techniques.
06:47Also applications in solar panels,
06:49for computer science,
06:51and in many, many other fields.
06:53And if we talk about this fundamental science
06:55and great questions,
06:57do you trust that CER will be able to confirm supersymmetry?
07:00No, I don't fully trust it.
07:02First of all, because I don't know if supersymmetry exists.
07:04Maybe nature has chosen a totally different route.
07:07Nature is usually much smarter than us,
07:10much simpler, much more elegant.
07:12And as soon as we discover it,
07:14well, if it exists, we will find it.
07:16But if a higher energy scale is manifested,
07:18we will not find it now.
07:20We are in the hands of nature
07:22and we can be open to any result.
07:33CER seems to me a magical place
07:35where we carry out fundamental research,
07:37promote knowledge,
07:39develop technology,
07:41and work in a peaceful way
07:43with people from all over the world.
07:53Hey, Rebeca, how are you?
07:55How are you?
07:56I'm very excited.
07:57How long have you been here?
07:59I've been here since 2008, but in total more than 8 years.
08:028 years, and how is it?
08:03Well, the truth is that it is indescribable.
08:06For a high energy physicist, it's the best thing he does.
08:09Hi, I'm Rebeca, I'm from Gijón.
08:11I've been working at CERN for almost 10 years,
08:13in top quark physics and Higgs boson,
08:15and I welcome you to the world's largest particle physics laboratory.
08:22Rebeca is going to take me inside CERN's brain,
08:24the control center.
08:26Apparently, it's just a room full of people,
08:28computers and bottles of champagne
08:30that witness the latest achievements.
08:33But it's fascinating because from here they control the LHC,
08:37the machine that tries to reproduce what happened in the Big Bang.
08:40A device capable of manipulating and detecting particles
08:43millions of millions of times smaller than us.
08:46Awesome.
08:47What temperature is it?
08:49In the LHC, the magnets are at 1.9 Kelvin,
08:52almost zero absolute.
08:53Wow, this is...
08:54It's very cold.
08:55It's the coldest there is.
08:56It's almost zero absolute.
08:57And there is a vacuum inside the magnets,
08:59which is also higher than in outer space,
09:02in most of it.
09:03So here, 100 meters underground,
09:05inside the magnets,
09:07it's colder and there's more vacuum than in outer space.
09:10Yes, indeed.
09:13The LHC is equipped with very powerful magnets
09:16that accelerate protons at practically the speed of light.
09:19The protons circulate in the opposite direction
09:22until they collide head-on and break.
09:25With the impact, a huge amount of energy is released
09:28and new, smaller subatomic particles are formed,
09:32which can be detected and studied.
09:36A curiosity.
09:37100 billion protons are accelerated on one side
09:39and 100 billion on the other,
09:40which collide in a tiny space of 16 microns.
09:43And look, the protons are so small
09:45that 100 billion colliding with 100 billion in such a small space
09:49can cause 40 collisions at most.
09:51The rest is nothing.
09:53It's fabulous.
09:55Hi.
09:56I was waiting for you, Belén.
09:57Hi, Belén, how are you?
09:58Reyes.
09:59Hi, how are you?
10:00This is where you control all the collisions of the LHC.
10:02Here it is, yes.
10:03In fact, right now we are preparing the collisions.
10:06Yes, how many collisions are there?
10:08Every 25 nanoseconds.
10:10Ah, wow.
10:11And here what you do is control the particle axes
10:14to go in their respective directions
10:16and collide at the different points
10:19where there are detectors that measure different aspects of particle physics, right?
10:23Exactly.
10:24This tube indicates where the axes go.
10:27They go around and travel 27 kilometers.
10:30So there are axes that go in this direction
10:33and axes that go in the other direction.
10:35When they start colliding,
10:37the detectors begin to collect signals
10:40that come from these traces, from these particles that are being produced.
10:44So each line is a particle.
10:46Ah, it goes in one direction and reaches a point
10:49and this is what makes you see what particle it is.
10:51Exactly.
10:52Depending on how far the particle goes,
10:54it is one thing or another.
10:56For example, the particles that usually even get out of the detector
11:02because they don't like to interact are the slugs.
11:05Exactly.
11:06It is a very unsociable particle.
11:10In CERN there are two types of scientists.
11:12The theoretical physicists who launch theories
11:14and the experimental physicists who pick up the glove
11:17and try to show whether these theories are true or not.
11:21But the best of all is that, looking for answers and almost unintentionally,
11:25all these physicists have come up with cutting-edge technologies
11:28that make our lives much easier.
11:30The World Wide Web is the most famous example,
11:32but now the most promising is the globe.
11:39Hi, I'm Luis.
11:40I've been at CERN for more than 25 years
11:42and I'm already part of the local real estate.
11:44Here, apart from doing physics, you have to look for some other activity
11:46to be able to fulfill your dream,
11:47and I chose to learn music, especially to play the piano.
11:50Thanks to this, I'm already getting to Beethoven's sonatas,
11:52which was my goal.
11:55And when did you get to CERN?
11:57In 1988.
11:58A long time ago.
11:59It has changed a lot, hasn't it?
12:00Yes, it has changed a lot, because at that time
12:02they were finishing building the LEP,
12:04which is the accelerator that was before the LHC,
12:06but they had finished building the tunnel
12:08and they were finishing building the accelerator
12:10that accelerated electrons and positrons.
12:12And what was the goal at that time?
12:14Well, very similar to the LHC.
12:16Basically, the idea was, again, to verify the Standard Model,
12:19if Higgs could be discovered,
12:21and to try to discover something that was more than the Standard Model.
12:24All this costs a fortune, and you always say
12:26that there is a great return, even economically, to society.
12:29Has this ever been proven?
12:31Well, historically, many things have been proven,
12:33but in the case of CERN, a few years ago,
12:35at the beginning of the 90s,
12:36they had to do a study precisely because the member countries
12:38wanted a study of this style,
12:40and it was verified that in a period of 10 years,
12:42the industrial return of the investment that is made
12:46can be a factor 2 or 3.
12:48There is another aspect that has to do with education.
12:50Education and the preparation of engineers,
12:52people with universities, etc.,
12:54feed a lot of pedophilic laboratories.
12:57This is also an important part, because it is a human return,
13:00which is sometimes difficult to quantify from an economic point of view,
13:03but it has a fundamental impact on society.
13:05And here, one of the greatest possible benefits is
13:08even the way you compute all the information that comes out of here,
13:12because there is not a single computer,
13:14but it is distributed all over the world.
13:16It's called the grid.
13:18Before, the World Wide Web was also discovered here.
13:21The data produced is basically a kind of planetary memory.
13:24What happens with the grid is that you can't analyze all the data
13:27that is obtained based on the collisions in the Earth.
13:29It's too much information.
13:30So what you do is that you don't have the ability to calculate
13:32to be able to process all this massive amount of information.
13:35So it is exported to different centers,
13:37and little by little a network is being created,
13:39which is spread all over the world, at a planetary level,
13:41in which information is being processed.
13:43So it's like a web, but intelligent.
13:45How that will change our lives, I don't know.
13:47But I'm sure that in 20 years no one will be able to live without the grid,
13:50no one will be able to live without the web.
13:59Luckily, physicists also rest.
14:01Rebecca wanted to show me the CERN cafeteria,
14:03the real brain accelerator,
14:05where all physicists go in search of their real engine,
14:08coffee.
14:11I'm going to introduce you now to some of the more than 300 Spaniards
14:14who work at CERN.
14:17Hello!
14:19Hey, how many Spanish scientists, right?
14:21What's up? Don't you have a job in Spain?
14:23That's a bad question.
14:26And what's it like to live here?
14:28Are you happy?
14:30It looks like a city of scientists, doesn't it?
14:32At least with a physicist, it's like Mecca.
14:35When I started studying my degree at CERN,
14:37it was like, well, it's the place you name, but you never get there.
14:41Of course, here you live with scientists from all over the world,
14:44and I imagine that culturally, everyone has their differences,
14:47but because you're scientists,
14:49in terms of science, or your approach to research,
14:52are they similar?
14:54Yes, quite a lot.
14:56Because in the end, what you want is,
14:58you have the data in front of you, and you want to understand them.
15:00And it doesn't matter where you come from, more or less.
15:02In the end, we all speak the same language,
15:04the language of science.
15:06It's universal.
15:08The couples that are formed,
15:10because I imagine that quite a few couples are formed here,
15:12do you have a tendency to form couples among scientists, or not?
15:16Yes, of course.
15:17In the world in which you live, well...
15:19We spend a lot of time here,
15:21I don't know what's going on.
15:23It's just that girls are missing, for couples to be formed.
15:25Oh, really?
15:27In fact, there are far fewer women than men.
15:29In the scientific world in which we live, there are many.
15:32And in terms of nationalities,
15:34are there more heterogeneous couples formed?
15:36Because in other areas, there is a lot of tendency among Spaniards,
15:39to form couples among Spaniards, even if they are from different professions.
15:42I don't know what they should have told you,
15:44but what you should know is that the important thing
15:46is the belonging to an experiment.
15:48Loyalty is an experiment,
15:50not to the country, not to anything.
15:58As you can see, in CERN, not everything is science.
16:00In addition to experiments and laboratories,
16:02they have a supermarket, a hotel, a nursery,
16:04a sports area, doctors and also firefighters.
16:07At CERN, we do research in fundamental physics,
16:10we collect particle acids,
16:12to know what is the internal structure of matter.
16:14Being here, what vision do you have of these researchers,
16:17who sometimes have a little extravagant aspects?
16:20We have to protect their backs, because they are in their world,
16:22and if it weren't for us, they would do nonsense.
16:24They only see their problem,
16:26if they don't see what's important to them.
16:28The main objective of CERN physicists
16:30is to discover some details about 95% of the matter we don't know.
16:35And in this search, more questions than answers are opened.
16:38For example, it is known that at the beginning of the universe,
16:40there was matter and antimatter.
16:42But then, where does the antimatter hide?
16:44To discover it, at CERN,
16:46they have created a factory of antimatter.
16:48It is the only one that exists in the whole world.
16:53To explain what antimatter is, is quite complicated.
16:55Yes, positive electrons or negative protons.
16:58But to understand it, we have to go to Paul Dirac,
17:02at the end of the 1920s,
17:04where he made some equations
17:06to describe the movement of electrons,
17:08and he said, hey, here I get
17:10that there must be negative electrons,
17:12which are the ones we see, but also positive electrons.
17:14And that's what mathematics tells me.
17:16Therefore, if the mathematics are true,
17:18they should exist.
17:20And years later, an experimentalist
17:22proved that there were positive electrons.
17:26And this was the discovery of antimatter.
17:28But of course, they were eliminated very quickly.
17:31Here, what they have achieved at CERN,
17:33in this antimatter factory,
17:35is not only to create antimatter particles,
17:37but even to create antimatter atoms.
17:39And beyond that,
17:41to be able to confine them
17:43for a stable time
17:45to allow them to be studied.
18:01Hey, Jeffrey.
18:03Welcome to ALPHA.
18:05It's a pleasure to meet you.
18:07The pleasure is mine.
18:09So, this is where you cook antimatter, right?
18:11Yes, it's here.
18:13Very good.
18:15Very glamorous.
18:17Of course.
18:19My name is Jeffrey.
18:21I work in antimatter,
18:23but I'm better known for being the guitarist
18:25of a rock band called The Diracla.
18:27And that's what we do in our free time.
18:30Whatever.
18:32So, what you have achieved here
18:34is not only to create antimatter particles,
18:36but even entire antimatter atoms.
18:38Yes, and this is very difficult.
18:40And not only that, but to keep them for a while.
18:42Yes, to keep them for a while
18:44is what we do at ALPHA.
18:46We create antihydrogen,
18:48the antimatter equivalent to the hydrogen atom,
18:50the number one on the periodic table.
18:52And then we trap it.
18:54We confine it in extreme vacuum conditions
18:56with really powerful magnets
18:58that allow us to build a little more
19:00in this concept of antimatter.
19:02I mean, many of us don't really understand
19:04what the origin of the universe was
19:06and why there was more matter than antimatter.
19:08Well, nobody understands it.
19:10At the Big Bang, a lot of energy was produced
19:12that should have given rise to
19:14equivalent amounts of matter and antimatter.
19:16The problem is that matter and antimatter
19:18cannot coexist.
19:20They annihilate each other.
19:22Right?
19:24So, all the matter and antimatter
19:26in the universe should have
19:28annihilated each other
19:30and there should have been nothing
19:32but light and energy.
19:34Obviously, that's not what happened.
19:36Otherwise, we wouldn't be here talking.
19:38So, we're looking for some small
19:40unobserved effect that explains
19:42why matter survived and antimatter didn't.
19:44So, we're sitting nowhere near
19:46the effect that explains
19:48the universe that we have.
19:50Right?
19:52It's still pretty one of the great
19:54unanswered science questions.
19:56What happened to antimatter?
19:58And this is where you create antimatter, right?
20:00That's right.
20:02This is where we,
20:04first of all, catch the antimatter
20:06that sends us to CERN,
20:08the antiprotons that send us.
20:10Here we have to stop them,
20:12catch them, and hold them.
20:14And then we combine them with the positrons
20:16to create the antihydrogen that we also hold.
20:18And we can hold it for a relatively long time.
20:20This is the big challenge, right?
20:22To be able to study it.
20:24Yes, and it's the only place in the world
20:26that can do something like this.
20:28And we've been working on it for more than 20 years.
20:30After two years stopped for maintenance,
20:32in June 2015,
20:34the LHC started again
20:36with much more power
20:38and a new challenge.
20:40If a while ago, in these corridors,
20:42people were nervous about the confirmation
20:44of the Higgs boson,
20:46now the cause of the concern is another,
20:48supersymmetry.
20:50There is a sign that confirms this theory
20:52called supersymmetry.
20:54The problem is that the power
20:56that the LHC is working on
20:58should have already been found,
21:00and it is not so,
21:02to the point that some researchers
21:04begin to doubt whether the theory is correct or not.
21:06Let's meet now one of the great defenders
21:08of supersymmetry, John Ellis.
21:10Researchers always strive
21:12to show that they are normal types,
21:14that the stereotype about Einstein is false.
21:16But John Ellis fully confirms
21:18the stereotype.
21:20He is an exceptional guy.
21:22You just need to see his office.
21:24Hello, Perry. How are you?
21:26Very well, and you?
21:28I see you read a lot, don't you?
21:30Well, at least I print a lot.
21:32Let's see, supersymmetry.
21:34Let's talk about supersymmetry,
21:36about this idea that each particle
21:38has a super-couple.
21:40What does it mean exactly?
21:42And why is it so fundamental?
21:44The particles that we know
21:46have an electric charge
21:48and other internal properties.
21:50They are like ballerinas.
21:52They all spin around like this
21:54at different rates.
21:56For example,
21:58in the units that we use,
22:00the photon has a speed of rotation,
22:02a spin of one,
22:04but the electron is a slower ballerina.
22:06It only spins at half that speed.
22:08What supersymmetry does
22:10is to affirm that each ballerina
22:12has a couple
22:14at a different speed.
22:16Let's say there's a couple for the photon,
22:18the light particle,
22:20called the photino,
22:22which only spins or has a spin of 0.5,
22:24and then the electron
22:26has a couple that doesn't spin at all.
22:28This could help us understand,
22:30for example,
22:32why the particles have the masses
22:34that they do,
22:36and help us unify
22:38the fundamental interactions.
22:40It could explain the dark matter
22:42and be essential in string theory.
22:44So there's many, many reasons
22:46why we like supersymmetry.
22:48Yeah, but the standard model
22:50works, right?
22:52The standard model works,
22:54but there's also a lot
22:56about the universe
22:58that we don't understand
23:00and requires physics
23:02beyond the standard model.
23:04Supersymmetry could help us
23:06with many of them.
23:08For example,
23:10there's about six times more invisible matter
23:12in the universe than the stars we can see,
23:14than the matter that you and I are made of.
23:16And this might be
23:18about supersymmetric particles,
23:20for example.
23:22So we have ideas about supersymmetry,
23:24but we don't know whether they're right or not.
23:26We theoretical physicists
23:28have ideas,
23:30but we need experimental physicists
23:32to tell us what's right and what's wrong.
23:34And I think now is really crucial
23:36for the LHC and supersymmetry.
23:38Will we discover dark matter particles?
23:40Will we discover supersymmetry or not?
23:42We don't know.
23:44There's something
23:46that we're not quite sure about
23:48and it's a mystery.
23:50Is there a theory of the whole?
23:52Do you think we're getting closer
23:54or closer to finding it?
23:56Every time we discover a new fact
23:58about the universe,
24:00we get closer to a possible
24:02theory of the whole.
24:04So, for example,
24:06the Higgs boson
24:08helped many other crazy ideas
24:10go wild.
24:12So it means that discoveries like this
24:14can help us focus our attention
24:16in a concrete way
24:18to a possible theory of the whole.
24:20It fixes our ideas.
24:22It makes it easier for us.
24:24So are you optimistic
24:26that we'll be able to find
24:28this theory of the whole
24:30that unifies the laws of physics?
24:32I have no idea.
24:34And in many ways
24:36the most important thing
24:38is the search.
24:40To test the ideas,
24:42to test the technical capacities,
24:44to develop new technologies
24:46and, perhaps,
24:48to end up finding the Holy Grail.
24:50The search for the Holy Grail
24:52of physics, the search for knowledge
24:54is what gives meaning
24:56to this madness called CERN
24:58where thousands of super-creative scientists
25:00ask themselves impossible questions.
25:02I've been in this factory of ignorance
25:04for a day
25:06and I only have one thing to do.
25:08Approach the biggest accelerator in the world.
25:20It may sound strange,
25:22but going down this cold basement
25:24I'm actually approaching
25:26the beginning of the universe.
25:32Here's the detector, the CMS.
25:34The detector is right behind us,
25:36but we can't go in
25:38because we're taking data.
25:40Now there are collisions,
25:42so it's not safe.
25:44But this would be as close as possible
25:46that a human can be from the Big Bang.
25:48Indeed, it's as close as possible.
25:50Of all the experiments in the HC,
25:52this is the only one we can go down
25:54when we're taking data
25:56because we're protected by this wall.
25:58Just seven meters behind this wall
26:00protons collides
26:02forming particles of fiberglass.
26:04The same ones that thousands of millions of years ago
26:06originated time, matter and space
26:08in the first breath of this,
26:10our cosmos.
26:30Transcription by ESO. Translation by —