Chris Parkes, Particle physicist, University of Manchester, telling us why Antimatter Matters, on the Cosmos Stage, at New Scientist Live 2019
Where did all the antimatter in the universe go? At the birth of our universe, during the big bang, equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created. But today, 14 billion years later, when we look around at the universe, we see it is composed almost entirely of matter. At CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, we are carrying out experiments to measure tiny differences between the fundamental particles and their antiparticles, as well as producing and studying atoms made from antimatter: anti-protons and anti-electrons (also known as positrons). A hundred years ago, scientists didn’t know antimatter even existed, but today it is used for medical diagnosis and industrial applications. In 2019 the LHCb experiment discovered a new difference between matter and antimatter. Find out what we now know about antimatter, how we know it, and how it is used in everyday life. Chris Parkes from the University of Manchester enjoys colliding protons at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider. He, and 1300 of his closest friends from 74 institutes in 16 countries, study the differences between matter and antimatter with the Large Hadron Collider Beauty (LHCb) detector. Chris is the deputy leader of the experiment and has published over 700 scientific papers. He lives in Manchester with his wife, son, and encyclopaedic collection of David Bowie albums.
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Location: ExCel London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock,
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