The puzzle of the Universe: The science of CERN's Large Hadron Collider
What are we made of? Are we really made of stardust? Have we found the most fundamental pieces that make up the matter in the Universe? What is a quark - a fundamental particle or a kind of cheese? What is mass and how do particles get mass? What do large particle colliders like the LHC really do?
And how many scientists does it take to find a new particle?
The discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN in 2012 was a major milestone in our understanding of particle physics. Forty years after its proposal, the Standard Model of Particle Physics was finally complete. Or was it? Are there more particles out there and can we hope to find them? And why does it matter?
In tonight's session of Science & Cocktails Johannesburg, Sahal Yacoob will take us on a captivating journey to discover the small number of different pieces which fit together to create the universe. He will describe how they combine together to give such a wide diversity and types of matter, and explain why we're still looking for more answers.
Afterwards, smoky cocktails will take us beyond the Standard Model while Josh Mokoena presents I'm an African - a musical tribute to the South African jazz legends that have left such a powerful legacy for young musicians to follow.
This event is made possible thanks to financial support by the National Research Foundation.
Image Credit: ATLAS Experiment © 2016 CERN
Sahal Yacoob
The puzzle of the Universe
What are we made of? Are we really made of stardust? Have we found the most fundamental pieces that make up the matter in the Universe? What is a quark - a fundamental particle or a kind of cheese? What is mass and how do particles get mass? What do large particle colliders like the LHC really do?
And how many scientists does it take to find a new particle?
Music by
Josh Mokoena
Josh Mokoena presents I'm an African.
"The vision behind tonight's show is to pay tribute to the late South African legends who have left a legacy for us young musicians to take on and follow. We'll be playing songs from the late Bab' Bheki Mseleku, Bab' Moses Molelekwa, Bab Hugh Masekela to name a few. This is to thank them for the beautiful music they've left us to with and the legacy there is for us to carry on. The Songs Echo the Title of the Show." Tonight's lineup consists of Josh Mokoena (piano & keys), Brownlee Dlulane (guitar), Tholang Petsa (bass), Ndumiso Nzama (drums) and Godfrey Mntambo (alto saxophone)
