RE: What does an experimental particle physicist do: the simple answer
Wow..this is great, seeing a particle physicist not just from anywhere but from CERN on here. I have always been obsessed with CERN since after reading Dan Brown's thriller, Angels and Demons. Could you please talk about the particle collider that created the first anti matter in one of your posts? Such a post would actually make my month not a day or week.
Its pleasure even commenting on your post. I love sciences too but its too bad am currently in law school, but one doesn't necessarily have to be a scientist to do science does he?
It seems I am asking much but its not everyday one gets to comment on a CERN physicist' post. So what do you think about Aliens and extraterrestrial life? Do you think they exist?
Am obsessed about them and just blogged about it too from the little research i made.
Thank you @freyablekman really hoping you'd answer. Thank you once again.
Hi, we've been looking at antimatter for a very long time, it was experimentally discovered by Carl D. Anderson in 1932 when he saw anti-electrons :) The wikipedia post on antimatter is actually very good so take a look there.
I like the Dan Brown books as well, but it is important to remember that they're fiction.... (!)
Extraterrestrial life probably exists in some form, considering how many planets there are. But then, lichen, amoebas etc are also life, life does not have to mean little green men in flying saucers. Now why we have not seen it (or they us?) is a completely different question, and more of a philosophy than a physics question. Google Fermi paradox if you want to read that philosophical discussion :)