Last month, the second large endcap disk of CERN's Compact Muon Solenoid was lowered into the underground experimental cavern. The piece, weighing around 880 tonnes, took 10 hours to be lowered 100m. Credit: CERN/CMS Collection, photo by Max Brice.

Physics researchers are looking to the smallest of particles to try to answer some big questions about the universe, from why matter has mass, to whether or not string theory can truly explain the way the universe works.

Join guest host Joe Palca in this hour for a conversation about high energy physics. We'll talk with researchers using the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab, a scientist at CERN looking forward to the startup of the Large Hadron Collider there later this year, and a scientist charged with helping to design the the next generation of high energy physics experiments in the form of the International Linear Collider.

Plus, last week China successfully tested an anti-satellite weapon, destroying one of that country's own weather satellites. We'll talk about how the weapon works, and what the test means for space-based weaponry. There currently is no treaty that governs use of weapons in space.

Guests:
Victoria Samson
Research Analyst
Center for Defense Information
Washington, DC

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David Barney
Outreach Coordinator for the Compact Muon Solenoid (an experiment at the LHC collider)
CERN
Geneva, Switzerland

Jacobo Konigsberg
Professor, Department of Physics, University of Florida
Spokesman for The Collider Detector at Fermilab
Batavia, Illinois

Barry Barish
Director, Global Design Effort for the International Linear Collider Project
Professor of High Energy Physics, Emeritus
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California

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This segment produced by Charles Bergquist