Baylor to do research on particle smashing machine - kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and Killeen

It's one of the most compelling questions in the world.

What is the universe made from?

The answer may now come from students at Baylor University.

Baylor was chosen as one of only about 70 universities in the US to do research on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

They now have full access to the data produced by the Large Hadron Collider at the facility.

Dr. Kenichi Hatakeyama, assistant professor of physics at Baylor, College of Arts and Sciences, says, "We try to understand how our universe came from, and how we can describe what we see in the universe."

Dr. Jay Dittmann, associate professor of physics at Baylor, College of Arts and Sciences, says, "It's a lot of nice exposure for Baylor, and we're happy to be able to represent Baylor."

Baylor will work with universities around the world to look for the Higgs Boson particle.

Scientists have no evidence of it, but they believe it's at the center of matter in the universe.

Dr. Hatakeyama says, "I think it would be very great for Baylor to be a part of such a major scientific physics discoveries."

Baylor professors and students will travel to the collider in Switzerland.

However most of the work will actually take place in Waco looking at the data.

Dr. Dittmann says, "I think it puts Baylor on the map, and it just brings some exposure to Central Texas."

The CERN collider first began operating in 2008, and scientists say it has already produced invaluable information.

A more powerful collider was under construction an hour north of Waco in Waxahachie in the early 1990's, but federal funding was cut in 1993, and the project was never finished.