A big bang in a little room

"What if you could become God, with the ability to build a whole new universe in the lab? As startling as it sounds, modern physics suggests that within the next two decades, scientists may be able to perform this seemingly divine feat-- to concoct an entirely new baby universe, complete with its own physical laws, star systems, galaxies, and even intelligent life. To create your own cosmos, you would need a particle accelerator, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva or one of the proposed next-generation colliders, a lot of physics know-how, and a bit of luck. A Big Bang in a Little Room will take the reader on a journey through the history of cosmology and unravel-- particle-by-particle, theory-by-theory, and experiment-by-experiment-- the ideas behind this provocative claim made by some of the most-respected physicists alive today. Beyond simply explaining the science, A Big Bang in a Little Room will also tell the story of the people who have been plugging away for more than thirty years to make this seemingly impossible dream a reality, pushing the boundaries of our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it as humans. A Big Bang in a Little Room will examine