The Big Bang Is Back:    page 3

Why do the research at all? While quantum theory predicts the existence of quark-gluon plasma, it doesn't detail its every characteristic—no one even knows what temperature creates it. And RHIC-size collisions also mimic the conditions in the depths of neutron stars and exploding supernovas, providing astrophysics in a bottle. Running protons through the collider may eventually solve the mystery of what causes them to "spin" in the particular way they do. But history may provide an even better reason. Around the turn of the century, physicists were chasing another temperature frontier, this one at about 10,000 degrees K. When they hit it, the data they got were totally unexpected. In trying to figure out what happened, a physicist named Max Planck figured out that energy came in discrete packets—what he called quanta. It was the birth of quantum physics: the basics of how matter and energy work. "The knowledge that came out of that is the basis for our entire modern life," says Hallman. "We fully expect that our data will match the theory... on the other hand, in 1900 they fully expected their data would match the theory, too." Let's just hope he's right about that destruction-of-the-universe thing.

With Erika Check and John Davenport

Newsweek, August 16, 1999