The scientists at CERN working on the Large Hadron Collider are asking some scary questions, but it isn’t easy for the layperson to wrap his or her head around the undertaking. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything, in which a multinational group of LHC workers answered questions, a couple of exchanges with nuclear physicist Federico Ronchetti cut through some of the nebulousness.

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Question:

Explain to me like I am five: why are you doing this and what makes it important? What could we/you do with this data in the future?

Federico Ronchetti:

i can give you an example. in 1800 the study of electricity and magnetism were considered an highly theoretical study with no practical uses. at most was used for circus shows. once understood by means of theory and experiments it shaped the modern world. try to think how could you live without electricity. the research we are carrying out at cern may seem far from everyday life today however will bring forward our knowledge of the natural phenomena and it has already practical spin offs. for instance accelerator technology is used for inoperable cancer surgery and as you may know the software protocol that powers the web was invented at cern.

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Question:

What are some of the long term practical applications you can envision for this research? Feel free to go wild.

Federico Ronchetti:

you may have heard about project for reaching mars or even for deep space travel. one showstopper there is propulsion. we won’t get very far with chemical thrusters. fully understanding the nature of fundamental forces may pave the way for a new kind of engine that can power deep space exploration. however developing space technologies is not a current research topic at CERN.•