The Birth of Matter

To mark the World Year of Physics, the Physics Section of the University of Geneva is organising a series of lectures for the uninitiated.

Each lecture will begin with a demonstration in the auditorium of the detection of cosmic rays and, in collaboration with Professor E. Ellberger of the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, of how these signals from the farthest reaches of the Universe can be used to create "cosmic music".

The fourth lecture in the series, entitled "The Birth of Matter", will take place on Tuesday 3 May 2005 and will be given by CERN's theoretical physicist, John Ellis.

Where does matter come from? Where do the structures that surround us, such as galaxies, come from? Are we living in a world of invisible matter? Why is the universe so old and so big? John Ellis will show how elementary particle physics and, in particular, the LHC under construction at CERN, can answer these questions.