CERN, the European Laboratory for particle physics, regularly makes the news. What kind of research happens at this international laboratory and how does it impact people's daily lives? Why is the discovery of the Higgs boson so important? Particle physics describes all matter found on Earth, in stars and all galaxies but it also tries to go beyond what is known to describe dark matter, a form of matter five times more prevalent than the known, regular matter. How dowe know this mysterious dark matter exists and is there a chance it will be discovered soon? About sixty countries contributed to the construction of the gigantic Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and its immense detectors. Dive in to discover how international teams of researchers work togetherto push scientific knowledge forward.Here is a book written for every person who wishes to learn a little more about particle physics, without requiring prior scientific knowledge. It starts from the basics to build a solid understanding of current research in particle physics. A good dose of curiosity is all one will need to discover a whole world that spans from the infinitesimally small and stretches to the infinitely large, and where imminent discoveries could mark the dawn of a huge revolution in the current conception of thematerial world.

1 What is matter made of?; 2 What about the Higgs boson?; 3 Accelertors and detector, the essential tools; 4 The discovery of the Higgs boson; 5 The dark side of the Universe; 6 Going beyond the Standard Model: calling SUSY to the rescue; 7 What does fundamental research put on our plate?; 8 CERN experiments: a unique management and cooperation model; 9 Diversity in science; 10 What could th next big discoveries be?