Particle colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), play a crucial role in our understanding of the universe and the fundamental forces that govern it. These machines accelerate subatomic particles to nearly the speed of light and collide them, allowing scientists to observe and study the resulting interactions.

As seen in the podcast episodes, particle colliders are used to recreate the extreme conditions of the early universe, just moments after the Big Bang, in order to study how the fundamental forces, such as the electromagnetic, strong, and weak nuclear forces, behaved differently in this hot, dense environment. By studying the remnants of these high-energy collisions, scientists can gain insights into the evolution of the universe and the nature of matter and energy.

The podcast episode Ep. 2: Why We Can Exist discusses how particle colliders like the LHC are used to study the Higgs field and the unification of the fundamental forces in the early universe, while the episode Babbage: The hunt for dark matter explores how the LHC is being used to try and produce dark matter particles, which are crucial to understanding the evolution of the universe.