High energy physicists are scientists who study the most energetic and powerful particles in the universe. These particles are produced by natural process such as the Big Bang, and by man-made devices like particle accelerators. High energy physics is a field of great theoretical and experimental importance, as it can help us to understand the nature of matter, energy, space, and time.
The history of high energy physics began with the discovery of radioactivity in 1896 by Henri Becquerel. In the early 1900s, Marie Curie and her husband Pierre discovered two new elements: radium and polonium. They also pioneered the study of radiation therapy, which is still used today to treat cancer patients.
In 1905, Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity, which showed that mass and energy are equivalent. This discovery led to a better understanding of nuclear reactions, which release enormous amounts of energy. In 1932, James Chadwick discovered the neutron, which opened up the field of nuclear physics.
In 1938, Enrico Fermi created the first artificial nuclear reactor. This achievement ushered in the era of nuclear power plants and weapons. In 1945, J. Robert Oppenheimer led a team of scientists who developed the first atomic bomb. The following year saw the start of The Manhattan Project, a top secret government effort to build an even more powerful weapon: the hydrogen bomb.
High energy physics research continued apace in subsequent decades. In 1955, Clyde Cowan and Frederick Reines detected neutrinos for the first time; these elusive particles had been predicted by Pauli but had never before been observed directly. In 1964 Murray Gell-Mann proposed the existence of quarks—the elementary constituents of protons and neutrons—and in 1968 he was awarded a Nobel Prize for this work (which was later confirmed experimentally). Other important discoveries during this period include antimatter (1928), cosmic rays (1932), muons (1936), pions (1947), kaons (1950), transuranic elements (1950s), mesons consisting entirely of quarks (1960s), weak neutral currents (1970s) Today there are several active branches within high energy physics research: accelerator physics; astroparticle physics; cosmology; experimental particle physics; phenomenology; theoretical particle physics; etc..