Join Suzie Sheehy for a thrilling new history of particle physics, told through the discoveries that have shaped our lives – often without us knowing it.

For millennia, people have asked questions about the nature of matter. In the twentieth century, this curiosity led to an unprecedented outburst of scientific discovery that changed the course of history.

In this livestream In Conversation event, accelerator physicist Suzie Sheehy introduces us to the people who, through a combination of genius, persistence and luck, staged these ground-breaking experiments.

From the physicists who soared in hot air balloons on the trail of new particles, to the serendipitous discovery of X-rays in a German lab; and from the race to split open the atomic nucleus to the quest to find the third generation of matter, Suzie will show how these experiments informed innumerable aspects of how we live today. Radio, TV, the chips in our smartphones, MRI scanners, radar equipment and microwaves, to name a few: these were all made possible by our determination to understand, and control, the microscopic.

Pulling physics down from the theoretical and putting it in the hands of the people, this livestream event will celebrate of human ingenuity, creativity and curiosity: a powerful reminder that progress relies on the desire to know.

Praise for Suzie Sheehy’s The Matter of Everything:

‘A splendid idea, vividly carried out: I enjoyed this book enormously.’ – Philip Pullman

‘This is storytelling at its very best and why I fell in love with physics.’ – Jim Al-Khalili

‘Fascinating and highly readable . . . An all-action thriller, laced with some of the most profound ideas humans have ever had.’ – Brian Eno

‘A magical tour of the great experiments defining the most incredible century in physics.’ – Andrew Steele