Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Mark Thomson is the newly appointed director general of CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is the world's biggest particle physics laboratory, and its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) smashes particles together at almost the speed of light to understand the fundamental nature of the universe. CERN has been responsible for groundbreaking new physics, most notably the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, and is a world leader in antimatter research. However, in order to probe even deeper, it must run at higher energy levels. We catch up with Thomson at an important juncture, as the LHC is due to shut down for two years for upgrades, paving the way for even more exciting physics. But is there anything left to discover? And are large particle accelerators the future of particle physics?
“There are really big questions that we don't know the answer to,” says Thomson. “Big questions like dark matter. Is the Higgs boson a fundamental particle? Does the Higgs boson interact with the dark matter? At some point, we are going to find answers to some of these really, really big questions."
00:00 Introduction
00:33 The future of science at CERN
01:42 What really happens at CERN
04:35 Who is Mark Thomson?
05:38 How has particle physics changed?
09:58 The search for Dark Matter and Antimatter
11:40 The LHC upgrade
17:18 Antimatter research
23:30 The future of particle physics
25:47 Future Circular Collider
32:10 The collider the end all colliders
35:41 CERN collaborative science
Love New Scientist? For a specially discounted New Scientist digital subscription, go to newscientist.com/youtube
Learn more ➤ youtu.be/SKzZNofGacU
Subscribe ➤ bit.ly/NSYTSUBS
Get more from New Scientist:
Official website: bit.ly/NSYTHP
Facebook: bit.ly/NSYTFB
Twitter: bit.ly/NSYTTW
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LinkedIn: bit.ly/NSYTLIN
About New Scientist:
New Scientist was founded in 1956 for “all those interested in scientific discovery and its social consequences”. Today our website, videos, newsletters, app, podcast and print magazine cover the world’s most important, exciting and entertaining science news as well as asking the big-picture questions about life, the universe, and what it means to be human.
New Scientist
newscientist.com
Mark Thomson is the newly appointed director general of CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is the world's biggest particle physics laboratory, and its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) smashes particles together at almost the speed of light to understand the fundamental nature of the universe. CERN has been responsible for groundbreaking new physics, most notably the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, and is a world leader in antimatter research. However, in order to probe even deeper, it must run at higher energy levels. We catch up with Thomson at an important juncture, as the LHC is due to shut down for two years for upgrades, paving the way for even more exciting physics. But is there anything left to discover? And are large particle accelerators the future of particle physics?
“There are really big questions that we don't know the answer to,” says Thomson. “Big questions like dark matter. Is the Higgs boson a fundamental particle? Does the Higgs boson interact with the dark matter? At some point, we are going to find answers to some of these really, really big questions."
00:00 Introduction
00:33 The future of science at CERN
01:42 What really happens at CERN
04:35 Who is Mark Thomson?
05:38 How has particle physics changed?
09:58 The search for Dark Matter and Antimatter
11:40 The LHC upgrade
17:18 Antimatter research
23:30 The future of particle physics
25:47 Future Circular Collider
32:10 The collider the end all colliders
35:41 CERN collaborative science
Love New Scientist? For a specially discounted New Scientist digital subscription, go to newscientist.com/youtube
Learn more ➤ youtu.be/SKzZNofGacU
Subscribe ➤ bit.ly/NSYTSUBS
Get more from New Scientist:
Official website: bit.ly/NSYTHP
Facebook: bit.ly/NSYTFB
Twitter: bit.ly/NSYTTW
Instagram: bit.ly/NSYTINSTA
LinkedIn: bit.ly/NSYTLIN
About New Scientist:
New Scientist was founded in 1956 for “all those interested in scientific discovery and its social consequences”. Today our website, videos, newsletters, app, podcast and print magazine cover the world’s most important, exciting and entertaining science news as well as asking the big-picture questions about life, the universe, and what it means to be human.
New Scientist
newscientist.com
