RIGHT after the big bang the Universe existed as a soup of free-roaming fundamental particles that didn't obey the normal rules of physics, scientists have confirmed at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics near Geneva.
Particles such as protons and neutrons are actually made up of smaller fundamental components called quarks which cannot exist on their own. Quarks are kept tightly bound together by something called the strong force, which in turn is mediated by other particles called gluons.
But theory predicts that immediately after the big bang, conditions would have been so hot and dense that the strong force would break downsqueezing the quarks and gluons into a homogeneous soup. Only as the Universe expanded and cooled, would the quarks undergo a "phase transition" and condense into complex particles.
Physicists at CERN put this idea to the test by smashing lead ions into each other. This effectively re-enacted ...
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