The Search for New Physics, the LHC & the Universe’s Greatest Mysteries — Harry Cliff

What comes after the Standard Model? Has the Large Hadron Collider failed? And how do scientific revolutions actually happen? In this conversation, I speak with Cambridge particle physicist and author Harry Cliff about some of the biggest unanswered questions in fundamental physics. We discuss the remarkable success of the Standard Model, the mysteries it still leaves unexplained, and why physicists believe there may be new physics waiting to be discovered. Harry explains what the Large Hadron Collider has and hasn't revealed about the universe, why finding evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model has proven so difficult, and how small anomalies can sometimes point the way to major scientific breakthroughs. We also talk about the future of particle physics, the proposed successor to the LHC, the power of international scientific collaboration, and how science manages to uncover reliable truths about the universe. Harry Cliff is a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge working on the LHCb experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. He is also the author of "How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch" and "Space Oddities". 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:00:31 – Are We About to Discover a New Force of Nature? 00:07:48 – Has the Large Hadron Collider Failed? 00:12:31 – Why New Physics Is So Hard to Find 00:18:56 – When Small Anomalies Point to New Physics 00:27:00 – The LHC, LIGO & the Power of International Science 00:30:27 – How Science Figures Out What's True 00:32:36 – What Comes After the Large Hadron Collider? 00:38:28 – Science, God & the Limits of Knowledge 00:40:44 – How Simple Laws Create a Complex Universe 00:42:24 – Harry Cliff on Physics, Writing & What's Next 00:44:51 – Final Thoughts