NPR

At CERN, Hunting For Invisible Worlds

With so many dedicated to solving nature's riddles at CERN, it's hard not to think of it as a modern cathedral, a link between reason and mystery, a place of pilgrimage, says blogger Marcelo Gleiser.
Source: Getty Images/iStockphoto

"Nature loves to hide."

This is how, more than 25 centuries back, the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus expressed the sense of mystery we all feel when we start pondering how the world works.

There seem to be hidden mechanisms, secret pacts between the things that make the world the world, from the smallest building blocks of matter to the neurons in our brains to the way the whole universe is stretching out in its inexorable expansion.

Science, at its loftiest, is about peering into these mysteries and so many more, trying to pry open some crack to let the light of reason shine in, illuminating nature's hidden ways. If nature loves to hide,

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR4 min read
Last-minute Candidate José Raúl Mulino Wins Panama's Presidential Election
José Raúl Mulino was set to become the new leader of the Central American nation as authorities unofficially called the race Sunday night after his three nearest rivals conceded.
NPR3 min read
Floods In Southern Brazil Kill At Least 75 People Over 7 Days
Massive floods in Brazil's southern Rio Grande do Sul state have killed at least 75 people over the last seven days, and another 103 were reported missing, local authorities said Sunday.
NPR5 min readIndustries
China Makes Cheap Electric Vehicles. Why Can't American Shoppers Buy Them?
American drivers want cheap EVs. Chinese automakers are building them. But you can't buy them in the U.S., thanks to tariffs in the name of U.S. jobs and national security. Two car shoppers weigh in.

Related Books & Audiobooks