2015 Friends & Family Weekend faculty lecture by Professor James Battat

We are under constant attack. A torrent of cosmic particles crashes through our bodies day and night, yet we manage to happily go about our lives, blind to this assault. How can particles be omnipresent yet invisible? Can we visualize them? Yes! But we'll need tools to aid our eyes. I'll introduce some of these invisible particles, describe why they play a key role in the evolution of the universe, and explain why you can detect some of them using household items, while others require detectors the size of buildings, operated by thousands of PhD physicists.