Harnessing the strong force: Physics at America's future Electron-Ion Collider

Stella Schindler hosted this Saturday's Science Lecture, "Harnessing the strong force" on February 29, 2025. In the coming year, physicists will break ground on a powerful new facility, the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The world’s first machine to collide electron and ion beams, the 2.4-mile-long EIC will give us unprecedented insights into the inner structure and dynamics of protons and atoms. In this talk, we’ll explore what we currently know about the building blocks of matter, how everyday particles like the proton emerge from these blocks, and why vast mysteries still remain. We’ll center our focus on how particle colliders help us investigate the fundamental nature of matter, and how the EIC can catalyze exciting new discoveries.