Strangeness and quark–gluon plasma

Okay kiddo, so you know that everything around us is made up of tiny little things called atoms, and these atoms have even smaller particles inside them, called protons and neutrons.

Now, scientists have found out that protons and neutrons are made up of even tinier particles called quarks. And, there are six different types of quarks, but we will talk only about one special type called the strange quark.

The strange quark is, as its name suggests, a bit weird – it has a lot more mass than the other quarks and can also behave in some unexpected ways.

When scientists smash particles together super fast, like in an experiment called the Large Hadron Collider, they can create conditions so hot and dense that the protons and neutrons melt and their quarks break free. This creates a new state of matter called quark-gluon plasma.

In this crazy hot plasma, the strange quarks start popping up more often, behaving in even stranger ways than usual. Scientists use this strangeness to study the properties of the plasma and better understand the early universe when it existed in a similar state.

So to summarise, scientists study strange quarks in quark-gluon plasma to learn about the early universe – Isn't science cool?