Inside a laboratory nestled above the mist of the forests of South Dakota, scientists are searching for the answer to one of science's biggest questions: why does our Universe exist?
They are in a race for the answer with a separate team of Japanese scientists – who are several years ahead.
The current theory of how the Universe came into being can't explain the existence of the planets, stars and galaxies we see around us. Both teams are building detectors that study a sub-atomic particle called a neutrino in the hope of finding answers.
The US-led international collaboration is hoping the answer lies deep underground, in the aptly named Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (Dune). //
When the Universe was created two kinds of particles were created: matter – from which stars, planets and everything around us are made – and, in equal amounts, antimatter, matter's exact opposite.
Theoretically the two should have cancelled each other out, leaving nothing but a big burst of energy. And yet, here we – as matter – are. //
Scientists believe that the answer to understanding why matter won – and we exist – lies in studying a particle called the neutrino and its antimatter opposite, the anti-neutrino.
They will be firing beams of both kinds of particles from deep underground in Illinois to the detectors at South Dakota, 800 miles away.
This is because as they travel, neutrinos and anti-neutrinos change ever so slightly.
The scientists want to find out whether those changes are different for the neutrinos and anti-neutrinos. If they are, it could lead them to the answer of why matter and anti-matter don't cancel each other out. //
Half a world away, Japanese scientists are using shining golden globes to search for the same answers. Gleaming in all its splendour it is like a temple to science, mirroring the cathedral in South Dakota 6,000 miles (9,650 km) away. The scientists are building Hyper-K - which will be a bigger and better version of their existing neutrino detector, Super-K.
The Japanese-led team will be ready to turn on their neutrino beam in less than three years, several years earlier than the American project. Just like Dune, Hyper-K is an international collaboration. Dr Mark Scott of Imperial College, London believes his team is in pole position to make one of the biggest ever discoveries about the origin of the Universe.
"We switch on earlier and we have a larger detector, so we should have more sensitivity sooner than Dune," he says.
Having both experiments running together means that scientists will learn more than they would with just one, but, he says, "I would like to get there first!"
