In its earliest moments, the Universe was hot and dense. A plasma sea of quarks and gluons out of which hydrogen, helium, and humans eventually formed. This early cosmic state is sometimes called the primordial soup, and thanks to new research, we now know just how fitting the term is. Although we've long known of the early Big Bang, it is difficult to understand its full nature. Some of it we can glean through theoretical calculations and things such as the ratio of hydrogen to helium, but theory can only take you so far. Imagine trying to calculate whether a region of water is solid, liquid, or gas simply from computer simulations of water molecules. There is no bulk material on Earth with the density and temperature of the early Universe. But the interiors of atomic nuclei come close. So one way to study the early Universe is through particle physics experiments. Recently a team at CERN has been colliding heavy ions.…