Russia: ‘We want to create a mini Big Bang in a laboratory’ – work begins on nucleon collider in Dubna

Nucleon collider 'NICA' will hopefully allow scientists a greater understanding of how protons and neutrons were created, stated director of veksler and baldin laboratory Dimiti Kekelidze in Dubna, Tuesday.
"We want to create a mini Big Bang in a laboratory", said the laboratory director during a press conference ahead of collider's foundation stone ceremony that is planned for Friday.
Developers hope that 'NICA' [Nuclotron-based Ion Collider Facility] will be in operation by the end of 2019. Once up and running the collider will help the scientists to create a special state of matter - the Quark-Gluon Plasma.
The difference between NICA from the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva is that the former will not examine the Big Bang, but rather the state of matter after the explosion. To examine this moment, Kekelidze said the 'NICA' team will be "clashing together gold with gold."