In the beginning, the universe came into existence as a hot sea of barely-there particles. Soon, matter as we know it appeared:protons, neutrons and electrons, atoms formed. Next in the line were the first organic molecules and then, finally, life.
It’s a weird twist of fate that large-scale science investigations into these areas have appeared in the same order. While physicists at CERN currently study the origin of the universe and the origin of matter, in the future they may be asked to help crack the origin of life too.