Are atoms immortal?

Are atoms immortal?

Author: BBC World Service October 10, 2025 Duration: 26:28

Atoms are the building blocks of our world. Many have been around since right after the Big Bang created the universe nearly 14 billion years ago. And if life on Earth is made of atoms that are from all the way back then... will those atoms keep existing forever? That’s what CrowdScience Listener Rob in Australia would like to know.

Caroline Steel investigates the immortality of atoms by travelling to CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory located along the border of France and Switzerland. There, theoretical physicist Matthew McCullough explains whether the smallest atoms can decay or survive the test of time.

Physicist Marco van Leeuwen from Nikhef, the National Particle Physics Laboratory in the Netherlands, gives Caroline a behind-the-scenes tour of the ALICE experiment and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. She learns how atoms are smashed at incredibly high speeds, and whether that might spell the end of an atom.

And all life on earth is made up of atoms, but how does a collection of tiny particles become a living being? Astrobiologist Betül Kaçar from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, breaks down how life works from an atomic point of view.

Presenter: Caroline Steel

Producer: Imaan Moin

Editor: Ben Motley

(Photo: Hands cupping a glowing atom in the studio - stock photo. Credit: Paper Boat Creative via Getty Images)


Curiosity drives discovery, and CrowdScience from the BBC World Service is built entirely on that principle. Each episode begins not with a scripted lesson, but with a question sent in by a listener from anywhere in the world. These aren't simple queries with easy answers; they are the wonderfully complex, often quirky puzzles about everyday phenomena and cosmic mysteries that make us all stop and wonder. What does silence sound like? Could we ever photosynthesize like plants? How does a crowd's mood physically spread? The team then embarks on a genuine investigative journey, tracking down the specialists at the very edge of our understanding-neuroscientists, ecologists, physicists, and engineers-to piece together credible, compelling answers. Listening to this podcast feels like having a direct line to the labs and field sites where knowledge is being created. The conversations are deep yet accessible, transforming abstract concepts into relatable stories. It’s a collective exploration where listener curiosity sets the agenda, making each episode a unique and democratic look at the machinery of our world and beyond. You become part of a global community pondering life, Earth, and the universe, one thoughtful question at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

CrowdScience
Podcast Episodes
Can you play the guitar underwater? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:29
Smashing up guitars is a classic rock star activity, but how about drowning them? Seven-year-old listener Cornelius asked CrowdScience to find out what happens if you play a guitar underwater. Could this be the next avan…
Can we turn deserts green? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:04
Can we turn the world’s deserts green? CrowdScience listener Youcef is captivated by the idea of bringing water back to Earth’s driest landscapes. With sea levels rising and huge stretches of land drying out each year, h…
How big is a rainbow? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:03
When listener Sakura’s husband came home from his morning walk in Cambridgeshire, UK, he told her about a massive rainbow he’d seen. But when he showed her a picture, she didn’t think it was particularly large. So how bi…
Why do we cry? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:00
Tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of frustration or tears of pain - humans are thought to be the only animals that cry tears of emotion. CrowdScience listener Lizzy wants to know: why do we cry for emotional reasons?…
Do tsunamis affect marine life? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:54
Tsunamis destroy buildings, habitats and danger to everything in its path on land. But how do they affect life under the water? That's what CrowdScience listener Alvyn wants to know, and presenter Anand Jagatia is search…
Are near-death experiences real? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:26
In your final moments, they say, you may walk down a tunnel of light. You might rise above your body, watching the scene below before passing into another world. Perhaps you’ll be met by glowing figures, see your life fl…
Why do people love horror films? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:26
For some they’re the stuff of nightmares, but many of us can’t get enough of horror films. For Halloween, CrowdScience investigates the science of why we enjoy films that scare the living daylights out of us. CrowdScienc…
Should we help maggots and caterpillars? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:12
We all know insects are important, but one CrowdScience listener worries that they don’t seem to have equal billing when it comes to human love and attention. In Scotland’s capital Edinburgh, listener Ruth loves to sit a…
Can we record our senses? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:29
How would you record a special moment? Maybe you could take a photograph, film a little video, or record some audio. We have lots of ways of recording what life LOOKS and SOUNDS like, but is the same true for the other s…