The Atom Smashers chronicles the search for the Higgs boson: a yet-undiscovered subatomic particle that could explain how matter, and therefore life, can exist. To find this "god particle," top physicists at Fermilab use the Tevatron, a four-mile-long, forty-year-old particle accelerator buried beneath the Illinois prairie. However, a new, more powerful accelerator at Europe's CERN laboratory looms on the horizon... Part science, part international competition, and part human drama, The Atom Smashers watches its captivating characters in and out of the laboratory as they race along the intersections of politics, culture, and the possibility of the discovery of a lifetime.