Exotic but short-lived

All the ordinary matter on this planet, that's you, the home you live in and everything you can see around you, is built from just three types of particle. These are electrons and two types of quark - the up quark and the down quark.

Scientists expect the LHC to find exotic particles that don't normally exist in ordinary matter on Earth. These short-lived particles are 'fundamental', which means that scientists don't think they are made of anything smaller.