Much appreciated from over here in Arts-world. Apart from 'work out how the universe works in some way', very few of us here have any idea what physics is. And your writing's great.

Normally these particles are entirely virtual, they disappear and are never seen. Give them enough energy though and they can actually become real.

I've been trying to wrap my head around this one since I read it (and concluded that my head does not want to deal with anything sub-atomic) - these are energy that becomes matter? Well. Cool.

(Also, another question: apart from the really obvious answer, what is it that a particle accelerator does?)