DUNE Neutrino Experiment in South Dakota is now poised to probe why matter exists, deploying detectors 1,500 meters underground as 1,400 scientists from thirty countries compete with Japan’s Hyper K project for the ultimate cosmic revelation.

Beneath forested South Dakota, the DUNE team prepares to fire neutrino beams 800 miles while Japan’s Hyper K, ready to switch on by 2027, boasts a larger detector and “temple to science” approach. With “origin of the universe” research drawing global attention, scientists hope new physics will finally explain why anything, or anyone, is here at all—turning particle beams and cathedrals of science into humanity’s most ambitious existential guessing game.