A new analysis of data from the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has revealed new evidence that collisions of very small nuclei with larger nuclei can create tiny fragments of quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Scientists believe that such matter as free quarks and gluons, the building blocks of protons and neutrons, permeated the universe within a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.
