Physicists at Fermilab, a powerful particle accelerator laboratory in Illinois, are closing in on one of the universe's best-kept secrets: why everything has mass. With the Tevatron, a four-mile underground particle accelerator, the scientists smash matter together at nearly the speed of light to find a particle theorized nearly forty years ago by Scottish scientist Peter Higgs. "The Atom Smashers" examines fifteen months at Fermilab as it scours the subatomic world for the Higgs.