"Essentially, the scientists took some lithium and shot protons at it."
How does this actually work? Presumably it's a very small amount of lithium. What is it held in? How are the protons so accurately steered towards it? The accelerator ring is comparatively very wide, right?
Lithium is cheap. It prob'ly has to be chilled while it's being blasted so they can do it long enough. Steering proton beams is what accelerators are for. You need a small target spot just so the detectors get things from a fixed angle.
How does this actually work? Presumably it's a very small amount of lithium. What is it held in? How are the protons so accurately steered towards it? The accelerator ring is comparatively very wide, right?