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The Higgs Boson: Searching for the God Particle
The Higgs Boson: Searching for the God Particle by the Editors of Scientific American
As the old adage goes, where there's smoke, there's fire. Where there is effect, there must be cause. The planet Neptune was found in 1846 because the mathematics of Newton's laws, when applied to the orbit of Uranus, said some massive body had to be there. Astronomers eventually found it, using the best telescopes available to peer into the sky. This same logic is applied to the search for the Higgs boson. One consequence of the prevailing theory of physics, called the Standard Model, is that there has to be some field that gives particles their particular masses. With that there has to be a corresponding particle, made by creating waves in the field, and this is the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle. This book chronicles the ongoing search – and demonstrates the power of a good theory. Based on the Standard Model, physicists believed something had to be there, but it wasn't until the Large Hadron Collider was built that anyone could see evidence of the Higgs – and finally in July 2012, they did. A Higgs-like particle was found near the energies scientists expected to find it. Now, armed with better evidence and better questions, the scientific process continues. This book gathers the best reporting and analysis from Scientific American to explain that process – the theories, the search, the ongoing questions. In essence, everything you need to know to separate Higgs from hype.
As the old adage goes, where there's smoke, there's fire. Where there is effect, there must be cause. The planet Neptune was found in 1846 because the mathematics of Newton's laws, when applied to the orbit of Uranus, said some massive body had to be there. Astronomers eventually found it, using the best telescopes available to peer into the sky. This same logic is applied to the search for the Higgs boson. One consequence of the prevailing theory of physics, called the Standard Model, is that there has to be some field that gives particles their particular masses. With that there has to be a corresponding particle, made by creating waves in the field, and this is the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle. This book chronicles the ongoing search – and demonstrates the power of a good theory. Based on the Standard Model, physicists believed something had to be there, but it wasn't until the Large Hadron Collider was built that anyone could see evidence of the Higgs – and finally in July 2012, they did. A Higgs-like particle was found near the energies scientists expected to find it. Now, armed with better evidence and better questions, the scientific process continues. This book gathers the best reporting and analysis from Scientific American to explain that process – the theories, the search, the ongoing questions. In essence, everything you need to know to separate Higgs from hype.
231 pages, ebook
First published September 30, 2012
47 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Scientific American
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Scientific American
, as an institutional author, is a popular science magazine founded by Rufus M. Porter and controlled by Nature Publishing Group since autumn, 2008. Mariette DiChristina has been editor-in-chief since December, 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 3, 2015
When ebooks became a happening thing, Scientific American started putting together collections of articles following a selected theme. To date, there are 38 volumes and this is one of them.
The Higgs Boson: Searching for the God Particle is a collection of both contemporary and past articles that feature a discussion of the theory behind and discovery of the Higgs particle and the effects that both have had on the development of physics past and future.
The articles themselves are excellent as they are from the archives of the magazine. They are written for the intelligent layperson with an interest in the subject. Formal mathematics is not necessary to understand the articles as written, although it should be said that a deep understanding of the subject matter requires a great deal of mathematical preparation. At the same time, the subject is not "dumbed down." The attentive reader will find that re-reading sections of each article necessary to grasp the concepts explained.
I do have one very serious complaint about the book: It is poorly edited for typographical errors and formatting. In fact, the editing is downright sloppy. It's as if an editor at Scientific American asked a very inexperienced person to convert the digital articles into book form and check for errors caused by the conversion. Some articles have upward of 40 errors, while some have no errors at all.
If you can get past the aggravating lack of typographic editing, this is an excellent read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in what all the hoopla about the Higgs particle is all about.
The Higgs Boson: Searching for the God Particle is a collection of both contemporary and past articles that feature a discussion of the theory behind and discovery of the Higgs particle and the effects that both have had on the development of physics past and future.
The articles themselves are excellent as they are from the archives of the magazine. They are written for the intelligent layperson with an interest in the subject. Formal mathematics is not necessary to understand the articles as written, although it should be said that a deep understanding of the subject matter requires a great deal of mathematical preparation. At the same time, the subject is not "dumbed down." The attentive reader will find that re-reading sections of each article necessary to grasp the concepts explained.
I do have one very serious complaint about the book: It is poorly edited for typographical errors and formatting. In fact, the editing is downright sloppy. It's as if an editor at Scientific American asked a very inexperienced person to convert the digital articles into book form and check for errors caused by the conversion. Some articles have upward of 40 errors, while some have no errors at all.
If you can get past the aggravating lack of typographic editing, this is an excellent read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in what all the hoopla about the Higgs particle is all about.
July 19, 2021
This is a series of articles collected from Scientific American magazine. It goes along a little fast. It seems to assume that the reader knows about things the reader may not know. On the other hand, the articles are not going very deep. This is an overview, explaining to the lay-public who have been following these things for a long time.
For example: The first article attempts to explain electron spin left and right by suggesting that making one's right hand into a fist, the thumb points in the direction of the spin for "right" and vice versa for the "left". But the thumb on my right fist can point in any number of directions. Which direction is the author talking about? This is not explained. It is assumed that I already know about this example and the author is simply bringing it back to mind.
So, if one has a little bit of background on the subject of electrons and magnetic fields and such, this read should go along just fine. If not, you will need to take notes and look for explanations for some of these things... or just ignore them and keep on going. Unless you are working on your own physics thesis I suppose it really doesn't matter which way electrons spin (if they spin at all).
I will probably "read" this audiobook again.
For example: The first article attempts to explain electron spin left and right by suggesting that making one's right hand into a fist, the thumb points in the direction of the spin for "right" and vice versa for the "left". But the thumb on my right fist can point in any number of directions. Which direction is the author talking about? This is not explained. It is assumed that I already know about this example and the author is simply bringing it back to mind.
So, if one has a little bit of background on the subject of electrons and magnetic fields and such, this read should go along just fine. If not, you will need to take notes and look for explanations for some of these things... or just ignore them and keep on going. Unless you are working on your own physics thesis I suppose it really doesn't matter which way electrons spin (if they spin at all).
I will probably "read" this audiobook again.
October 13, 2023
Very good. This is a series of articles and not one cohesive book. The downside is there is some repetition, but the upside is you can see over the span of decades what scientists were thinking and what acutally transpired 10-30 years later. It's really a fascinating and informative book.
February 1, 2022
This being a compilation of many articles I suppose it was to be expected, but there's a lot of repetition. Some of the articles are engaging and relevant, others I thought not so much.
October 21, 2015
This is a great collection of articles from Scientific American illustrating the science behind the search for the "God Particle." It is a great reference-point for further study written an accessible, thorough and insightful way.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews