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The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Stuff That Will Blow Your Mind
Since 2008 scientists have conducted experiments in a hyperenergized, 17-mile supercollider beneath the border of France and Switzerland. The Large Hadron Collider (or what scientists call "the LHC") is one of the wonders of the modern world--a highly sophisticated scientific instrument designed to recreate in miniature the conditions of the universe as they existed in the microseconds following the big bang. Among many notable LHC discoveries, one led to the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for revealing evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle.
Picking up where he left off in "The Quantum Frontier, " physicist Don Lincoln shares an insider's account of the LHC's operational history and gives readers everything they need to become well informed on this marvel of technology.
Writing about the LHC's early days, Lincoln offers keen insight into an accident that derailed the operation nine days after the collider's 2008 debut. A faulty solder joint started a chain reaction that caused a massive explosion, damaged 50 superconducting magnets, and vaporized large sections of the conductor. The crippled LHC lay dormant for over a year, while technical teams repaired the damage.
Lincoln devotes an entire chapter to the Higgs boson and Higgs field, using several extended analogies to help explain the importance of these concepts to particle physics. In the final chapter, he describes what the discovery of the Higgs boson tells us about our current understanding of basic physics and how the discovery now keeps scientists awake over a nagging inconsistency in their favorite theory.
As accessible as it is fascinating, " The Large Hadron Collider" reveals the inner workings of this masterful achievement of technology, along with the mind-blowing discoveries that will keep it at the center of the scientific frontier for the foreseeable future.
Picking up where he left off in "The Quantum Frontier, " physicist Don Lincoln shares an insider's account of the LHC's operational history and gives readers everything they need to become well informed on this marvel of technology.
Writing about the LHC's early days, Lincoln offers keen insight into an accident that derailed the operation nine days after the collider's 2008 debut. A faulty solder joint started a chain reaction that caused a massive explosion, damaged 50 superconducting magnets, and vaporized large sections of the conductor. The crippled LHC lay dormant for over a year, while technical teams repaired the damage.
Lincoln devotes an entire chapter to the Higgs boson and Higgs field, using several extended analogies to help explain the importance of these concepts to particle physics. In the final chapter, he describes what the discovery of the Higgs boson tells us about our current understanding of basic physics and how the discovery now keeps scientists awake over a nagging inconsistency in their favorite theory.
As accessible as it is fascinating, " The Large Hadron Collider" reveals the inner workings of this masterful achievement of technology, along with the mind-blowing discoveries that will keep it at the center of the scientific frontier for the foreseeable future.
- GenresScienceNonfictionPhysics
240 pages, Hardcover
First published August 22, 2014
19 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Don Lincoln
14 books43 followersDon Lincoln is a Senior Scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He is also a Guest Professor of High Energy Physics at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Particle Physics from Rice University.
Dr. Lincoln’s research has been divided between Fermilab’s Tevatron Collider, until its close in 2011, and the CERN Large Hadron Collider, located outside Geneva, Switzerland. The author of more than 1,000 scientific publications, his most noteworthy accomplishments include serving on the teams that discovered the top quark in 1995 and confirmed the Higgs boson in 2012. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His writing at a popular level includes many articles as well as four books: Understanding the Universe, The Quantum Frontier, The Large Hadron Collider, and Alien Universe. His enthusiasm for science education earned him the 2013 Outreach Prize from the High Energy Physics Division of the European Physical Society.
Dr. Lincoln has given hundreds of lectures on four continents to a broad range of audiences. He is a blogger for the website of the PBS television series NOVA, and he also writes a weekly column for the online periodical Fermilab Today.
Dr. Lincoln’s research has been divided between Fermilab’s Tevatron Collider, until its close in 2011, and the CERN Large Hadron Collider, located outside Geneva, Switzerland. The author of more than 1,000 scientific publications, his most noteworthy accomplishments include serving on the teams that discovered the top quark in 1995 and confirmed the Higgs boson in 2012. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His writing at a popular level includes many articles as well as four books: Understanding the Universe, The Quantum Frontier, The Large Hadron Collider, and Alien Universe. His enthusiasm for science education earned him the 2013 Outreach Prize from the High Energy Physics Division of the European Physical Society.
Dr. Lincoln has given hundreds of lectures on four continents to a broad range of audiences. He is a blogger for the website of the PBS television series NOVA, and he also writes a weekly column for the online periodical Fermilab Today.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 8, 2016
Such a great and simply explained book about CERN, it's structure, history and function. Must read if you want to know about quarks!
April 15, 2018
Such a treat. I wanted to know more about the LHC and particle physics in general, and holy crap there was way more than enough information in this book to satisfy my curiosity. I knew getting into this book that it would be very specialized, but some parts just flew right over my head. This is probably because the people who work at the LHC have spent their lives studying this stuff, and I have little more than AP Physics as a credential. Even so, Lincoln uses pictures, diagrams, metaphors, and pretty much every other tool in the toolbox. It’s exquisitely detailed, and the writing is interesting enough that even if you can’t quite wrap your head around something, you get the gist and can continue reading. Big-time kudos to the author.
August 29, 2016
While this collider brings us to the edge of human knowledge, this book brought me to the edge of my understanding of the deep science involved. It challenged me.
The Large Hadron Collider, on the border of France and Switzerland, tries to answer provocative questions: Why is our universe the way that it is? We live in a universe with three spatial and one time dimension. Why? What other dimensions could exist?
The LHC, a seventeen-mile device, is the largest and most powerful instrument built for science. Collider collisions recreate the conditions of our universe in the second or two after its creation. Ten thousand experimental physicists take part in the research around the world.
The 2013 Nobel Peace Prize in Physics went to those who discovered the so-called God particle here, the Higgs boson.
Don Lincoln works as a senior scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, about forty-five miles west of Chicago, near Batavia. I learned about this book from the co-author's bionote of this article in Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/art...
A friend worked at at Fermi in 1978, the year that I met her and her boyfriend, now married.
The Large Hadron Collider, on the border of France and Switzerland, tries to answer provocative questions: Why is our universe the way that it is? We live in a universe with three spatial and one time dimension. Why? What other dimensions could exist?
The LHC, a seventeen-mile device, is the largest and most powerful instrument built for science. Collider collisions recreate the conditions of our universe in the second or two after its creation. Ten thousand experimental physicists take part in the research around the world.
The 2013 Nobel Peace Prize in Physics went to those who discovered the so-called God particle here, the Higgs boson.
Don Lincoln works as a senior scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, about forty-five miles west of Chicago, near Batavia. I learned about this book from the co-author's bionote of this article in Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/art...
A friend worked at at Fermi in 1978, the year that I met her and her boyfriend, now married.
August 12, 2015
An easy to read involving story of the creation of the Hadron Collider - what makes it important and the issues surrounding it's creation and operations.
The author, Don Lincoln, really has first hand knowledge of the inner workings, the politics, competition, and the day to day workings of the Collider.
It's readable and even for non-tech folks accessible.
The author, Don Lincoln, really has first hand knowledge of the inner workings, the politics, competition, and the day to day workings of the Collider.
It's readable and even for non-tech folks accessible.
July 24, 2023
The amazing world of the very small parts of atoms: quarks and leptons is waiting for you. It is complex and very enlightening.
August 27, 2023
A great way for laymen enthusiasts to comprehend the work at the LHC.
March 3, 2015
A real nuts and bolts understanding of the LHC and its detectors.
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May 15, 2015539.73609 L736 2014
August 19, 2015
Good diagrams of the detectors and good discussion about the accelerator and detector technology (not very technical though).
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews