Present at the Creation: The Story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider

by Amir D. Aczel

The Large Hadron Collider is the biggest, and by far the most powerful, machine ever built. A project of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, its audacious purpose is to re-create, in a 16.5-mile-long circular tunnel under the French-Swiss countryside, the immensely hot and dense conditions that existed some 13.7 billion years ago within the first trillionth of a second after the fiery birth of our universe. The collider is now crashing protons at record energy levels never created by scientists before, and it will reach even higher levels by 2013. Its superconducting magnets guide two beams of protons in opposite directions around the track. After accelerating the beams to 99.9999991 percent of the speed of light, it collides the protons head-on, annihilating them in a flash of energy sufficient—in accordance with Einstein’s elegant statement of mass-energy equivalence, E=mc2—to coalesce into a shower of particles and phenomena that have not existed since the first moments of creation. Within the LHC’s detectors, scientists hope to see empirical confirmation of key theories in physics and cosmology.

In telling the story of what is perhaps the most anticipated experiment in the history of science, Amir D. Aczel takes us inside the control rooms at CERN at key moments when an international team of top researchers begins to discover whether this multibillion-euro investment will fulfill its spectacular promise. Through the eyes and words of the men and women who conceived and built CERN and the LHC—and with the same clarity and depth of knowledge he demonstrated in the bestselling Fermat’s Last Theorem—Aczel enriches all of us with a firm grounding in the scientific concepts we will need to appreciate the discoveries that will almost certainly spring forth when the full power of this great machine is finally unleashed.

Will the Higgs boson make its breathlessly awaited appearance, confirming at last the Standard Model of particles and their interactions that is among the great theoretical achievements of twentieth-century physics? Will the hidden dimensions posited by string theory be revealed? Will we at last identify the nature of the dark matter that makes up more than 90 percent of the cosmos? With Present at the Creation, written by one of today’s finest popular interpreters of basic science, we can all follow the progress of an experiment that promises to greatly satisfy the curiosity of anyone who ever concurred with Einstein when he said, “I want to know God’s thoughts—the rest is details.”

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Stem, History, Historical

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Amir Aczel was an Israeli-born American author of popular science and mathematics books. He was a lecturer in mathematics and history of mathematics.

He studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Getting graduating with a BA in mathematics in 1975, received a Master of Science in 1976 and several years later accomplished his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Oregon. He died in Nîmes, France in 2015.

Reviews

[Gendou · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book starts off with an outright lie:
"...energy the likes of which has not seen in our universe since a fraction of a second after the Big Bang"
First of all, the kinetic energy in a 100mph fastball is one hundred million times as great.
http://www.google.com/search?q=%281%2...
More applicably, "The Universe as a whole conducts more than 10 million million LHC-like experiments per second" in the form of cosmic rays which bombard the Earth.
http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/l...
I'm afraid to read on, with this kind of unforgivably shitty journalism...

"New particles and phenomena are likely to appear that, until now, have existed only in physicist's imaginations"
This is DEAD WRONG! New particles like the Higgs and WIMPs, if discovered, ALREADY EXISTED, and have some consequence in the universe, that's why we predicted they will be seen in the first place!

Oh, this is precious, Aczel refers to the Higgs boson as the "God Particle", and clarifies for us that it is, in fact, an "invisible particle". I smell a Pulitzer! Yeah, right.

Unbelievable, Aczel asserts that CP violation is a satisfactory explanation for why the "...Universe exists at all". Obviously, CP violation explains baryogenesis, but not why the UNIVERSE EXISTS. If the author is this confused about science, how confused must some of his readers be? Especially, considering the book has the word "Creation" in it.... frightening.

[Sotiris Makrygiannis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is a short story of CERN and those lovely neutrinos that we cannot see but are going thru our body every sec....

[Hind · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, except I thought it was about the LHC (which it isn’t) and some sloppy word choice.

[Psychonaut · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book to find out what all the "God Particle" fuss was about. I probably understood about 10% of this book, but what I did understand was pretty mind-blowing. Here are some facts I learned about the LHC:

It's the largest machine ever built- a 16.5 mile "race track" beneath the ground in Geneva, designed to crash protons into each other to replicate the conditions of the universe 1 trillionth of a second after the big bang. These protons crash into each other at 99.9999991% the speed of light (only because it's not possible to travel the speed of light), and each proton travels around the race track 11,000 times per second. The conditions inside this tunnel are -456 degrees Farenheit, which is the coldest place anywhere in the universe. When the protons crash into each other they generate 100,000 times more heat than the center of the sun. It took 20 years to build and was created as a counterreaction to the atomic bomb because they wanted to use nuclear energy research for positive not destructive reasons. As a result of the research that went into designing it, they have made advancements in medical treatment as well as the birth of the WWW which was created by a scientist working at the facility in order to have an easy way of sharing the research data with other scientists throughout the world. In addition to finding the God Particle (the particle that gives mass to energy- allowing matter to materialize) last year, they also hope to possibly create a small black hole, discover what dark energy and dark matter are made of (all the invisible parts of outer space), and possibly discover the existence of other demensions. Pretty freakin cool.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this was a very good oveview of the current state of theory in modern physics centered around the large Hadron Collider. The author gives a quick historical review of the development of what is called "modern physics" and the role of particle accelerators in the various discoveries about the origin of the universe and what matter is made of.
The LHC is by far the largest and most expensive machine ever built, costing around $20 billion in today's dollars. It was built to find a theoretical particle called the Higgs boson.
It is a wonderful reflection on the nature of man. Our curiosity is so great we would spend that much time and effort to find something that will never have the slightest practical value. Just simply "to know."
There are 10,000 scientists collaborating at CERN in connection with the LHC and that amazing fact has led to studies by anthropologists and sociologists of what has been dubbed "the large human collider."
Recommended for everyone with an interest in science.

[Cassandra Kay Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a pretty basic read. The information was good although some of the examples seemed perhaps wrong for what was being described? The paperclip example? I felt like that had too many flaws to gloss over, and there were others that were likewise perhaps unhelpful. Overall though it was better than the last book I read on the LHC, both in readability and content.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

We should all stop referring to individuals as 'geniuses'. We are hosts to genius, which used to be correctly understood as a spirit you must be ready for when it visits. Einstein's contributions to physics were incalculable--but so were the ones he could have made and didn't. Constrained the same as everyone else by satisfying ideas of symmetry, he was too attached to the idea of the Cosmological Constant to question the evidence of the universe's accelerating expansion. He missed the chance to add it to his legacy, and spent a lot of his career showing up to younger physicist's presentations of their theories to sit at the back and yell "NO. WRONG. DUMB." Often to theories that were later used to make highly accurate predictions.

Hawking also made irreplaceable contributions, but as a fellow scientist, he was a nightmare. He bet against Peter Higgs when they were still looking for the Higgs particle... bet in a mean spirit, not a comradery kind of way. Bet against him publicly in a way that used his fame to impact the kind of funding Higgs could access, and only 'won' because the study he was basing it on was never completed. As the book points out, Paul Dirac made far greater contributions to physics but isn't talked about as much. And as new evidence emerges around his relationship with Epstein, it's not a reach to say that Hawking abused his powerful connections for far more depraved reasons than just marginalizing vital work in the field.

In learning the history of physics, it was fascinating to see how many little contributions were necessary over the years to complete the picture, and how MANY of those contributions were made by men seemingly unmotivated by the collective good it would do. Those who were celebrated for genius often became jealously protective of their little part of the tapestry, and defended it even at the expense of greater understanding for the rest of their narrowing lives.

And yet...

None of the petty human frailties described in Amir Aczel's gorgeously written book could possibly eclipse the swallowing beauty of the high mystery these physicists and engineers seek to approach.

Despite all our little egotistical impulses, there is something akin to a profound spiritual occupation in choosing to dedicate your life to answering the most beautiful question ever asked, to describing and knowing and mapping the contours of that mystery as far as you can with your time on this earth.

Who knows if three kings truly crossed a desert to follow a star two thousand years ago to witness the humble birth of a Palestinian Jewish refugee? The Congolese claim to have found the path they took, and every winter I think about a young woman following the same star with only a husband and a donkey for prenatal care.

I don't see the pursuit of the Higgs particle, or any of the other particles that make up the Standard Model, as any less inspiring a story of faith. You risk no less to follow such a star, and the impulse to follow it could be thought of as a kind of gravity we are meant to surrender to. Do the attitudes and narrow beliefs of individual followers really matter when together, you bring us all into deeper understanding with the delicate dark logic at work under all things?

To sketch the face of a blackhole is to stand in the presence of the Phenomenon--or as close to it as you will ever get. The root structure in the human mind that drives us to map the mystery is the same one that drives us to approach it, give thanks to it, go silent when we feel its presence, remove our shoes to honour it, and create stories around it to give shape to the biggest feeling there is.

When I think of Kunta Kinte raising his daughter to the night sky so she may witness the only thing greater than herself, I can think of several theoretical physicists now who'd hurry their grown children out onto the lawn upon hearing of this blessing, to make up for inadequate previous baptisms.

I used to use henna to tattoo a design I made of the Large Hadron Collider on my leg every summer. I wished I had the money for years to visit there and say a silent prayer of thanks to the colossus without disturbing anyone else on the facilities tour. The money never came, but a fervent love for the machine and its ghost remains. After reading this book twice over the years, I'm determined to find the money to make that tattoo permanent as soon as possible :)

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is less about CERN and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and more about the history of uncovering the mysteries of particle physics. This description, which is mostly chronological, but tends to jump around quite a bit, is loaded with lofty scientific language that was usually beyond my scope of understanding. I have little to no experience with quantum physics, so I found myself skimming through these portions of the narrative in an effort to find more solid ground. If I tried to comprehend some of the more lofty language, it would take much more time than I am usually willing to dedicate on a single paragraph (or page, at times). I would get no closer to understanding what was trying to be conveyed, and I would end mentally drained.

This problem is further exacerbated by the fact that the narrative jumps from one concept to another with little to convey that the story was now moving on to a new brilliant scientist, or a new category of particles. I don't typically notice bold headers that gently push you, the reader, into understanding that this would be a new chunk of information. However, this title left me deeply wanting something of this sort to help compartmentalize topics.

Ultimately, I was disappointed that this had very little to do with CERN, and some of the incredible work that has been done with the help of the LHC. The salt in the wound is the fact that what the book actually is can be boring and confusing for the uninitiated. If you do understand these concepts, this title may be of some value to you, but I would still caution that, in this case the old proverb is true: You can't judge a book by its cover.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content of this book is fascinating. The delivery and story-telling drags on in certain sections.
The is not a page-turner but interesting for readers eager to learn more about physics.

The Large Hadron Collider is a multi-billion investment built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The goal of the collider is to crash protons at record energy levels. The flash of energy will be similar to the moments of the Big Bang. Scientists hope to measure the collider data and verify key theories of physics. This book dives into detail on Quantum Mechanics, Higgs Boson , cosmology, string theory and more.

The spoiler has a few observations:

LHC is the Largest machine ever built : 16.5 mile "race track" in Geneva, 20 years to build.
Designed to crash protons to replicate the conditions of the universe 1 trillionth of a second after the big bang.
Protons crash into each other at 99.9999991% the speed of light (only because it's not possible to travel the speed of light),
Each proton travels around the race track 11,000 times per second.
Superconductors keep collider at -456 degrees Farenheit, coldest place anywhere in the universe.
Protons crash and generate 100,000 times more heat than the center of the sun.

They hope to create a small black hole and see evidence of dark energy and dark matter and possibly discover the existence of other demensions.

[Degenerate Chemist · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little odd, but at the end of the day I enjoyed reading it.

The book spends about half its time talking about the story of the LHC and the other half giving a short overview of particle physics. The short overview may seem out of place, but I felt it was necessary so that the reader could understand the importance of the research taking place at the LHC.

On a personal level this book hit all the right notes- I love impressive feats of engineering and the history of science. Reading the details about the construction and the massive detectors kept me hooked. Reading the stories and personal anecdotes of famous physicists was fascinating. I absolutely lost it laughing reading about the scientist who climbed into one of the detectors so he could experience 4 tesla.

That being said, this book did start to drag a little in some places. And I think this book would be very dense for someone coming into it with no background in physics. The author makes an effort to make the topic accessible, but that is pretty hard to do with particle physics. It is best to come to this one with a little knowledge on physics discoveries in the 20th century, or be prepared to do a little research while you are reading.

[Danielle Crawford · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was disappointing. Instead of being a book about the trials and triumphs of CERN being built and the discoveries that the scientists who use CERN, it spent much of the book dryly going over particle physics. If I were looking for a book on particle physics, I would look to Sagan or Feynman or Tyson, who can dissemble these complex topics in a way for laypeople to understand. This book was supposed to be about CERN and seeing as there were a great many stumbling blocks that are only briefly touched on, and not explored in any detail, I don't understand why this book has the subtitle of the story of CERN.

[george stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the narrative-based approach to understanding the development of the standard model and how it compares with string theory. I understand that this book is a surface-level overview of the subjects. However, I still had to search online to understand better some of the subjects such as the entire section on dark energy and matter.

Overall, an interesting book for people wanting to achieve a baseline understanding of various particles and why the development of LHC was the next step for experimental physics in particle discovery.

[Sangeet Cherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the summaries, history and brief bios of the scientists and their work in particle physics. CERN and LHC are explained in good detail.
The thing I didn't like is the flow of the book. It felt like there was no structure and therefore did not feel engaging.

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

B.

[Luciano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent books in terms of describing CERN recent history and also explaining complex concepts around particles in a very clear way.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this just a couple of months before the Higgs Boson was proven. Absolutely riveting in normal Aczel form.

[Strong Extraordinary Dreams · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others have said: weirdly written. And it's because this is a book-long magazıne article - switch subjects here, follow this rabbit hole - in order to make it interesting. So it is a complete jumble. Where was the editor?

I liked the sub-atomic, historic interludes, and the subject (the book was, occasionally, about CERN) but a magazine article of that length . . . really tires.

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a bit odd in a way: very uneven in quality. Some were excellent descriptions of the science involved and why the LHC is so important. Other parts were simply gossip such as recounting how a physicist had an arranged marriage back in Africa or maybe India, I forget which, and then had a concurrent marriage in England and how both wives came to the Nobel ceremony and the etiquette people were going nuts trying to figure out how to seat the trio. Who cares, really? Sure, it made a break from the extremely difficult science but really wasn't anything all that interesting or related to the topic of the book. Some parts of the explanations I understood pretty well, other parts just didn't make sense to me. While normally, I blame my inability to understand the science on me, this time, I think it was both the author and me. His explanations were simply too verbose, too jargon ridden. The author seems quite proud of his acquaintanceship among the top physicists and does a fair amount of name dropping that is going to go over the heads of people who aren't already part of this scene. Some of the name dropping got in the way of explanations and left me trying to figure out why such and such a person was even named in the paragraph I was reading. I was also annoyed by the fact that he felt a need to identify the ethnic backgrounds of everyone. I think that reached a climax when I read that a scientist was a Jewish Norwegian or Swede. The Jewish part is relevant how? He didn't identify all the Catholic or Protestant Swedes. I just found this aggravating and irrelevant to the story being told.

I am looking forward to trying the next science book on my physical to-read shelf which is by an author I've already read and felt he did a good job explaining things. In the meantime, I'm going to go figure out whether to read the next book on my shelf, a book I just purchased, or the book I borrowed! This book is basically not recommended because it just didn't do enough to increase my knowledge of the science or scientists involved and doesn't leave me with a sense of satisfaction after spending a fair amount of time reading it.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Large Hadron Collider is the biggest, and by far the most powerful, machine ever built. A project of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, its audacious purpose is to re-create, in a 16.5-mile-long circular tunnel under the French-Swiss countryside, the immensely hot and dense conditions that existed some 13.7 billion years ago within the first trillionth of a second after the fiery birth of our universe.
The collider is now crashing protons at record energy levels never created by scientists before, and it will reach even higher levels by 2013. Its superconducting magnets guide two beams of protons in opposite directions around the track. After accelerating the beams to 99.9999991 percent of the speed of light, it collides the protons head-on, annihilating them in a flash of energy sufficient to coalesce into a shower of particles and phenomena that have not existed since the first moments of creation. Within the LHC’s detectors, scientists hope to see empirical confirmation of key theories in physics and cosmology.
In telling the story of what is perhaps the most anticipated experiment in the history of science, Amir D. Aczel takes us inside the control rooms at CERN at key moments when an international team of top researchers begins to discover whether this multibillion-euro investment will fulfill its spectacular promise. Through the eyes and words of the men and women who conceived and built CERN and the LHC, Aczel enriches all of us with a firm grounding in the scientific concepts we will need to appreciate the discoveries that will almost certainly spring forth when the full power of this great machine is finally unleashed.
With Present at the Creation, we can all follow the progress of an experiment that promises to greatly satisfy the curiosity of anyone who ever concurred with Einstein when he said, “I want to know God’s thoughts - the rest is details.”

[Daniel R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful overview of the science behind and the science being tested at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The book describes the collaboration and building of the greatest machine in history and in the process introduces many of the people responsible for its creation and the many theories that scientists hope to test as it reaches ever larger energy levels. At times the shear breadth of material can be a little overwhelming if you are not well versed in topics such as particle physics, quantum theories, and the standard model. I'm sure I would gain a better understanding reading it again. The science is interleaved with vignettes of the author interviews or stories about many of the scientists mentioned throughout the book. I now I have a much greater appreciation for the LHC itself and what it is helping to accomplish.

[KristineL. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this book--it fed my curiosity on the Large Hadron Collider, about which I only had a basic understanding.
Aczel's writing style flows well and the narrative is easy to follow. It almost felt as though we were sitting in a cafe and he was recounting all these stories over a cup of warm tea. The only reason I didn't give the book five stars is that the author seems to assume the reader is well versed in the subject of particle, quantum and theoretical physics--as a result he does not spend much time covering the fundamentals of these branches of science, making the book hard to follow at some points.
I would strongly recommend reading the appendices first as they take you through how the Large Hadron Collider actually works (a question I kept asking myself throughout the book) as well as the particles and principles discussed in the book.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The large Hadron collider was built to prove the standard model of the universe is true or to find an alternate theory that really proves everything. I understood the first part of the book because it reviewed the particles sought and I was familiar with this. The second section of the book deals with cosmological theory and I understood very little of this because it was all new. The final section of the book is about the actual machine and is very readable. I think the author tries to condense too much into too little space hence the book may be a little confusing for people who know little about popular physics and cosmology, but if you have to start reading about the subject somewhere this is probably as good a place as any where to start.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good! The scope was a bit narrow only really focusing on the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, but it's understandable since the LHC hasn't been in operation that long.

The history behind the construction and the different roles played by the partner nations was all very interesting and I really enjoyed the little vignettes of the high-energy and quantum scientists that pioneered the field.

My favorite factoid: the LHC is comprised of over 1 billion miles of ultra-fine superconducting filaments, enough to stretch from the Earth to the Sun and back again five times!

It's fun, give it a shot.

[Nicholas Dummer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well written and informative introduction to the LHC at CERN. It provided information regarding the history of CERN, the history of some of the major characters and theories involved in its development, a brief overview of simplified particle physics, the detectors and experiments at the LHC, and some hopes for the future. This book is now a couple of years dated. I might recommend The Particle at the End of the Universe for a more up to date picture of the CERN experiments which goes through November, 2012 and includes data on the Higgs Boson (this book ends in May 2010 with the ramp up to 3.5 TeV in each collision tube).

[Leilani · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading this, I have a better idea of what CERN is and what the details of the different experiments being conducted at the Large Hadron Collider are. The snippets of interviews with so many eminent scientists were intriguing glimpses at the personalities of the heroes of modern physics.

Aczel does his best to describe the science behind everything for his readers - and thank goodness for the glossary at the back - but I still got lost in the supersymmetry chapter and felt my head swimming with the multitudes of subatomic particles at times.

[Vincent Russo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice overview of the current state of particle physics at the time this book was released. Since then, the Higgs has been discovered, but the book is still quite relevant as much of the content on the Higgs was the implication for its existence within the standard model of physics. The book also has some nice anecdotes of the scientists working in this field to make it entertaining to a wider audience. Certainly a good book to advocate the importance of funding large projects in science, and what fundamental contributions and insight can result because of it.

[Mohammed alkindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book took my breath as it describes the journey from its infancy in 1954 till the big succsess in 2010 when CERN managed to witness a collision of 7 GeV of protons that took place. my visit to CERN this week was the icing cream of my readings in my interest to physics. i enjoyed it so much that 5 hours pass as if it was a 5 min. looking forward for CERN to discover the log awaited particle, the heg boson

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Present at the Creation: The Story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider by Amir Aczel was a very good overview. I'm sure that Aczel simplified the reality to make it somewhat understandable to someone like myself. I appreciate the effort he made to screen me from the complex math and physics. Perhaps I don't understand the significance of the Higg's Boson or the Large Hadron Collider to the same degree as the project's scientists, but after reading Aczel's book, it does seem to make sense.

[Murthy Adivi · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, while most of the books I have read about physics and cosmology dealt with all other aspects of reality, this is the first book that dealt exclusively about the standard atomic model. The detail about the various subatomic particles is unbelievable. I always presumed that there aren't any books because the topic becomes dry and technical too soon. Especially if you are a non physicist.

Not to mention the list of scientists you don't usually get to read about in the other books.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is much about particle physics I do not understand (most of it, in fact) and was hoping for an accessible explanation. I find annoying the inaccurate details in things I do know about - such as the Kelvin temperature scale does not come in degrees; it’s 12 kelvins, not 12 degrees kelvin - and such errors make me doubt the accuracy of all the material in which I haven't the background to detect inaccuracy.