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The Infinity Puzzle
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Product Description
Review
fascinating book (Nature )
thoroughly researched and well-crafted narrative (New Scientist )
masterpiece...I never normally give 5 stars but for this I make an exception. (John Gribbin, BBC Focus )
thoroughly researched and well-crafted narrative (New Scientist )
masterpiece...I never normally give 5 stars but for this I make an exception. (John Gribbin, BBC Focus )
Product Description
We are living in a Golden Age of Physics. Forty or so years ago, three brilliant, yet little-known scientists - an American, a Dutchman, and an Englishman - made breakthroughs which later inspired the construction of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva: a 27 kilometer-long machine which has already costs ten billion dollars, taken twenty years to build, and now promises to reveal how the universe itself came to be. The Infinity Puzzle is the inside story of those forty years of research, breakthrough, and endeavour. Peter Higgs, Gerard 't Hooft and James Bjorken, were the three scientists whose work is explored here, played out across the decades against a backdrop of high politics, low behaviour, and billion dollar budgets. Written from within by Frank Close, the eminent physicist and award-winning writer, The Infinity Puzzle also draws upons the author's close friendships with those involved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Frank Close has a clear engaging writing style such that this book at times takes the characteristics of a good page-turner novel. Only here the characters are real people. The author has gone to great lengths in his attempt to write an accurate history of the people and events that have led to the current search for the Higgs Particle at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva. He is open and honest in stating that he may not have got everything right. However he has clearly gone to great lengths to resolve conflicting accounts even at one stage reporting a delayed flight in part of the narrative! A number of Nobel Prize Winners are described in these pages, warts and all, together with a number of oustanding Physicists that never received the ultimate accolade. One conclusion that could be drawn is that many Theoretical Physicists are filled with arrogance and self-importance such that they have little regard to those they trample on in their quest for the prize. The non-specialist will probably be glad to learn that this book does not delve into the complex mathematics that under-pins Particle Physics. Nevertheless there is no escaping many complex ideas that will take time and very possibly internet searches to gain some understanding of what is at stake. Is it worth the time and trouble? This reader thinks it is. A large group of international Scientists are spending many billions of tax-payers hard earned cash and the tax-payer has a right to know that these funds are not being wasted as has occured with many government projects(e.g. in the UK, The National Programme for IT). Will the LHC deliver value for money? In this reader's view the answer is a definate maybe. It is not possible to predict the potential technical spin-offs that could transform the way we live and work. Two small criticisms: I would have liked to see included a comprehensive glossary together with a good quality schematic summarising the current state of knowledge in Particle Physics. However with 338 pages of text supported by 49 pages of notes covering all chapters perhaps it is unreasonable to ask for more. I have rated this book five star for the non-specialist but be prepared to be challenged with some of the detail.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
For an experimentalist in particle physics, this book is an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable read.
An exemplary overview of the field and as precise an historical (unbiased) narrative as you can get.
Often, when those involved write such treatises, it ends up almost autobiographical.
I recall an ex lab director once writing half a book of outstanding physics text.
Unfortunately the other half was peppered with sarcastic humour and self-glorification to the point of nauseousness.
Here the author writes with a reverent intimacy while modestly removing himself away from the limelight.
Some lay-readers could find it heavy in parts - homework needs to be done.
After all, as the author points out, theoretical physics is often incomprehensible to, even, experimentalists in the field.
Classic example. The SLAC results of the late 1960s and their interpretation into the quark model via Bjorken scaling.
Here the book would have benefited from at least a paragraph to bridge the gap with the odd diagram.
Perhaps drawing analogies with early Rutherford scattering.
Indeed, if any of this terminology is unfamiliar to the reader, this is not the book for them.
Hence one star lopped for the lack of a little more background explanation in the odd place.
The book places more emphasis on the subterfuge and shenanigans of chasing Nobel honours rather than the actual physics itself.
Still, so much better than the plethora of dross out there trying to cash in on the LHC, reality TV, bandwagon.
An exemplary overview of the field and as precise an historical (unbiased) narrative as you can get.
Often, when those involved write such treatises, it ends up almost autobiographical.
I recall an ex lab director once writing half a book of outstanding physics text.
Unfortunately the other half was peppered with sarcastic humour and self-glorification to the point of nauseousness.
Here the author writes with a reverent intimacy while modestly removing himself away from the limelight.
Some lay-readers could find it heavy in parts - homework needs to be done.
After all, as the author points out, theoretical physics is often incomprehensible to, even, experimentalists in the field.
Classic example. The SLAC results of the late 1960s and their interpretation into the quark model via Bjorken scaling.
Here the book would have benefited from at least a paragraph to bridge the gap with the odd diagram.
Perhaps drawing analogies with early Rutherford scattering.
Indeed, if any of this terminology is unfamiliar to the reader, this is not the book for them.
Hence one star lopped for the lack of a little more background explanation in the odd place.
The book places more emphasis on the subterfuge and shenanigans of chasing Nobel honours rather than the actual physics itself.
Still, so much better than the plethora of dross out there trying to cash in on the LHC, reality TV, bandwagon.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
You do not have to be a nuclear physicist to read this book, I am a simple chemical engineer and although nuclear physics has always been a mystery to me I found this book totally absorbing
This is mainly a history of the incredibly competitive world of research in particle physics, not a text book full of obscure equations, but it gives you some understanding of what is happening in nature at the sub-atomic level.
It explains how mass and energy are interchangeable, why we are spending so much money on gigantic machines like the Large Hadron Collider and why physicists are so keen to find the elusive Higgs boson
I'll need to read it again to better understand some of the trickier concepts, but because this book is so well written I am really looking forward to doing just that!
This is mainly a history of the incredibly competitive world of research in particle physics, not a text book full of obscure equations, but it gives you some understanding of what is happening in nature at the sub-atomic level.
It explains how mass and energy are interchangeable, why we are spending so much money on gigantic machines like the Large Hadron Collider and why physicists are so keen to find the elusive Higgs boson
I'll need to read it again to better understand some of the trickier concepts, but because this book is so well written I am really looking forward to doing just that!
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