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The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?
In this extraordinarily accessible and enormously witty book, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman guides us on a fascinating tour of the history of particle physics. The book takes us from the Greeks' earliest scientific observations through Einstein and beyond in an inspiring celebration of human curiosity. It ends with the quest for the Higgs boson, nicknamed the God Particle, which scientists hypothesize will help unlock the last secrets of the subatomic universe. With a new preface by Lederman, The God Particle will leave you marveling at our continuing pursuit of the infinitesimal.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Leon M. Lederman
11 books70 followersLeon M. Lederman (Ph.D., Columbia University) was Director of The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a position he held for ten years. He was the Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. He received the National Medal of Science in 1965 and shared the Wolf Prize in physics in 1982. Dr. Lederman shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of the muon neutrino.
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December 25, 2017
Una obra maestra de la divulgación.
Leon Lederman es premio Nobel en física, es además un conocido científico con grandes aportaciones al a física de partículas del siglo XX, es testigo directo de grandes descubrimientos y ha presenciado momentos históricos en la ciencia, amigo y compañero de los más grandes... pero por encima de todo es un cachondo.
La partícula divina es una revisión histórica de la física de partículas, con una profundidad adecuada, nunca excesiva, siempre al alcance de cualquier humano y con una dosis de humor y originalidad que lo hace delicioso a la vista. Un juguete de 577 páginas. Bravo.
No te quiero contar más porque prefiero que tú mismo lo descubras. Ve a comprar este libro y disfrútalo.
No te vas a arrepentir.
Leon Lederman es premio Nobel en física, es además un conocido científico con grandes aportaciones al a física de partículas del siglo XX, es testigo directo de grandes descubrimientos y ha presenciado momentos históricos en la ciencia, amigo y compañero de los más grandes... pero por encima de todo es un cachondo.
La partícula divina es una revisión histórica de la física de partículas, con una profundidad adecuada, nunca excesiva, siempre al alcance de cualquier humano y con una dosis de humor y originalidad que lo hace delicioso a la vista. Un juguete de 577 páginas. Bravo.
No te quiero contar más porque prefiero que tú mismo lo descubras. Ve a comprar este libro y disfrútalo.
No te vas a arrepentir.
July 24, 2013
Why am I reading a twenty year old popular physics book? The title alone would have been enough to make me steer clear — this label, god particle, for the Higgs boson, is just the kind of hype and misrepresentation that science does not need — I can't get behind that. Nevertheless... well, a friend gave me a copy of this book and said that it was one of his favorite books, so, yeah, that's why. Despite initial misgivings, I did eventually come to enjoy it. Despite some slow parts and some theoretical parts where the book is beginning to show its age, I did come away with an overall favorable impression, and would recommend it to others for certain topics that it covered splendidly.
The best of them were the detailed explanations of how many important particle physics experiments throughout history were done — how they proved what they proved, and how the apparatus was constructed. One tends to read pop physics by theorists, but this one is by an experimenter, a Nobel Prize winning experimenter at that. It's a different perspective from most of what other physics I have read, and has a nuts and bolts feel to it. You get a hardware-level look at everything from Galileo's inclined planes, to the earliest alpha-particle scattering experiments to the invention and development of cyclotrons and synchrotrons, and the different kinds of detectors used in them. We also learn about how different experimental setups competed for some of the same discoveries, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of, say, electron-positron colliders compared to proton-antiproton colliders.
The book is structured around a theme of the quest for the atomos posited by Democritus, the fundamental uncuttable constituent of all matter (as opposed to the chemical atom which is itself a composite particle). This theme is traced all the way from Democritus (what little we know of him) to the physicists of the Enlightenment, the 19th century, and into the modern era. I found the connection to ancient Greek philosophy to be a bit of a stretch, or at least over-emphasized, but it was at least food for thought. There were some whimsical digressions where the author played with this theme — imaginary conversations with Democritus — that I personally found to be the most dull parts of the book. On the other hand, there were also fascinating stories about famous scientists that I had not heard before, and even a few lesser-known scientists that I was introduced to for the first time, like Boscovich. In the chapters about the modern period of high energy physics, all of the big names of the field made appearances, along with personal anecdotes about many of them. The parts written as memoir are some of the most entertaining parts of the book.
This book is becoming a little bit dated as far as the physics and cosmology it covers is concerned. Not so much that it's wrong, as that it is incomplete. At the time this was written, the Superconducting Supercollider project had not yet been cancelled, the Large Hadron Collider had not yet been announced, the tau particle had not been discovered, the accelerating expansion of the universe (and dark energy) was unknown, and the age of the universe was only known to be "about 15 billion years". For this reason, I did not focus so much on the physics and cosmology in the book, and read more for the history and engineering. This made some parts of the book seem like a very slow read.
There was one outright error in the edition that I read that first brought me confusion, then surprise. I can only hope that it was corrected in later editions. On page 278, the time-energy uncertainty principle was described incorrectly: "borrowed energy times the duration of the loan must be greater than Planck's constant divided by twice pi". That should read "uncertainty of ..." for both terms, and four pi, not two pi. I also wondered about another statement later in the book, but I forget now what it was.
To end on a positive note, I did want to mention that Leon Lederman is a very entertaining personality and his personality comes through vividly in his writing. There were definitely some laugh-out-loud moments in this book. I'm glad to have taken time to learn about Leon Lederman's life and work and his contributions to our understanding of the universe.
The best of them were the detailed explanations of how many important particle physics experiments throughout history were done — how they proved what they proved, and how the apparatus was constructed. One tends to read pop physics by theorists, but this one is by an experimenter, a Nobel Prize winning experimenter at that. It's a different perspective from most of what other physics I have read, and has a nuts and bolts feel to it. You get a hardware-level look at everything from Galileo's inclined planes, to the earliest alpha-particle scattering experiments to the invention and development of cyclotrons and synchrotrons, and the different kinds of detectors used in them. We also learn about how different experimental setups competed for some of the same discoveries, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of, say, electron-positron colliders compared to proton-antiproton colliders.
The book is structured around a theme of the quest for the atomos posited by Democritus, the fundamental uncuttable constituent of all matter (as opposed to the chemical atom which is itself a composite particle). This theme is traced all the way from Democritus (what little we know of him) to the physicists of the Enlightenment, the 19th century, and into the modern era. I found the connection to ancient Greek philosophy to be a bit of a stretch, or at least over-emphasized, but it was at least food for thought. There were some whimsical digressions where the author played with this theme — imaginary conversations with Democritus — that I personally found to be the most dull parts of the book. On the other hand, there were also fascinating stories about famous scientists that I had not heard before, and even a few lesser-known scientists that I was introduced to for the first time, like Boscovich. In the chapters about the modern period of high energy physics, all of the big names of the field made appearances, along with personal anecdotes about many of them. The parts written as memoir are some of the most entertaining parts of the book.
This book is becoming a little bit dated as far as the physics and cosmology it covers is concerned. Not so much that it's wrong, as that it is incomplete. At the time this was written, the Superconducting Supercollider project had not yet been cancelled, the Large Hadron Collider had not yet been announced, the tau particle had not been discovered, the accelerating expansion of the universe (and dark energy) was unknown, and the age of the universe was only known to be "about 15 billion years". For this reason, I did not focus so much on the physics and cosmology in the book, and read more for the history and engineering. This made some parts of the book seem like a very slow read.
There was one outright error in the edition that I read that first brought me confusion, then surprise. I can only hope that it was corrected in later editions. On page 278, the time-energy uncertainty principle was described incorrectly: "borrowed energy times the duration of the loan must be greater than Planck's constant divided by twice pi". That should read "uncertainty of ..." for both terms, and four pi, not two pi. I also wondered about another statement later in the book, but I forget now what it was.
To end on a positive note, I did want to mention that Leon Lederman is a very entertaining personality and his personality comes through vividly in his writing. There were definitely some laugh-out-loud moments in this book. I'm glad to have taken time to learn about Leon Lederman's life and work and his contributions to our understanding of the universe.
January 29, 2024
For a critique, refer to fellow GRer retroj and their review. I appreciate their ability to summarize the physics Leon was covering in the book.
What I most liked about The God Particle, hard as it was for me to get through, is the author's reminder of how important it is for the lay person to have some science literacy. As Leon says, "the concern over science illiteracy is legitimate, among other reasons because of the ever-increasing linkage of science, technology, and public welfare."
There are some startling passages of beauty in the science of the book, particularly the symmetry and the pageantry of the minuscule particles that comprise the world we inhabit. But I also loved his reminder of Shelley's exhortation from his Defense of Poetry that "one of the sacred tasks of the artist is to 'absorb the new knowledge of the sciences and assimilate it to human needs, color it with human passions, and transform it into the blood and bone of human nature.' If we had Byron and Keats and Shelley and their French, Italian and Urdu equivalents explaining science, the science literacy of the general public would be far higher than it is now."
But Lederman did a good job, kept the story engaging and frequently funny. He won the Nobel in Physics in 1993 and passed away in 2018.
This from the poet Rumi (800+ years ago) feels appropriate to much that Lederman was telling us about how quantum physicists explore the unseen world:
The master who teaches us
Is absolute light, not this visibility.
What I most liked about The God Particle, hard as it was for me to get through, is the author's reminder of how important it is for the lay person to have some science literacy. As Leon says, "the concern over science illiteracy is legitimate, among other reasons because of the ever-increasing linkage of science, technology, and public welfare."
There are some startling passages of beauty in the science of the book, particularly the symmetry and the pageantry of the minuscule particles that comprise the world we inhabit. But I also loved his reminder of Shelley's exhortation from his Defense of Poetry that "one of the sacred tasks of the artist is to 'absorb the new knowledge of the sciences and assimilate it to human needs, color it with human passions, and transform it into the blood and bone of human nature.' If we had Byron and Keats and Shelley and their French, Italian and Urdu equivalents explaining science, the science literacy of the general public would be far higher than it is now."
But Lederman did a good job, kept the story engaging and frequently funny. He won the Nobel in Physics in 1993 and passed away in 2018.
This from the poet Rumi (800+ years ago) feels appropriate to much that Lederman was telling us about how quantum physicists explore the unseen world:
The master who teaches us
Is absolute light, not this visibility.
May 6, 2008
A very lively, funny, and informative book by Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman. The first part of the book is a vivid and hilarious historical survey of ideas and discoveries in Western physics from the Greeks down to the present day. Having brought you as a reader step by step on this journey, Lederman then opens the door to his own utterly fascinating but little-understood speciality, particle physics. Lederman conveys with excitement and humor what it is like to be one of two or three people in the world who are pushing the frontiers of scientific knowledge in a particular specialized area. This book is especially significant right now, in 2008, as we are about to see the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, begin operation. The entire aim of the LHC is to find the elusive Higgs boson, the "God Particle" of the book's title, which would largely confirm the Standard Model of physics. Leon Lederman takes you by the hand and walks you through all these ideas with joy and humor. This is one of the sharpest science books for the general reader ever published.
July 5, 2021
Estoy cómo el bosón ¡Encantada!
Al acercarte a este libro te encuentras con al menos 50 años de experiencia de León Lederman en el campo de la física de partículas, que nos lleva por un entretenido viaje en la construcción del concepto histórica del á-tomo desde Mileto hasta el Fermilab y el CERN, en la construcción del Modelo Estándar.
Para los lectores que tienen una formación básica en Ciencias, en especial en Física, es necesario tener “sitzfleish”, en otras palabras resistencia y perseverancia, ya que son 583 páginas.
Aunque el autor a través de explicaciones, analogías y anécdotas jocosas, hace sencillo el entender sus historias, para el lector del año 2021, es necesario buscar otras fuentes para ampliar la información, por ejemplo para comprender cómo y cuál fue el destino de los aceleradores de partículas, imágenes que permitan visualizar mejor las explicaciones, así como las biografías de muchos científicos que aportaron desde sus diferentes talentos a la construcción del edificio al que llamamos ciencia y que corren el riesgo de ser perdidos en el pasar del tiempo.
Recomiendo este libro a los jóvenes que inician su camino en la ciencia, ya que comprender de manera significativa que “el entender da poder”, el conocer la historia de la ciencia, le permita a la humanidad tomar decisiones informadas, así cómo comprender que los avances tecnológicos que hoy disfrutamos son gracias a la investigación pura, llevada a cabo por científicos que son humanos, así como también la necesidad de hacer el lobby gubernamental para el acceso a recursos y el comprender que se necesita hacer proyectos a largo plazo y no pensar en cosas inmediatistas.
Aunque el final me pareció ambiguo, es comprensible ya que para la fecha de la publicación en 1993, el bosón de Higgs solo estaba teorizado, en 2012 fue anunciado el descubrimiento por el CERN.
Al acercarte a este libro te encuentras con al menos 50 años de experiencia de León Lederman en el campo de la física de partículas, que nos lleva por un entretenido viaje en la construcción del concepto histórica del á-tomo desde Mileto hasta el Fermilab y el CERN, en la construcción del Modelo Estándar.
Para los lectores que tienen una formación básica en Ciencias, en especial en Física, es necesario tener “sitzfleish”, en otras palabras resistencia y perseverancia, ya que son 583 páginas.
Aunque el autor a través de explicaciones, analogías y anécdotas jocosas, hace sencillo el entender sus historias, para el lector del año 2021, es necesario buscar otras fuentes para ampliar la información, por ejemplo para comprender cómo y cuál fue el destino de los aceleradores de partículas, imágenes que permitan visualizar mejor las explicaciones, así como las biografías de muchos científicos que aportaron desde sus diferentes talentos a la construcción del edificio al que llamamos ciencia y que corren el riesgo de ser perdidos en el pasar del tiempo.
Recomiendo este libro a los jóvenes que inician su camino en la ciencia, ya que comprender de manera significativa que “el entender da poder”, el conocer la historia de la ciencia, le permita a la humanidad tomar decisiones informadas, así cómo comprender que los avances tecnológicos que hoy disfrutamos son gracias a la investigación pura, llevada a cabo por científicos que son humanos, así como también la necesidad de hacer el lobby gubernamental para el acceso a recursos y el comprender que se necesita hacer proyectos a largo plazo y no pensar en cosas inmediatistas.
Aunque el final me pareció ambiguo, es comprensible ya que para la fecha de la publicación en 1993, el bosón de Higgs solo estaba teorizado, en 2012 fue anunciado el descubrimiento por el CERN.
October 17, 2013
An extraordinary book. Engrossing without being over simplistic and filled with wit and interesting anecdotes, The God Particle is a chronicle of the human intellectual endeavour to answer some of the Universe's most challenging questions. Lucidly written and inspiring, it is a must read for anyone even remotely interested in Physics.
December 4, 2022
One of the best science books I’ve read. Leon Lederman has written this masterfully, making physics of particles understandable and engaging for broader masses, which is not the easiest topic to understand, considering the amount of abstract thinking it requires.
The book covers various topics, starting with history of particles which begins in Greece with Democritus, who gave the first philosophical explanation of undividable particle as the main building block of the universe, all the way to Newton, Galilee, Mendeleev, Einstein and the rest of modern quantum physicists, while describing every significant discovery in their work which led humanity towards the Standard Model.
Aside from all of this, the book covers imaginary dream talks among Lederman and Greek philosophers, explanations of how super-colliders work, dynamics of work between theoretical and experimental physicists, funny stories of Fermilab's and CERN's discoveries, interesting insights into the role of politics in science projects and a lot more. And all of this is packaged in a simple witty writing, which always left me guessing where he was gonna go next.
However, there are parts which are more challenging, and although Lederman masterfully simplifies concepts, I’ve found myself stuck at moments, acknowledging that I require additional knowledge for full understanding. This was mostly notable in chapters about Standard Model, which is actually my only critique, where Lederman jumped from various sub-particles and topics, not fully structuring the lessons in a sensible way, but going through everything in a free-flow type of way. But then again, I guess the point was to explain discoveries which lead to Standard Model, and not the model itself.
All in all, a great book, to which I will definitely return once I learn more.
The book covers various topics, starting with history of particles which begins in Greece with Democritus, who gave the first philosophical explanation of undividable particle as the main building block of the universe, all the way to Newton, Galilee, Mendeleev, Einstein and the rest of modern quantum physicists, while describing every significant discovery in their work which led humanity towards the Standard Model.
Aside from all of this, the book covers imaginary dream talks among Lederman and Greek philosophers, explanations of how super-colliders work, dynamics of work between theoretical and experimental physicists, funny stories of Fermilab's and CERN's discoveries, interesting insights into the role of politics in science projects and a lot more. And all of this is packaged in a simple witty writing, which always left me guessing where he was gonna go next.
However, there are parts which are more challenging, and although Lederman masterfully simplifies concepts, I’ve found myself stuck at moments, acknowledging that I require additional knowledge for full understanding. This was mostly notable in chapters about Standard Model, which is actually my only critique, where Lederman jumped from various sub-particles and topics, not fully structuring the lessons in a sensible way, but going through everything in a free-flow type of way. But then again, I guess the point was to explain discoveries which lead to Standard Model, and not the model itself.
All in all, a great book, to which I will definitely return once I learn more.
August 22, 2019
Es la segunda vez que lo leo, la primera me quedé a la mitad. Ahora puedo decir que pude con él! No es malo, de hecho la síntesis que hace del mundo de las partículas, mecánica cuántica, historia del átomo, hasta llegar a los aceleradores de protones es bastante buena, pero para alguien completamente ajeno a ese campo resulta complejo. Hubo varios capítulos a los que entré en blanco, y salí igual jaja pero aun así disfruté y aprendí miles de cosas que ignoraba.
September 21, 2021
Estamos ante un libro muy completo en lo referente a aceleradores de partículas, me encanta la parte en la que repasa la historia de la ciencia, desde sus inicios desde una perspectiva humorística peculiar, es divertido en algunos tramosdel libro y su autor un premio nobel cuenta anécdota tras anécdota sus descubrimientos.
El libro tiene un error, nos cuenta Lederman que Neil Armstrong fue el astronauta que realizó el experimento de Galileo con un martillo y una pluma, pero no fue así, ocurrió años mas tarde con el Apolo 15, David Scott fue el Astronauta que lo realizó.
Recomiendo este libro para todo aquel que quiera aprender sobre la física de partículas, es algo duro en algunos tramos del libro y se hace largo tantos conceptos de cuántica, hay que tener un buen nivel en este sentido para entenderlo todo.
El libro tiene un error, nos cuenta Lederman que Neil Armstrong fue el astronauta que realizó el experimento de Galileo con un martillo y una pluma, pero no fue así, ocurrió años mas tarde con el Apolo 15, David Scott fue el Astronauta que lo realizó.
Recomiendo este libro para todo aquel que quiera aprender sobre la física de partículas, es algo duro en algunos tramos del libro y se hace largo tantos conceptos de cuántica, hay que tener un buen nivel en este sentido para entenderlo todo.
April 24, 2020
¡Maravilloso!
No me divertía tanto leyendo un libro de divulgación de la física como lo hice con este otro clásico. El autor León Lederman es un verdadero genio, no solo como físico experimental (ganador del Premio Nobel) sino también como divulgador. No me quedaron sino ganas de leer sus otros libros de divulgación. (Se supone que el libro esta escrito en colaboración con otro autor pero todo lo que leí solo me suena a Lederman).
Como su nombre lo indica (¿o no?) el libro esta destinado a contar la historia de la "partícula divina" (un término muy odioso) o como la llamaba el mismo Lederman la "goddamn particle" o la "maldita partícula" (que es el nombre original del libro pero que fue modificado por sugerencia del editor para evitar la susceptibilidad de lectores conservadores).
Se refiere naturalmente al bosón de Higgs (o campo de Higgs) propuesto originalmente en los años 1960 como parte del mecanismo responsable por "ocultar" una de las más bellas simetrías en la naturaleza: la simetría gauge electrodébil; o en otras palabras, el hecho de que las que creemos son dos interacciones diferentes, la interacción electromagnética y la interaccción débil, en el fondo es una sola interacción mediada por 4 tipos de partículas que viajan a la velocidad de la luz: el fotón, el zetaón y los wueones (je, je).
En este libro de 580 páginas (al menos en la edición de Drakontos de bolsillo) La maldita partícula hace su aparición oficial solo hasta la página 480, confirmando algo que todos los que nos dedicamos a la ciencia y hacemos docencia y divulgación sabemos: cualquier hecho de la realidad científica es mucho más contexto que dato. El dato (que existe un campo escalar que interactúa con la mayor��a de las partículas dotándolas de inercia y que eso es lo que hace la diferencia entre la interacción débil y la electromagnética) es, per se, aburrido, plano, demasiado técnico. El contexto, que en este libro es una historia deliciosa que comienza con las especulaciones de los filósofos presocráticos, pasando por los siglo de la física (1600), el de la química (1700) y de la integración entre ambas (1800), hasta llegar al extraño siglo 1900 durante el cual hackeamos los secretos de la materia y de la interacción entre sus componentes fundamentales incluyendo la intuición de Peter Higgs y otros 4 colegas (cuyos nombres lamentablemente han sido olvidados por la divulgación), es lo que hace al dato maravilloso y emocionante.
Si bien la historia no esta contada por Higgs o sus colegas, no podría existir una alternativa mejor de que la contara uno de los más importantes físicos experimentales de la segunda mitad del siglo xx, uno que estuvo involucrado, como el mismo relata exhaustivamente (con algún dejo de sesgo personal) en algunos de los experimentos claves de la física de partículas y en uno de los más importantes laboratorios del mundo, el laboratorio Fermilab que dirigió por muchos años.
El estilo de Lederman (y Teresi) es fresco, ágil y muuuuy entretenido. En otras reseñas, he mencionado que no es común que físicos (hombres y mujeres) leamos divulgación en física (los colegas que no estén de acuerdo con esta generalización pueden comentarlo abajo). Cuando lo hacemos, tal vez somos empujados por la curiosidad o por la necesidad (como es mi caso, leí el libro como parte de la preparación de un curso divulgativo en el tema). Pero es fácil aburrirse: a nadie le gusta que le expliquen con analogías muy sencillas las ideas que le tomo años de dura academia dominar. Pero, colegas del mundo: no se engañen con "La Partícula Divina". No hay una sola página en la que no encuentren una anécdota original, una manera diferente de explicar lo que supuestamente sabemos.
Disfrute especialmente de la conversación que sostiene Lederman con Democrito en el Capítulo 2. ¡Que diálogo más genial! No me cabe la menor duda que entre chanzas, Lederman termina creando aquí una de las mejores ficciones sobre la que sería la personalidad y pensamiento del filósofo que ríe, el genio de Abdera que intuyo 2.000 años antes que la ciencia lo probara, la existencia del vacío y los á-tomos. El diálogo (o referencias a Democrito) continúa a lo largo del libro, convirtiendo la historia de la física, que termina relatando "sin querer queriendo" (como decía el chavo del ocho), en la búsqueda de un solo objetivo: descubrir los á-tomos de Democrito.
Algunas citas maravillosas que he extraído de esta deliciosa lectura las he compilado en este hilo en twitter (es la moda del momento): https://twitter.com/zuluagajorge/stat....
¿Es el libro legible para una persona que apenas comienza con la física? No solo es legible, debería ser obligatorio. Obviamente no todo en él es comprensible. Algunos apartes realmente son oscuros y si estaban destinados para que todos entendiéramos lo que explican cosa sin mayores complicaciones, no lo lograron (naturalmente, después de tener una formación en física y en especial en física de partículas, al contrario las explicaciones serán iluminadoras). Aún así la lectura es tan agradable que terminas olvidando lo poco o nada que puedas entender en los apartes mas oscuros.
¡No dejen de leerlo antes que sea demasiado tarde! (aunque es una historia que se trunca con el libro a finales de los años 90 lo que cuenta todavía es relevante, pero tal vez no lo sea en unas décadas).
No me divertía tanto leyendo un libro de divulgación de la física como lo hice con este otro clásico. El autor León Lederman es un verdadero genio, no solo como físico experimental (ganador del Premio Nobel) sino también como divulgador. No me quedaron sino ganas de leer sus otros libros de divulgación. (Se supone que el libro esta escrito en colaboración con otro autor pero todo lo que leí solo me suena a Lederman).
Como su nombre lo indica (¿o no?) el libro esta destinado a contar la historia de la "partícula divina" (un término muy odioso) o como la llamaba el mismo Lederman la "goddamn particle" o la "maldita partícula" (que es el nombre original del libro pero que fue modificado por sugerencia del editor para evitar la susceptibilidad de lectores conservadores).
Se refiere naturalmente al bosón de Higgs (o campo de Higgs) propuesto originalmente en los años 1960 como parte del mecanismo responsable por "ocultar" una de las más bellas simetrías en la naturaleza: la simetría gauge electrodébil; o en otras palabras, el hecho de que las que creemos son dos interacciones diferentes, la interacción electromagnética y la interaccción débil, en el fondo es una sola interacción mediada por 4 tipos de partículas que viajan a la velocidad de la luz: el fotón, el zetaón y los wueones (je, je).
En este libro de 580 páginas (al menos en la edición de Drakontos de bolsillo) La maldita partícula hace su aparición oficial solo hasta la página 480, confirmando algo que todos los que nos dedicamos a la ciencia y hacemos docencia y divulgación sabemos: cualquier hecho de la realidad científica es mucho más contexto que dato. El dato (que existe un campo escalar que interactúa con la mayor��a de las partículas dotándolas de inercia y que eso es lo que hace la diferencia entre la interacción débil y la electromagnética) es, per se, aburrido, plano, demasiado técnico. El contexto, que en este libro es una historia deliciosa que comienza con las especulaciones de los filósofos presocráticos, pasando por los siglo de la física (1600), el de la química (1700) y de la integración entre ambas (1800), hasta llegar al extraño siglo 1900 durante el cual hackeamos los secretos de la materia y de la interacción entre sus componentes fundamentales incluyendo la intuición de Peter Higgs y otros 4 colegas (cuyos nombres lamentablemente han sido olvidados por la divulgación), es lo que hace al dato maravilloso y emocionante.
Si bien la historia no esta contada por Higgs o sus colegas, no podría existir una alternativa mejor de que la contara uno de los más importantes físicos experimentales de la segunda mitad del siglo xx, uno que estuvo involucrado, como el mismo relata exhaustivamente (con algún dejo de sesgo personal) en algunos de los experimentos claves de la física de partículas y en uno de los más importantes laboratorios del mundo, el laboratorio Fermilab que dirigió por muchos años.
El estilo de Lederman (y Teresi) es fresco, ágil y muuuuy entretenido. En otras reseñas, he mencionado que no es común que físicos (hombres y mujeres) leamos divulgación en física (los colegas que no estén de acuerdo con esta generalización pueden comentarlo abajo). Cuando lo hacemos, tal vez somos empujados por la curiosidad o por la necesidad (como es mi caso, leí el libro como parte de la preparación de un curso divulgativo en el tema). Pero es fácil aburrirse: a nadie le gusta que le expliquen con analogías muy sencillas las ideas que le tomo años de dura academia dominar. Pero, colegas del mundo: no se engañen con "La Partícula Divina". No hay una sola página en la que no encuentren una anécdota original, una manera diferente de explicar lo que supuestamente sabemos.
Disfrute especialmente de la conversación que sostiene Lederman con Democrito en el Capítulo 2. ¡Que diálogo más genial! No me cabe la menor duda que entre chanzas, Lederman termina creando aquí una de las mejores ficciones sobre la que sería la personalidad y pensamiento del filósofo que ríe, el genio de Abdera que intuyo 2.000 años antes que la ciencia lo probara, la existencia del vacío y los á-tomos. El diálogo (o referencias a Democrito) continúa a lo largo del libro, convirtiendo la historia de la física, que termina relatando "sin querer queriendo" (como decía el chavo del ocho), en la búsqueda de un solo objetivo: descubrir los á-tomos de Democrito.
Algunas citas maravillosas que he extraído de esta deliciosa lectura las he compilado en este hilo en twitter (es la moda del momento): https://twitter.com/zuluagajorge/stat....
¿Es el libro legible para una persona que apenas comienza con la física? No solo es legible, debería ser obligatorio. Obviamente no todo en él es comprensible. Algunos apartes realmente son oscuros y si estaban destinados para que todos entendiéramos lo que explican cosa sin mayores complicaciones, no lo lograron (naturalmente, después de tener una formación en física y en especial en física de partículas, al contrario las explicaciones serán iluminadoras). Aún así la lectura es tan agradable que terminas olvidando lo poco o nada que puedas entender en los apartes mas oscuros.
¡No dejen de leerlo antes que sea demasiado tarde! (aunque es una historia que se trunca con el libro a finales de los años 90 lo que cuenta todavía es relevante, pero tal vez no lo sea en unas décadas).
May 7, 2019
Who knew a book about particle physics, with all of its glory of quantum theory, quarks, leptons, some weird things I can’t pronounce and much more, would be actually very funny and hilarious at times! Published in 1993 as the hunt for the Higgs boson was intensifying, “The God Particle. If the universe is the answer, what is the question?” is simply a great book on science by the Noble laureate and particle physicist Leon Lederman (In collaboration with science writer Dick Teresi). Much like what Stephen Hawiking did with A Brief History of Time, letting us voyage on journey through the infinitely massive to learn about the cosmos, here Lederman takes on a voyage through the infinitely tiny throughout human history, searching for the most elementary building blocks of everything, namely, the yet to be discovered elementary particle, the Higgs Boson which he dubbed “The God Particle”. The particle, which was confirmed by CERN in 2013, is so important and crucial in our understanding of the universe and reality that it would be beyond me to express how important it is here. That said, what’s great about this book is how accessible it is. Surely physicists and science enthusiasts will understand more references here, especially the scientific ones. But, I can’t stress this enough, this is a funny and charming book. It’s filled with many different anecdotes, funny metaphors, puns, and different stories. One of my favorite parts of the book is at the beginning where Lederman conducts a humorous, yet very insightful, fictional dialogue between himself and Democritus, the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who formulated the atomic theory, which states that the universe is made of very small indivisible objects called atomos, that which is “uncuttable”. Then, the journey for the infinitely small begins!
I loved this book and Lederman’s writing. He is fully aware that not everything will make sense to the non-specialized leader. Not everything has it. What’s important is to take a step back and wonder at the titanic effort and journey that the human species accomplished throughout millennia. The point of this book, for instance, isn’t to form specialist in quantum mechanics or for people to fully grasp its implications. Not even quantum mechanics specialists fully grasp its implications! The point of this book is for the non-specialist to be amazed of how the universe. The universe isn’t made up to our liking, but we are moving fast to understand it more and more. The culminating discovery for Lederman would have been the Higgs Boson, and he explains beautifully its importance for particle physics and for science in general. Furthermore, through the journey we take, we see how the history of science isn’t just a stream line of successes. It’s not just easy “Eureka!” moments. We observe, we hypothesize, we try, if it succeeds, then great! We learn more. If it fails, ok, why? Let’s see what we can do. To paraphrase him, ugly truths sometimes destroy beautiful theories. That teaches us humility, but, at the same time, it teaches us to be bold. Newtonian mechanics made a revolution. Everyone thought that they were absolute. Then came General Relativity and Quantum Theory and they made revolutions which took over Newton. (Yet remember, science is a building process. It was Newton’s equations that put people on the moon). There is just much to learn and who knows what tomorrow will reveal! This book is a great introduction to the infinitely small, and even though it might not always make sense at times, that’s the beauty of it. I finished reading it with a big smile on my face.
I loved this book and Lederman’s writing. He is fully aware that not everything will make sense to the non-specialized leader. Not everything has it. What’s important is to take a step back and wonder at the titanic effort and journey that the human species accomplished throughout millennia. The point of this book, for instance, isn’t to form specialist in quantum mechanics or for people to fully grasp its implications. Not even quantum mechanics specialists fully grasp its implications! The point of this book is for the non-specialist to be amazed of how the universe. The universe isn’t made up to our liking, but we are moving fast to understand it more and more. The culminating discovery for Lederman would have been the Higgs Boson, and he explains beautifully its importance for particle physics and for science in general. Furthermore, through the journey we take, we see how the history of science isn’t just a stream line of successes. It’s not just easy “Eureka!” moments. We observe, we hypothesize, we try, if it succeeds, then great! We learn more. If it fails, ok, why? Let’s see what we can do. To paraphrase him, ugly truths sometimes destroy beautiful theories. That teaches us humility, but, at the same time, it teaches us to be bold. Newtonian mechanics made a revolution. Everyone thought that they were absolute. Then came General Relativity and Quantum Theory and they made revolutions which took over Newton. (Yet remember, science is a building process. It was Newton’s equations that put people on the moon). There is just much to learn and who knows what tomorrow will reveal! This book is a great introduction to the infinitely small, and even though it might not always make sense at times, that’s the beauty of it. I finished reading it with a big smile on my face.
April 5, 2013
Lederman provides an entertaining history of physics and much of it is accessible to the general reader. Interestingly, he writes that it takes a grad student at least two years "to develop quantum intuition." This comment bolsters the confidence of the lay reader.
The book leads to the so-called God particle. What gives particles their mass, he asks, and then he answers that "we suspect a field." The Higgs field he writes later, generates all mass. As massless particles (light of various wave lengths?) travel across space, they acquire (rest) mass. Provokingly, he states that mass, therefore, may not be a fundamental attribute of matter, "but a property acquired by the interaction of particles and their environment." Empty space "is awash in particles that are temporary," he writes. Is the Higgs field the new aether Lederman asks? What is implied here is that space is not merely a metric (measurement of distance by time) but is a "something" after all: "When you next look out at the night sky you should be aware that all of space is filled with this mysterious Higgs influence...."
In contrast to those who state that gravity is only an attractive force, Lederman clarifies that there are two types of mass. There is big mass that pulls and inertial mass that resists being pulled by "a force." If that is the case, then how is it said that gravity is only an attractive force between two bodies? And does gravity not exhibit the oscillation between the attractive and repulsive forces that occur on the atomic scale? If there are four forces in nature, might there be two underlying patterns to them as one of the Greeks (Empledocles - love and hate, harmony and discord?) theorized two millenia ago: attraction and resistance?
Alternatively, under Einstein geometric theory of gravity, is gravity really a force at all? Is there need for a graviton? Also in support of Einstein and counter to Lederman, John Archibald Wheeler tosses Newton's "inertial mass" and "gravitational mass" aside, along with his theory of motion. There's motion, but it's created by "rolling down hill" so to say, and not by any magical pulling and resistance forces. Interesting stuff.
The book leads to the so-called God particle. What gives particles their mass, he asks, and then he answers that "we suspect a field." The Higgs field he writes later, generates all mass. As massless particles (light of various wave lengths?) travel across space, they acquire (rest) mass. Provokingly, he states that mass, therefore, may not be a fundamental attribute of matter, "but a property acquired by the interaction of particles and their environment." Empty space "is awash in particles that are temporary," he writes. Is the Higgs field the new aether Lederman asks? What is implied here is that space is not merely a metric (measurement of distance by time) but is a "something" after all: "When you next look out at the night sky you should be aware that all of space is filled with this mysterious Higgs influence...."
In contrast to those who state that gravity is only an attractive force, Lederman clarifies that there are two types of mass. There is big mass that pulls and inertial mass that resists being pulled by "a force." If that is the case, then how is it said that gravity is only an attractive force between two bodies? And does gravity not exhibit the oscillation between the attractive and repulsive forces that occur on the atomic scale? If there are four forces in nature, might there be two underlying patterns to them as one of the Greeks (Empledocles - love and hate, harmony and discord?) theorized two millenia ago: attraction and resistance?
Alternatively, under Einstein geometric theory of gravity, is gravity really a force at all? Is there need for a graviton? Also in support of Einstein and counter to Lederman, John Archibald Wheeler tosses Newton's "inertial mass" and "gravitational mass" aside, along with his theory of motion. There's motion, but it's created by "rolling down hill" so to say, and not by any magical pulling and resistance forces. Interesting stuff.
September 13, 2012
Mi primer acercamiento serio al bosón de Higgs y ha satisfecho mis expectativas.
Me suele pasar que en los de física me gusta más la primera parte dónde sientan las bases de la segunda, dónde supuestamente está el meollo de la cuestión.
En este caso no ha sido una excepción, me ha resultado muy ágil la primera parte dónde desarrolla los hitos, experimentos y descubrimientos más importantes en la historia de la Ciencia que han llevado a la famosa partícula, más si si tenemos en cuenta que Leon Lederman es un físico experimental y él mismo pone de relevancia la distancia con los físicos teóricos, mayoría en la autoría de este tipo de ensayos.
Resulta muy original el diálogo ficticio que entabla en los primeros capítulos con Demócrito y dónde hace gala de un sentido del humor que está también presente en el resto del libro y que no solemos presuponer en un premio Nobel.
Me quedo con la historia del partido de fútbol sin balón, es la mejor metáfora que he leído sobre la validez del pensamiento científico. Un grupo de extraterrestres con la incapacidad de captar formas blancas y negras (como un balón de fútbol) son testigos de un encuentro en nuestro planeta. La conclusión a la que finalmente llegan es a la inevitabilidad de la existencia de una forma esférica que explica todos los fenómenos. Esa es la grandeza de la Ciencia, “tiene que haber un balón”.
http://micaminoblanco.blogspot.com.es
Me suele pasar que en los de física me gusta más la primera parte dónde sientan las bases de la segunda, dónde supuestamente está el meollo de la cuestión.
En este caso no ha sido una excepción, me ha resultado muy ágil la primera parte dónde desarrolla los hitos, experimentos y descubrimientos más importantes en la historia de la Ciencia que han llevado a la famosa partícula, más si si tenemos en cuenta que Leon Lederman es un físico experimental y él mismo pone de relevancia la distancia con los físicos teóricos, mayoría en la autoría de este tipo de ensayos.
Resulta muy original el diálogo ficticio que entabla en los primeros capítulos con Demócrito y dónde hace gala de un sentido del humor que está también presente en el resto del libro y que no solemos presuponer en un premio Nobel.
Me quedo con la historia del partido de fútbol sin balón, es la mejor metáfora que he leído sobre la validez del pensamiento científico. Un grupo de extraterrestres con la incapacidad de captar formas blancas y negras (como un balón de fútbol) son testigos de un encuentro en nuestro planeta. La conclusión a la que finalmente llegan es a la inevitabilidad de la existencia de una forma esférica que explica todos los fenómenos. Esa es la grandeza de la Ciencia, “tiene que haber un balón”.
http://micaminoblanco.blogspot.com.es
February 14, 2009
As a history of particle physics, it's pretty good. However, I still had to consult Wikipedia after I read it to find out what the Higgs field is (the point of the book was to tell the story of the quest to prove its existence, upon which all of particle theory rests...), And despite many references to God and Creation, Lederman is still a champion of making science more accessible to the general public. And there's this one great passage where he rips on "The Tao of Physics" and other pseudo-science books that are written and sold by people who abuse their credentials (yes!).
"The public sees science as some monolithic edifice of unbending rules and beliefs, and-- thanks to the media's portrayal of scientists as uptight nerds in white coats-- sees scientists as stodgy old artery-hardened defenders of the status quo. In truth, science is a much more flexible thing. Science is not about status quo. It's about revolution."
"The public sees science as some monolithic edifice of unbending rules and beliefs, and-- thanks to the media's portrayal of scientists as uptight nerds in white coats-- sees scientists as stodgy old artery-hardened defenders of the status quo. In truth, science is a much more flexible thing. Science is not about status quo. It's about revolution."
January 15, 2015
Vrlo simpatično za čitati uz mnoštvo duhovitosti. Postavio sam si mnoštvo oznaka na zanimljive odlomke dok sam čitao. Volio bih da ipak ima malo više slika i nešto više formula s pojašnjenjima. Kolikogod autor tvrdio kako je pisao knjigu za laike, sumnjam da će baš laici čitati.
Prilično me umorio dugi dijalog s Demokritom.
Super analogija u odlomku kao sedmi suprug Zsa Zse Gabor: Znam što trebam, ali kako da bude zanimljivo. Sjajno mišljenje o Weinbergovoj knjizi kao priručniku o seksu.
U knjizi je prikladno na nekoliko mjesta spomenut Bošković, dok od više izostavljenih možda vrijedi spomenuti nema Tesle.
Prilično me umorio dugi dijalog s Demokritom.
Super analogija u odlomku kao sedmi suprug Zsa Zse Gabor: Znam što trebam, ali kako da bude zanimljivo. Sjajno mišljenje o Weinbergovoj knjizi kao priručniku o seksu.
U knjizi je prikladno na nekoliko mjesta spomenut Bošković, dok od više izostavljenih možda vrijedi spomenuti nema Tesle.
February 20, 2018
Great piece of science book, hard to understand in moments, but overall funny, vivid and informing book. Would recommend to everyone interested in world around us and development of atom theory from Greeks to modern days.
July 31, 2020
Perfect physicist and amazing book.
The end of the book is the most interesting..when he imagine how science would progress in 2020 (the book was written in 1993), 500 TeV accelerators, super-trains with 2200 mph velocity, etc...and abruptly notice these news: CONGRESSIONAL FUNDING FOR THE SUPER COLLIDER IN DOUBT.
I think he would roll over in his coffin if he knows that the only "progress" we have in 2020 is the "Iphone 11 PRO".
The end of the book is the most interesting..when he imagine how science would progress in 2020 (the book was written in 1993), 500 TeV accelerators, super-trains with 2200 mph velocity, etc...and abruptly notice these news: CONGRESSIONAL FUNDING FOR THE SUPER COLLIDER IN DOUBT.
I think he would roll over in his coffin if he knows that the only "progress" we have in 2020 is the "Iphone 11 PRO".
July 17, 2016
Creo que son las cuatro estrellas más cortas -o las tres más largas- que he dado en mi vida. Este libro es muy irregular y os gustará si os queréis curtir en la historia de la Física y conocer cómo se vive la Física 'de élite' por dentro, qué hay detrás de los grandes descubrimientos, de los grandes proyectos, de las naciones y lo importante que es la coordinación. A nivel experimental NO vais a encontrar libro mejor, también tiene humor, diálogos... pero debo reconocer que me salté medio centenar de páginas que iban acerca de un mero diálogo entre el escritor (Premio Nobel de Física en 1988, por cierto) y Demócrito por lo surrealista y plomizo, y a nivel teórico vais a ver pocos con tanta teoría, pero MUCHOS con una teoría bastante más ligera, pero mejor explicada. Me esperé de este libro una información 'dos mil dieciseisesca' siendo de 1993, y algo más teórico e informativo siendo un libro de divulgación, y quizá por eso no terminé de disfrutarlo en exceso. Ahora todo ha cambiado, el Higgs se ha descubierto, el SSC se canceló, muchos compañeros del libro se han muerto, Lederman tiene ya 94 años (y no sus 71 dulces primaveras al momento de escribir el libro) y bueno, para su momento fue increíble. Eso sí... exceso de experimentación, reiteración de muchos temas, alta concentración de términos... creo que de forma mucho más sencilla podría haberse incluido las Matemáticas -que amo- y haberse ahorrado los términos kaón, protón, muón, leptón, hadrón, mesón, barión... que están por doquier y que no lo complican, pero sí lo hacen más 'coñazo' por momentos. Pero claro... físico experimental: muchos experimentos --> mucha descripción ---> pocas Matemáticas. Estaba claro.
Le agradezco la formación recibida en Historia de la Física, el porqué del fracaso de múltiples teorías, algunas pistas sobre bosones que no conocía y bueno... le agradezco que me haya dado una base, aunque quizá esperé más, para tratar la divulgación específica. Primera lectura 'seria' del verano. Gracias, Leon, ¡y dura, dura mucho!
Le agradezco la formación recibida en Historia de la Física, el porqué del fracaso de múltiples teorías, algunas pistas sobre bosones que no conocía y bueno... le agradezco que me haya dado una base, aunque quizá esperé más, para tratar la divulgación específica. Primera lectura 'seria' del verano. Gracias, Leon, ¡y dura, dura mucho!
June 29, 2010
This book provides an interesting foray into the deep mechanisms of particle physics. Nicknamed 'The Plumber'(due to his preference for experimentation) by Murray Gell-Mann, it is clear from this book that Lederman's work in the 60s and 70s is nothing short of Nobel calibre. This book is fairly dense in terms of physics technicalities, but one can still appreciate the humorous anecdotes throughout.
As generally explained in the book, a neutrino ('little neutral one') is an elementary particle of neutral electric charge and almost 0 mass. Neutrinos are extremely difficult to detect, yet more than 50 trillion of them pass through our bodies every second (via the sun). Leptons (electrons, muons, and the tau) can also be neutrinos with corresponding antineutrinos. These are said to be the "flavours" of a neutrino. Lederman's Nobel Prize, in 1988, was awarded "for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino", and it was shared with Schwartz and Steinberger.
As an aside, direct evidence for the neutrino related to the tau was announced by Fermilab (a particle accelerator like the LHC, but in Chicago) in July 2000. Current studies indicate that neutrinos have a small but nonzero mass. Travel at light-speed is impossible for objects having mass. Since so many neutrinos are predicted to exist, their combined mass may be sufficient to cause all the matter in the Universe to eventually collapse into a single point, which might then explode and create a completely new Universe.
As generally explained in the book, a neutrino ('little neutral one') is an elementary particle of neutral electric charge and almost 0 mass. Neutrinos are extremely difficult to detect, yet more than 50 trillion of them pass through our bodies every second (via the sun). Leptons (electrons, muons, and the tau) can also be neutrinos with corresponding antineutrinos. These are said to be the "flavours" of a neutrino. Lederman's Nobel Prize, in 1988, was awarded "for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino", and it was shared with Schwartz and Steinberger.
As an aside, direct evidence for the neutrino related to the tau was announced by Fermilab (a particle accelerator like the LHC, but in Chicago) in July 2000. Current studies indicate that neutrinos have a small but nonzero mass. Travel at light-speed is impossible for objects having mass. Since so many neutrinos are predicted to exist, their combined mass may be sufficient to cause all the matter in the Universe to eventually collapse into a single point, which might then explode and create a completely new Universe.
August 29, 2016
Este libro es, ante todo, un engaño. Usa el gancho de Higgs para atraer lectores cuando el espacio que dedica al bosón de Higgs es menos de un 1% del texto.
Más de la mitad lo dedica a una historia de la física muy pobre y meramente enumerativa, sin explicar ningún concepto. No entiendo por qué los libros divulgativos de física se ven en la obligación de tener que recapitular toda la historia de la disciplina para hablar sobre cualquier tema.
El resto del libro lo dedica a la historia de los aceleradores de partículas en los 50, 60 y 70, especialidad que llevó al autor al Nobel. Es quizás lo más interesante del libro pues no se suelen dedicar libros al proceso experimental de la ciencia. El problema que le veo es que en lugar de explicar con más detalle el funcionamiento de los detectores se enreda en enumerar cifras que se olvidan según se leen.
La física teórica apenas existe en el libro y no se intenta explicar ninguno de los experimentos desde la teoría.
Del bosón de Higgs el escritor dice poco más que duda de su existencia. Es una pena que un Nobel tenga que buscar ganchos publicitarios sin relación con el contenido para vender sus libros.
Más de la mitad lo dedica a una historia de la física muy pobre y meramente enumerativa, sin explicar ningún concepto. No entiendo por qué los libros divulgativos de física se ven en la obligación de tener que recapitular toda la historia de la disciplina para hablar sobre cualquier tema.
El resto del libro lo dedica a la historia de los aceleradores de partículas en los 50, 60 y 70, especialidad que llevó al autor al Nobel. Es quizás lo más interesante del libro pues no se suelen dedicar libros al proceso experimental de la ciencia. El problema que le veo es que en lugar de explicar con más detalle el funcionamiento de los detectores se enreda en enumerar cifras que se olvidan según se leen.
La física teórica apenas existe en el libro y no se intenta explicar ninguno de los experimentos desde la teoría.
Del bosón de Higgs el escritor dice poco más que duda de su existencia. Es una pena que un Nobel tenga que buscar ganchos publicitarios sin relación con el contenido para vender sus libros.
Read
June 30, 2008I'm really interested in quantum physics (layman's quantum physics), particularly when using the discipline to try to gain a greater understanding of the very fabric of existence and how that begins to approach spirituality. In theory, God Particle has the recipe to satisy this penchant, but I cannot get past Lederman's hokey methods e.g. fabricating a conversation with a Greek philosopher that is supposed to be funny but is actually as entertaining as watching a silent film without picture. Lederman tries to use humor to engage the layman reader but he ends up obfuscating the message he is trying to deliver. Lederman may be a brilliant scientist but he is a piss poor humorist.
February 8, 2013
It's not an easy reading, but Leon Ledderman is a fabulous and funny story teller. He brings to the layman understanding of rhe profound laws that govern the universe. I can't say I got it all, but I surely feel like I understand a bit more what's going on in the world of the very very very small.
30 years ago we thought the atom was the final frontier but today with the quarks and the leptons and the gluons and now Higgs boson the cosmos shows us that there are a lot of strange things going on right in (in fact also inside) our face.
The book becomes very actual with the recent discovery in July 2012 of the famous Higgs boson. A must read if you want to get it a bit more.
30 years ago we thought the atom was the final frontier but today with the quarks and the leptons and the gluons and now Higgs boson the cosmos shows us that there are a lot of strange things going on right in (in fact also inside) our face.
The book becomes very actual with the recent discovery in July 2012 of the famous Higgs boson. A must read if you want to get it a bit more.
May 26, 2021
The Hunting of the Snark Higgs
A witty, histrionic, and competent text popularizing the Physics concepts investigating the building block of the Universe. Set out as a long hunt to the “indivisible” particle, the book retraces the big theoretical and experimental discoveries from the dawn of Philosophy (ancient Greece, featuring Democritus), up to the present days in FermiLab and CERN. Publishing in the ‘90s, before the actual discovery of the Higgs, Lederman conveys the enthusiasm of all researchers working at the cutting edge of modern science, while at the same time honouring all the past milestones. A must-read to understand physicists, if not Physics itself.
A witty, histrionic, and competent text popularizing the Physics concepts investigating the building block of the Universe. Set out as a long hunt to the “indivisible” particle, the book retraces the big theoretical and experimental discoveries from the dawn of Philosophy (ancient Greece, featuring Democritus), up to the present days in FermiLab and CERN. Publishing in the ‘90s, before the actual discovery of the Higgs, Lederman conveys the enthusiasm of all researchers working at the cutting edge of modern science, while at the same time honouring all the past milestones. A must-read to understand physicists, if not Physics itself.
June 16, 2019
Wow de verdad que este libro es increíble! La cantidad de conocimiento comprimido en apenas casi 500 páginas es abrumador. A pesar de ello la lectura nunca se hace aburrida gracias a la fantástica narrativa de Lederman y a su hilarante sentido del humor. Narra la historia de la física desde los tiempos de Demócrito con quien sostiene una conversación ficticia del mas alto nivel. Lo único que no me gustó fue un spoiler de Moby Dick casi terminando el libro, ya que justo ahora estoy leyendo ese libro y me arruinó el final jeje.
November 25, 2021
The bits on the history of particle physics were pretty interesting. But then Rutherford discovers the atomic nucleus, and things start to get pretty complex, pretty fast... and I started skimming. What kept me reading was Lederman's great humor. The guy must have been awesome to be around. Also, it was interesting to read a pop-physics book written from the perspective of an experimentalist - most books in this genre seem to be written by theorists like Brian Greene.
I probably should re-read this eventually, taking notes.
I probably should re-read this eventually, taking notes.
June 16, 2012
I would not describe Lederman as a Feynman by any means but he is comparable to Simon Singh by way of Brain Green, though I prefer Singh's work simply due to the absence of obnoxious puns and over the top attempts at some form of verb schtick. Overall, it was okay with the amount of information that was easily obtained and ability to comprehend but the writing style was beyond annoying bordering on tedious.
September 20, 2019
Magnífico libro de divulgación científica para entender el trabajo de los experimentadores científicos. Además Leon Lederman era todo un personaje y su libro increíblemente divertido con varias segundas intenciones.
He aprendido muchísimo, a la vez que me he divertido, además me tenía enganchado. No es fácil de leer, sobretodo a partir de la mitad cuando empieza con la física cuántica, pero lo cuenta todo de tal forma que no puedes parar.
Muy buen libro, altamente recomendable.
He aprendido muchísimo, a la vez que me he divertido, además me tenía enganchado. No es fácil de leer, sobretodo a partir de la mitad cuando empieza con la física cuántica, pero lo cuenta todo de tal forma que no puedes parar.
Muy buen libro, altamente recomendable.
January 31, 2020
Spends 9 chapters bloviating and talking about everything EXCEPT the Higgs Boson, then about 6 pages all the way at the end saying what he thinks it is. It's great that Lederman had such an influential life in physics, but a lot of it was also this dude just jacking himself off for everyone else to see. I learned all I need to ever know for the rest of my life about particle accelerators.
Plus now it's super outdated.
Plus now it's super outdated.
February 2, 2012
Highly enjoyable read. The brunt of the book is dedicated to historical advancements in the quest for the a-tom, all building up to the accelerators/colliders in search of quarks and Higgs. A favorable and accessible balance of history, physics, mathematics, and wit to keep the reading light and help await results from the Large Hadron Collider. PS. Texas politicians are Aristotelian #@$%#!
April 22, 2015
This was an interesting and (mostly) accessible read. I got a bit bogged down in the detailed quark chapters, and it was a bummer to be reading something written in the early 90s, because it (obviously) left out everything from then until the present, which ended the book with a lot of questions. But otherwise it was entertaining and interesting.
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