With his trademark wit and lucidity, Carroll (From Eternity to Here) delivers the story of the search for the elusive Higgs boson—the Holy Grail of particle physics—which was finally discovered earlier in 2012. The tale, says Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, is one of “money, politics, and jealousy” among scientists and nations seeking the prize. The Higgs boson is not an atomic particle; it’s part of the Higgs field that pervades the universe and gives atomic particles their mass. The quest for the elusive particle required a cutting-edge tool: the massive, complex Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. Carroll takes readers inside the collider’s 17-mile ring, where protons zoom around at ultrahigh speeds to smash together, revealing telltale signs of the boson. Along the way Carroll introduces researchers like Mike Lamont, the LHC’s “Mister Scott”; engineer Lyn Evans, the man who built the LHC; and Fabiola Gianotti, one of the top women scientists in the world. Whether explaining complex physics like field theory and symmetry or the workings of particle accelerators, Carroll’s clarity and unbridled enthusiasm reveal the pure excitement of discovery as much as they illuminate the facts. Illus. (Nov.)
Caltech physicist and acclaimed author Sean Carroll offers listeners this eye-opening profile of the Large Hadron Collider and the search for the mysterious Higgs boson particle, the subatomic building block that imbues elementary particles with mass. Here Carroll chronicles how such a complex project got off the ground in the first place and explains why this discovery is so important, and what it means for the future of physics.
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The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World
Caltech physicist and acclaimed author Sean Carroll offers listeners this eye-opening profile of the Large Hadron Collider and the search for the mysterious Higgs boson particle, the subatomic building block that imbues elementary particles with mass. Here Carroll chronicles how such a complex project got off the ground in the first place and explains why this discovery is so important, and what it means for the future of physics.
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The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World

The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World
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Product Details
BN ID: | 2940170704170 |
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Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
Publication date: | 12/28/2012 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
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