The Particle at the End of the Universe

The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World by Sean Carroll won the 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.

 Scientists have just announced an historic discovery on a par with the splitting of the atom: the Higgs boson, the key to understanding why mass exists has been found. In The Particle at the End of the Universe, Caltech physicist and acclaimed writer Sean Carroll takes readers behind the scenes of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN to meet the scientists and explain this landmark event.

As an aside, understanding the physics of the Higgs Boson is no mean feat.

Consider Wikipedia’s explanation: In the Standard Model, the Higgs particle is a boson with no spin, electric charge, or color charge. It is also very unstable, decaying into other particles almost immediately. It is a quantum excitation of one of the four components of the Higgs field. The latter constitutes a scalar field, with two neutral and two electrically charged components, and forms a complex doublet of the weak isospin SU(2) symmetry. The field has a "Mexican hat" shaped potential with nonzero strength everywhere (including otherwise empty space) which in its vacuum state breaks the weak isospin symmetry of the electroweak interaction. When this happens, three components of the Higgs field are "absorbed" by the SU(2) and U(1) gauge bosons (the "Higgs mechanism") to become the longitudinal components of the now-massive W and Z bosons of the weak force. The remaining electrically neutral component separately couples to other particles known as fermions (via Yukawa couplings), causing these to acquire mass as well. Some versions of the theory predict more than one kind of Higgs fields and bosons.

Yes I know what you’re thinking…

And more than once the reader of this book is comes across sections which might as well be read as a part of an advanced physics curriculum.  Carroll writes, "Whenever we have symmetry that allows us to do independent transformations at different points (a gauge symmetry), it automatically comes with a connection field that lets us compare what is going on at those locations,"

But here is the difference, not only does Carroll acknowledge the complexity of the science, he goes to great lengths to pace his book carefully as well as taking, were possible, a light natured story telling style. This includes trivialities and frivolities that are not short in supply when you consider there are 6000 scientists and technicians who work on the world’s largest particle accelerator, The Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The Particle at the End of the Universe not only explains the importance of the Higgs boson but also the Large Hadron Collider project itself; A project sure to lead some to win the Nobel Prize.

Carroll explains the importance of the LHC - learn that sub-atomic particles come in two varieties: fermions that make up matter, and bosons that carry forces. The latter include gluons, photons, gravitons and of course the Higgs. The former, the fermions, include leptons such as the electron and quarks of which there are six types: up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. On top of that we have issues of symmetry, force fields and wave functions.

However, the over ambitious attempt to write the definitive account of the laws of nature for the layman there are great chunks of text which are not only demanding but may leave us with the impression that such an account is simply not feasible.

https://plus.google.com/106404354758883120445

God's thoughts

Albert Einstein became a house hold name in the early 1920s after proposing that the universe is curved, that gravity is not a force, as Newton believed, but a curved field (space-time) created by the presence of mass, as described by his general theory of relativity.

Einstein’s theory predicted that space should not be stable; it should either be expanding or contracting; however, and uncharacteristically, he refused to believe his own equations and instead he introduced a fiddle factor, a “cosmological constant” to keep his universe at bay  - like all astronomers for thousands of years, he had assumed that the size of the universe was not changing. It wasn’t until the late 1920s when Hubble showed that the universe was, indeed, expanding.

Later, Einstein described the cosmological constant as the greatest blunder of his career. Einstein had also refused to accept much of the implications associated with quantum theory. In fact, he spent the rest of his life looking for a "unified field theory," calling his search an attempt to understand "God's thoughts" when the cosmos was created.

Einstein never did complete his unified field theory, but his "cosmological constant," a concept he invented and then discarded, his greatest blunder, may prove to be a crucial component.

Drawing on newly discovered letters of Einstein, many translated here for the first time as well as countless interviews with prominent mathematicians, cosmologists, physicists, and astronomers, Amir Aczel takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the strange geometry of space-time and into the mind of a genius, and more so, perhaps into the heart of science's greatest mystery. Although Einstein's work requires familiarity with advanced mathematics, this makes only a minor portion of his book.

Here is New York

I love this little book – no wonder The New York Times has named Here is New York one of the ten best books ever written about the metropolis, and The New Yorker calls it "the wittiest essay, and one of the most perceptive, ever done on the city. A quintessential beautiful essay full of memories and nostalgia as E. B. White recollects of a city he has long known. In a sweltering summer of 1948, White sat in a New York City hotel to write what has become, according to The New York Times one of the 10 best books ever written about the city.

Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves won’t disappoint

At the back of Ice Station, Area 7 and Scarecrow, Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves won’t disappoint. It is just a compelling read. You’re kept in suspense virtually from the first page. You will never guess how this particular adventure will unfold. I personally think this is Reilly’s best.

If you have read any of his books you will know exactly what kind of things to expect - Nasty villains, twists, turns and treachery, torture scenes and action, action, and action.

Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves is the latest adventure story beginning with US marine captain Shane Schofield (his call-sign Scarecrow) assigned to lead a weapons testing team to the Arctic because his commanders are worried he may not be mentally fit for active duty.

After weeks of isolation with just three other marines, four civilians and a robot for company, Schofield receives a call from the White House requesting his help.

The first problem

The main reason Schofield is out in the wilderness is because he has made a lot of enemies over the course of his adventures, and the French especially have put quite a hefty price on his head.

The second problem

It appears the world is being held to ransom by a group which has taken control of a secret Russian weapons facility in the Arctic, supposedly shut down following the end of the Cold war. This group claims that it has the means to set the atmosphere alight, with a fire that will destroy most of the world as we know it. Initial attempts by the Russian government to eliminate this threat meet with disaster.

The third problem

Schofield’s team isn’t a strike force; just a handful of Marines and civilians. It's not equipped to attack a fortified island held by a vicious army. But Scarecrow will lead the team in anyway, because someone has to. Oh, and the French still want his head.