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Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass
*A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Selection*
The first major biography of Peter Higgs, revealing how a short burst of work changed modern physics
On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have mass, had finally been discovered. On the rostrum, surrounded by jostling physicists and media, was the particle’s retiring namesake—the only person in history to have an existing single particle named for them. Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs and others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world’s most famous scientists. Close finds that scientific competition between people, institutions, and states played as much of a role in making Higgs famous as Higgs’s work did.
A revelatory study of both a scientist and his era, Elusive will remake our understanding of modern physics.
The first major biography of Peter Higgs, revealing how a short burst of work changed modern physics
On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have mass, had finally been discovered. On the rostrum, surrounded by jostling physicists and media, was the particle’s retiring namesake—the only person in history to have an existing single particle named for them. Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs and others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world’s most famous scientists. Close finds that scientific competition between people, institutions, and states played as much of a role in making Higgs famous as Higgs’s work did.
A revelatory study of both a scientist and his era, Elusive will remake our understanding of modern physics.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published June 14, 2022
About the author
Frank Close
44 books168 followersFrancis Edwin Close (Arabic: فرانك كلوس)
In addition to his scientific research, he is known for his lectures and writings making science intelligible to a wider audience.
From Oxford he went to Stanford University in California for two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow on the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 1973 he went to the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire and then to CERN in Switzerland from 1973–5. He joined the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire in 1975 as a research physicist and was latterly Head of Theoretical Physics Division from 1991. He headed the communication and public education activities at CERN from 1997 to 2000. From 2001, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham from 1996–2002.
Close lists his recreations as writing, singing, travel, squash and Real tennis, and he is a member of Harwell Squash Club.
In addition to his scientific research, he is known for his lectures and writings making science intelligible to a wider audience.
From Oxford he went to Stanford University in California for two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow on the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 1973 he went to the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire and then to CERN in Switzerland from 1973–5. He joined the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire in 1975 as a research physicist and was latterly Head of Theoretical Physics Division from 1991. He headed the communication and public education activities at CERN from 1997 to 2000. From 2001, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham from 1996–2002.
Close lists his recreations as writing, singing, travel, squash and Real tennis, and he is a member of Harwell Squash Club.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
September 5, 2022
This book is part biography of Peter Higgs and part history of the development of the Standard Model. Those two subjects overlap at the concept of the Higgs Boson. The second half of the book is devoted largely to the story of the concept, funding, design, and construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
The following are some interesting takeaways from this book.
1. Higgs mechanism came before the Standard Model.
Peter Higgs sort of accidentally made reference to the concept of a quantum field imparting mass in a short article published in 1964. This was long before the concept of the Standard Model. (The term "Standard Model" was first coined in 1975)
2. Six physicists had the idea at about the same time.
I describe Higgs’ reference to the concept as “accidental” because the purpose of the paper he wrote was to exploit a loophole in Goldstone's theorem. There was a paragraph at the end of this paper in which he says that, "In a subsequent note it will be shown ... that the introduction of gauge fields may be expected to produce qualitative changes ... ." (i.e. He has worked out ways to test for presence of this field and it's coming in a second paper.) It is the date of this first paper that gives Higgs right of precedent citation of the concept. But it’s debatable as to how much credit he deserves. The Nobel Prize for discovery of the Higgs Boson was awarded to both Peter Higgs and François Englert. If Robert Brout were still living the Nobel award would have included him.
3. Assigning Higgs’ name, an accident of history.
Higgs' second paper was rejected for publication because it was judged “of no obvious relevance to physics.” In response to this rejection he added an extra paragraph to the paper in an attempt to enhance its relevance to physics and sent the paper off to another journal which agreed to publish it. It was this second paper that got referenced enough by others that the term “Higgs Field” and “Higgs Boson” came into common usage. It is possible that if the first version of this second paper been accepted and published, Higgs’ name would not have been assigned to the boson. The fact that he had a single syllable name that was easy to remember probably helped as well.
4. Higgs being British made funding of the LHC possible.
In popular parlance the purpose of the LHC was to find the Higgs Boson (actually other research is done there as well). British money contributed to the joint effort to construct the facility was vital. There were plenty of political reasons for the UK to be suspicious of a project to be constructed in Switzerland and France. But the fact that Peter Higgs was a native son of Bristol and the boson was named after him (and a Nobel Prize was probably going to be awarded) all helped overcome the political opposition.
5. So what is the Higgs Boson (and field)?
It is a field that permeates space, giving mass to elementary subatomic particles that interact with it. Waves created in this field are the bosons. The following link explains the concept more simply.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joTKd...
The following are some interesting takeaways from this book.
1. Higgs mechanism came before the Standard Model.
Peter Higgs sort of accidentally made reference to the concept of a quantum field imparting mass in a short article published in 1964. This was long before the concept of the Standard Model. (The term "Standard Model" was first coined in 1975)
2. Six physicists had the idea at about the same time.
I describe Higgs’ reference to the concept as “accidental” because the purpose of the paper he wrote was to exploit a loophole in Goldstone's theorem. There was a paragraph at the end of this paper in which he says that, "In a subsequent note it will be shown ... that the introduction of gauge fields may be expected to produce qualitative changes ... ." (i.e. He has worked out ways to test for presence of this field and it's coming in a second paper.) It is the date of this first paper that gives Higgs right of precedent citation of the concept. But it’s debatable as to how much credit he deserves. The Nobel Prize for discovery of the Higgs Boson was awarded to both Peter Higgs and François Englert. If Robert Brout were still living the Nobel award would have included him.
3. Assigning Higgs’ name, an accident of history.
Higgs' second paper was rejected for publication because it was judged “of no obvious relevance to physics.” In response to this rejection he added an extra paragraph to the paper in an attempt to enhance its relevance to physics and sent the paper off to another journal which agreed to publish it. It was this second paper that got referenced enough by others that the term “Higgs Field” and “Higgs Boson” came into common usage. It is possible that if the first version of this second paper been accepted and published, Higgs’ name would not have been assigned to the boson. The fact that he had a single syllable name that was easy to remember probably helped as well.
4. Higgs being British made funding of the LHC possible.
In popular parlance the purpose of the LHC was to find the Higgs Boson (actually other research is done there as well). British money contributed to the joint effort to construct the facility was vital. There were plenty of political reasons for the UK to be suspicious of a project to be constructed in Switzerland and France. But the fact that Peter Higgs was a native son of Bristol and the boson was named after him (and a Nobel Prize was probably going to be awarded) all helped overcome the political opposition.
5. So what is the Higgs Boson (and field)?
It is a field that permeates space, giving mass to elementary subatomic particles that interact with it. Waves created in this field are the bosons. The following link explains the concept more simply.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joTKd...
July 7, 2022
The title of this book was probably selected because it's doubly apt. The Higgs boson and what the subtitle describes as 'the mystery of mass' were elusive for many years, but the term equally applies to the extremely low profile Peter Higgs himself. Frank Close is ideally placed to to give us a handle on both of these topics, though I not sure if he's aware of the degree to which there's a third reason for the book's title to work so well - I'll come back to that.
The first great thing about Elusive is discovering a little bit about Peter Higgs as a person. Close makes clear one of the reasons this is so difficult to do - Higgs has an Edwardian view of communication with the world. That a person of his age doesn't do social media or video calls is not entirely surprising, but for someone who has been a working scientist to not even use email is pretty much unheard of. Hampered by Covid, Close relates having to rely on answering machine messages to set up chats.
It seems absolutely in character that Higgs' response to a likely announcement of his Nobel Prize was to go into hiding. Close gives us a picture of a person with strong political views, especially in his younger years when Higgs was involved in CND, but who is not a social character. Despite the difficulties this imposes (it's so much easier to write a biography of someone like Richard Feynman), Close fills in enough of Higgs' personal life and interactions with others through his career to give us a feel for him as a person. Perhaps reflecting this closed nature, the one thing the biographical part really lacks is photographs. We see snaps of the elderly Higgs a couple of times and that's it.
As for the story of Higgs' work and how it fitted into the bigger picture of the development of this theory, Close is meticulous. Some aspects of this are absolutely fascinating. We are shown, for example, Higgs' two main papers which are shorter even than Einstein's famously compact E=mc2 paper (more strictly m=L/V2) at one and two pages respectively. This is achieved in part because Higgs leaves out a lot of the reasoning that fills in the gaps as already known. I was aware of the controversy that arose because six people all made contributions of some sort to the theory, where only Higgs' name got applied, but I didn't realise that Higgs was the only one to identify the significance of the boson and how evidence for it could be used to test the theory.
The only problem with this aspect of the book is that while it gives us a very good representation of what real work in the field is like (and particularly what it was like at a time when finding out about other people's ideas depended on receiving preprints through the post, at a time when postal strikes were rife), there is sufficient detail that it can be quite easy to get a little bogged down with yet another name and subtle addition to the mathematics to take on.
There is, however, that third aspect of elusiveness - and that is getting your head around the theory itself. It is no coincidence that Close describes most of the people working on this issue as mathematicians rather than physicists. This was less a case of coming up with a model to describe a physical phenomenon, and more of stringing together a set of mathematical deductions that predicted something that didn't make sense, and the attempt to add extra maths to the picture to explain this situation. If anyone was going to be able to cut through this complexity and make it approachable it is Frank Close - his Neutrino book, for example, is a masterpiece of clarity. But making the mathematics behind the Higgs field accessible remains elusive.
There were one or two times that there felt like a hint of light penetrating this mathematical mystery. The much deployed Mexican hat model made more sense than it usually does, while the observation from superconductivity that the Meisner effect, where the magnetic field is expelled from a superconductor, was the equivalent to photons gaining mass worked well - but I think many readers will still find themselves re-reading sections over and again without ever getting their head around what is being described. To reiterate, this is because the lengthy argument is driven from the mathematics with very little that ties it to the physical world. The process produces a real world theory, but one where the steps to reach it rarely make contact with reality as non-mathematicians know it.
Despite this issue, Elusive is a five star book - it reaches parts other books on the Higgs have failed to reach and Frank Close does a brilliant job. Yet the mathematical core remains... elusive.
The first great thing about Elusive is discovering a little bit about Peter Higgs as a person. Close makes clear one of the reasons this is so difficult to do - Higgs has an Edwardian view of communication with the world. That a person of his age doesn't do social media or video calls is not entirely surprising, but for someone who has been a working scientist to not even use email is pretty much unheard of. Hampered by Covid, Close relates having to rely on answering machine messages to set up chats.
It seems absolutely in character that Higgs' response to a likely announcement of his Nobel Prize was to go into hiding. Close gives us a picture of a person with strong political views, especially in his younger years when Higgs was involved in CND, but who is not a social character. Despite the difficulties this imposes (it's so much easier to write a biography of someone like Richard Feynman), Close fills in enough of Higgs' personal life and interactions with others through his career to give us a feel for him as a person. Perhaps reflecting this closed nature, the one thing the biographical part really lacks is photographs. We see snaps of the elderly Higgs a couple of times and that's it.
As for the story of Higgs' work and how it fitted into the bigger picture of the development of this theory, Close is meticulous. Some aspects of this are absolutely fascinating. We are shown, for example, Higgs' two main papers which are shorter even than Einstein's famously compact E=mc2 paper (more strictly m=L/V2) at one and two pages respectively. This is achieved in part because Higgs leaves out a lot of the reasoning that fills in the gaps as already known. I was aware of the controversy that arose because six people all made contributions of some sort to the theory, where only Higgs' name got applied, but I didn't realise that Higgs was the only one to identify the significance of the boson and how evidence for it could be used to test the theory.
The only problem with this aspect of the book is that while it gives us a very good representation of what real work in the field is like (and particularly what it was like at a time when finding out about other people's ideas depended on receiving preprints through the post, at a time when postal strikes were rife), there is sufficient detail that it can be quite easy to get a little bogged down with yet another name and subtle addition to the mathematics to take on.
There is, however, that third aspect of elusiveness - and that is getting your head around the theory itself. It is no coincidence that Close describes most of the people working on this issue as mathematicians rather than physicists. This was less a case of coming up with a model to describe a physical phenomenon, and more of stringing together a set of mathematical deductions that predicted something that didn't make sense, and the attempt to add extra maths to the picture to explain this situation. If anyone was going to be able to cut through this complexity and make it approachable it is Frank Close - his Neutrino book, for example, is a masterpiece of clarity. But making the mathematics behind the Higgs field accessible remains elusive.
There were one or two times that there felt like a hint of light penetrating this mathematical mystery. The much deployed Mexican hat model made more sense than it usually does, while the observation from superconductivity that the Meisner effect, where the magnetic field is expelled from a superconductor, was the equivalent to photons gaining mass worked well - but I think many readers will still find themselves re-reading sections over and again without ever getting their head around what is being described. To reiterate, this is because the lengthy argument is driven from the mathematics with very little that ties it to the physical world. The process produces a real world theory, but one where the steps to reach it rarely make contact with reality as non-mathematicians know it.
Despite this issue, Elusive is a five star book - it reaches parts other books on the Higgs have failed to reach and Frank Close does a brilliant job. Yet the mathematical core remains... elusive.
September 24, 2023
‘—Higgs suddenly remarked that it had “ruined my life”. To know nature through mathematics, to see your theory confirmed, to win the plaudits of your peers and join the exclusive club of Nobel laureates: how could all this equate with ruin? To be sure I had not misunderstood, I asked again the next time we spoke. He explained: “My relatively peaceful existence was ending. I don’t enjoy this sort of publicity. My style is to work in isolation, and occasionally have a bright idea.’
Having read a few (brilliant) ‘science’ biographies recently, I ‘fear’ that that (too quick, too brilliant) experience might have actually, properly ruined/spoilt my ‘taste’ for biographical writing/books. I’m reading a musically-bent one on the side, and the writer bangs on (100-200 pages, and ever so imprecisely) about the musician’s interpersonal relationships (and without enough significance/relevance to their work), and I find myself ‘space-ing out’ too much for it to be enjoyable. I appreciate how precise and how organised this book (/Frank Close) is, or more precisely how meticulous the writing is without losing any heart. I thought about giving it a 4* (only because I felt I couldn’t ‘absorb’ some of the text well enough because I lack what’s needed to fully comprehend; and to put it simply, I was and am still just too dumb for it (but a second reading, and secondary texts would/might improve the experience, I think), but that would be so misleading? 5* is just more appropriate and ultimately, accurate.
‘All that we know so far is that according to quantum mechanics, when a hot gas of Higgs bosons cools, it condenses to form the universal Higgs field. We do not know how this condensation of bosons happens, or what the nature of the field actually is—does it have structure of its own, forming a dynamic medium whose innards are yet to be revealed, or is it made of featureless bosons fused together like molecules of water, merging first into drops and eventually into entire oceans? For now, all we know is its effect: this field acts on the fundamental particles, giving them mass, enabling atoms to form, stars to shine, and ultimately life to occur.’
‘Whereas the photon, the agent of the electromagnetic force, has no mass, the key feature of its analogue for the weak force—the W boson—is that it is massive. This matters for us because the weak force controls the first stage of the solar fusion cycle, in which protons transmute through a series of processes to form helium, liberating the energy that has spawned life on Earth. The weak force is so feeble that if you were a proton in the sun at its birth, today—five billion years later—there would still be only a 50:50 chance that you had undergone fusion. If the W had no mass at all, like the photon, the “weak” force at work in the sun would instead have been as powerful as the electromagnetic force. The transmutation of hydrogen into helium, which is the key process in driving the sun’s fusion engine, would have happened much faster than in reality, and the sun would have expired very quickly. Thus, the fact that intelligent life has managed to evolve is, not least, because the sun has lasted for billions of years, which in turn is because the W has mass. Our existence is consequential on the Higgs field.’
This might sound a little masochistic, but it gets me a bit obsessed when a text/book makes me feel ‘dumb’ (but in this exact, particular way (as I would obviously feel differently if it was something that doesn’t ‘move’ me enough; and in that case I couldn’t care less, it wouldn’t bother me enough)). It keeps me interested. I am sure I would be bored otherwise. Even stylistically, (the writing) it is brilliant. For me, that’s always important—both fiction, and non-fiction—all kinds. Is it really worth felling/killing trees if you can’t even give a proper fuck to be a bit anal about the/your writing, you know?
‘Mathematics contains a logical scheme with explicit rules, such that a mathematical theorem once proved is good forever. Fresh axioms might produce extensions of the theorem, or reveal assumptions that when correctly accounted for lead to new implications. Higgs loved the machinery of mathematics—its algebraic codes, the differential geometries of shapes and maps, the strange symbols of integration and differential calculus. Some find joy in manipulating the equations, much as for some the technical performance of Vladimir Horowitz at the piano keyboard is a wonder in its own right; for Higgs, however, the music was the delight, the ability of mathematics to reveal the beauty hidden in nature. That is what crystallised his decision to become a theoretical physicist.’
‘—his interest in the subject had come mainly from his own reading, including Max Born’s classic text, Atomic Physics, which included information about Dirac’s achievements. It had also become clear to him that he would not become an engineer—because of his lack of practical skills; instead, he would become a physicist.—that same lack of practical skills, which made him incompetent in the laboratory, would prevent him from becoming an experimental physicist. Instead, theoretical physics would become his domain.’
Would definitely recommend it if you (casually) like theoretical physics and/or alike. Definitely not too ‘heavy’ (even if you’re as ‘dumb’ as me), but most importantly the writer doesn’t ‘waffle’ (which I always, always appreciate—I don’t want/need to know about their private lives if it has no relevance to their work, even though I fully understand that a lot of readers actually enjoy that kind of stuff). Strangely (or not), it even made me laugh a few times—like that bit about how Higgs didn’t want to go to ‘Imperial College London’ because he hated the name and said it sounded too ‘bougie’ (and then he went to ‘King’s’ instead like??).
‘After about 150 million years, clouds of gas formed the first stars, the engines that forge the nuclei of heavier elements, such as carbon, oxygen, and iron. About five billion years ago, a whole smorgasbord of elements of the periodic table had been fused, and these formed the huge sphere that became planet Earth. The sun is powered by transmutation of its hydrogen fuel into helium ash, this taking place slowly because of the feebleness of the weak force, which itself is a consequence of the Higgs field. Massless photons, meanwhile, stream across space, warming the Earth. Thanks to these products of electroweak symmetry breaking, the sun has burned long enough that evolution has organised collections of atoms into self-aware human forms, capable of knowing nature.’
‘Confirmation of the Higgs boson has emphasised that hidden symmetry—the child of spontaneous symmetry breaking where stability trumps symmetry—is very wide ranging and a key ingredient to describing the natural world. Superconductivity stimulated awareness of the phenomenon in the first place, and when it was taken over to the physics of fundamental particles, it turned out to be key to the whole edifice of the Standard Model. Or almost all of it, for there is no known fundamental reason why mirror symmetry is overturned in the weak interaction: why is nature left-handed?’
‘—Higgs boson has brought us to the end of the beginning, not to the beginning of the end. What dark matter is made of, whether there are further “dark Higgs bosons” to be found, and how the Higgs field is formed are questions for the future.’
If you (later?) enjoyed the book (essentially about the ‘God particle’ (Higgs)) as much as I did, did it make you more curious about ‘the ghost particle’ (‘neutrinos’; Frank Close wrote a book about this as well)? Because it did for me. And on top of that, what the fuck is a ‘demon particle’ (Pines) which is not ‘really’ a particle, no? To add to the comic element of all of this, ‘God particle’ was initially called the ‘Goddamn particle’. Anyway, fun stuff.
September 16, 2023
The beginning of the book, which deals with the theoretical necessity of a Higgs boson, was a bit difficult to follow, requiring a bit of my time just to simply get the gist of what was going on. I can’t follow the maths necessary, so my understanding of this, in spite of the time spent thinking it through ,will remain rudimentary. This requirement of a massive particle in order for the coupling of the electromagnetic and weak forces took time and various steps, which are all described in the book. The other big section of the book, dealing with the experiments that eventually prove the boson’s existence is much easier. Higgs himself is actually not a very entertaining individual and is very introverted , definitely not a Dick Feynman (although, who the hell is?) which makes it so the book is not in any deep sense about the man whose name is attached to the particle. Worth reading only if you care about Physics. Don’t read this if what you’re looking for is a portrait of an interesting set of actors.
July 8, 2022
One of my pieces from the Literary Review:
Frank Close is a particle physicist who during a distinguished career developed a sideline in accessible popular books about the subatomic world, long before anyone outside the halls of academe had heard of Carlo Rovelli. After retiring from the day job, he took to writing even more fascinating biographical studies of the “atom spies” who provided the Soviet Union with the information that kick-started their nuclear weapons programme during and after World War Two. Now he has combined these skills in a semi-biographical account of Nobel-laureate Peter Higgs and the particle named after him — the particle which is responsible for giving other particles mass, and which determines the rate at which the Sun burns its nuclear fuel and thereby maintains conditions suitable for life on Earth.
The title of the book applies to both the man and the particle. Higgs is famously (even notoriously) self-effacing and avoids the limelight to the extent that on the day the anticipated Nobel Prize was to be announced he pretended he was on holiday in the Scottish Highlands, sending reporters off on a wild goose chase while he sat in a quiet wine bar in Edinburgh. The particle proved even more elusive. Predicted in the mid-1960s, it was not identified, or discovered, for more than 40 years, and then only after the the construction of the largest “atom smasher” in the world, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, in a tunnel with roughly the dimensions of London’s Circle Line, straddling the Swiss-French border. Close tells these intertwined tales with the aid of a deep understanding of the physics, and many meetings with Peter Higgs himself. There have been other books on the same theme, but this is far and away the best.
Where Close excels is in explaining the fundamental principles of particle physics in language anyone likely to pick up the book can understand. His unpicking of technical terms such as “renormalization”, “gauge theory” and “symmetry breaking” is superb, and I fully intend to steal some of his analogies for my own use. This leads on to a brief history of the development of particle physics in the twentieth century, which may be familiar in outline to some readers, but benefits from the author’s status as an insider.
At the other end of the book, there is the story of the background to the construction of the LHC, its significance for our understanding of the Universe, and a fascinating account of the way the discovery of the Higgs (hailed, to the irritation of most physicists, as “the God particle”) was first achieved and then presented to the world. This, for me, was the highlight of the book.
In between these delights, there is some material which non-physicists may find daunting. I enjoyed it, and learned things — but then, I have a background in physics. Taken out of context (as I am about to do), passages such as :
Gauge symmetry in the theory of QED implies that if you change the phases of electrons’ quantum waves at different places in space and time, the implications of the equations for the electrons’ behaviours will remain unchanged.
can be quite intimidating. Actually, for the uninitiated it is pretty intimidating even in context. My advice is to let such passages (fortunately there are not many of them) wash over you like a soothing wave, and focus on the more familiar English that forms the bulk of the book. But whatever you do, don’t give up, because what follows the sticky bit is most of the good stuff.
One curiosity of the biographical story is that Peter Higgs (who was born in 1929) attended the same school in Bristol where another physics Nobel Laureate, Paul Dirac, had been a pupil. Curious to know what this famous old boy had done, Higgs found out when he chose as the prize for his own achievements at school a book called “Marvels and Mysteries of Science”, which introduced him to the then-new theory of quantum mechanics that Dirac had pioneered. The two even shared (30 years apart) the same physics teacher, one Mr Willis, who must have done something right.
Higgs’ achievements were not quite in the same league as those of Dirac — a reflection on how good Dirac, widely regarded as the greatest physicist born in the twentieth century, was, rather than how feeble Higgs’ contribution was. Higgs’ career followed a fairly conventional route through the academic ranks to end up as a Professor in Edinburgh, publishing his quota of scientific papers along the way. His epiphany, beautifully explained by Close, came in 1964, and was presented in papers published that year and in 1966. It was, according to him, the only really good scientific idea he ever had. He told Close that “the portion of my life for which I am known is rather small — three weeks in the summer of 1964.” But the discovery made in those three weeks was based on a lifetime developing an understanding of his subject, and one good idea is all you need, if it is a really good idea, to win a Nobel Prize.
Elusive works as a biography of Peter Higgs, as a chronicle of one of the greatest intellectual advances in human history, and best of all as an answer to anyone who asks why we should bother to carry out experiments like those at CERN. Buy it.
John Gribbin is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sussex and author of Six Impossible Things: The Mysteries of the Subatomic World.
Frank Close is a particle physicist who during a distinguished career developed a sideline in accessible popular books about the subatomic world, long before anyone outside the halls of academe had heard of Carlo Rovelli. After retiring from the day job, he took to writing even more fascinating biographical studies of the “atom spies” who provided the Soviet Union with the information that kick-started their nuclear weapons programme during and after World War Two. Now he has combined these skills in a semi-biographical account of Nobel-laureate Peter Higgs and the particle named after him — the particle which is responsible for giving other particles mass, and which determines the rate at which the Sun burns its nuclear fuel and thereby maintains conditions suitable for life on Earth.
The title of the book applies to both the man and the particle. Higgs is famously (even notoriously) self-effacing and avoids the limelight to the extent that on the day the anticipated Nobel Prize was to be announced he pretended he was on holiday in the Scottish Highlands, sending reporters off on a wild goose chase while he sat in a quiet wine bar in Edinburgh. The particle proved even more elusive. Predicted in the mid-1960s, it was not identified, or discovered, for more than 40 years, and then only after the the construction of the largest “atom smasher” in the world, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, in a tunnel with roughly the dimensions of London’s Circle Line, straddling the Swiss-French border. Close tells these intertwined tales with the aid of a deep understanding of the physics, and many meetings with Peter Higgs himself. There have been other books on the same theme, but this is far and away the best.
Where Close excels is in explaining the fundamental principles of particle physics in language anyone likely to pick up the book can understand. His unpicking of technical terms such as “renormalization”, “gauge theory” and “symmetry breaking” is superb, and I fully intend to steal some of his analogies for my own use. This leads on to a brief history of the development of particle physics in the twentieth century, which may be familiar in outline to some readers, but benefits from the author’s status as an insider.
At the other end of the book, there is the story of the background to the construction of the LHC, its significance for our understanding of the Universe, and a fascinating account of the way the discovery of the Higgs (hailed, to the irritation of most physicists, as “the God particle”) was first achieved and then presented to the world. This, for me, was the highlight of the book.
In between these delights, there is some material which non-physicists may find daunting. I enjoyed it, and learned things — but then, I have a background in physics. Taken out of context (as I am about to do), passages such as :
Gauge symmetry in the theory of QED implies that if you change the phases of electrons’ quantum waves at different places in space and time, the implications of the equations for the electrons’ behaviours will remain unchanged.
can be quite intimidating. Actually, for the uninitiated it is pretty intimidating even in context. My advice is to let such passages (fortunately there are not many of them) wash over you like a soothing wave, and focus on the more familiar English that forms the bulk of the book. But whatever you do, don’t give up, because what follows the sticky bit is most of the good stuff.
One curiosity of the biographical story is that Peter Higgs (who was born in 1929) attended the same school in Bristol where another physics Nobel Laureate, Paul Dirac, had been a pupil. Curious to know what this famous old boy had done, Higgs found out when he chose as the prize for his own achievements at school a book called “Marvels and Mysteries of Science”, which introduced him to the then-new theory of quantum mechanics that Dirac had pioneered. The two even shared (30 years apart) the same physics teacher, one Mr Willis, who must have done something right.
Higgs’ achievements were not quite in the same league as those of Dirac — a reflection on how good Dirac, widely regarded as the greatest physicist born in the twentieth century, was, rather than how feeble Higgs’ contribution was. Higgs’ career followed a fairly conventional route through the academic ranks to end up as a Professor in Edinburgh, publishing his quota of scientific papers along the way. His epiphany, beautifully explained by Close, came in 1964, and was presented in papers published that year and in 1966. It was, according to him, the only really good scientific idea he ever had. He told Close that “the portion of my life for which I am known is rather small — three weeks in the summer of 1964.” But the discovery made in those three weeks was based on a lifetime developing an understanding of his subject, and one good idea is all you need, if it is a really good idea, to win a Nobel Prize.
Elusive works as a biography of Peter Higgs, as a chronicle of one of the greatest intellectual advances in human history, and best of all as an answer to anyone who asks why we should bother to carry out experiments like those at CERN. Buy it.
John Gribbin is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sussex and author of Six Impossible Things: The Mysteries of the Subatomic World.
August 27, 2022
A fascinating book about an elusive character, Peter Higgs, an elusive particle, the Higgs boson, and how the two would lead Higgs to getting an elusive prize, the Nobel. With access to Higgs and other scientists, the author is able to give a good idea of who Higgs is and his personality, as well as give the reader an idea of how the Higgs mechanism operates and its importance to particle physics.
The book starts with a biography of Higgs, who was inspired to take up physics upon learning that physicist Paul Dirac was an alumnus from his school. His initial desire to study quantum physics get accidentally derailed by his supervisor, leading him to take up molecular physics before eventually turning back to the field of quantum physics.
Then, theories about how superconductivity occurs would turn out to be the inspiration for Higgs to write his famous two papers that would propose a mechanism for how some particles get mass. Of course, he was not the first to get the idea, but his paper would contain an additional item that would propel him to 'stardom': a prediction about a particle that is associate with the mechanism.
By examining the chronology of events in that critical period, the author gives a look at the research happening at that time by Higgs and other scientists that would eventually lead to the particle being called the Higgs boson, despite the mechanism for giving mass to particles being proposed by other scientists before Higgs. As it turns out, mistakes in assigning priority in highly cited papers would give the impression that Higgs was the first to get the idea.
With advances in experimental particle physics (especially the machines used to accelerate and detect particles) and theoretical physics pointing the way, the hunt was on to find the Higgs particle that would complete what would now be known as the Standard Model of particle physics. The highlight would be the announcement at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the discovery of the Higgs particle, with Higgs and other scientists who came up with the idea, present to hear the news.
But that would not be the end of it. Higgs, a private person, would now be in the spotlight for getting a Nobel Prize. But on the day of the announcement itself, Higgs decides to 'vanish' to avoid the media scrambling to interview him. But there is no avoiding the media on the day of the prize presentation itself.
This is one of the more accessible books about particle physics and the people who study them to try to figure out how nature works. The appendix of the book includes Higgs's two papers, where he shows the need for a Higgs mechanism to provide mass to some particles and the implications of the mechanism (the Higgs particle). Both papers are one page long each, but together, they would lead many people to come together to discover whether that is how the universe actually works.
The book starts with a biography of Higgs, who was inspired to take up physics upon learning that physicist Paul Dirac was an alumnus from his school. His initial desire to study quantum physics get accidentally derailed by his supervisor, leading him to take up molecular physics before eventually turning back to the field of quantum physics.
Then, theories about how superconductivity occurs would turn out to be the inspiration for Higgs to write his famous two papers that would propose a mechanism for how some particles get mass. Of course, he was not the first to get the idea, but his paper would contain an additional item that would propel him to 'stardom': a prediction about a particle that is associate with the mechanism.
By examining the chronology of events in that critical period, the author gives a look at the research happening at that time by Higgs and other scientists that would eventually lead to the particle being called the Higgs boson, despite the mechanism for giving mass to particles being proposed by other scientists before Higgs. As it turns out, mistakes in assigning priority in highly cited papers would give the impression that Higgs was the first to get the idea.
With advances in experimental particle physics (especially the machines used to accelerate and detect particles) and theoretical physics pointing the way, the hunt was on to find the Higgs particle that would complete what would now be known as the Standard Model of particle physics. The highlight would be the announcement at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the discovery of the Higgs particle, with Higgs and other scientists who came up with the idea, present to hear the news.
But that would not be the end of it. Higgs, a private person, would now be in the spotlight for getting a Nobel Prize. But on the day of the announcement itself, Higgs decides to 'vanish' to avoid the media scrambling to interview him. But there is no avoiding the media on the day of the prize presentation itself.
This is one of the more accessible books about particle physics and the people who study them to try to figure out how nature works. The appendix of the book includes Higgs's two papers, where he shows the need for a Higgs mechanism to provide mass to some particles and the implications of the mechanism (the Higgs particle). Both papers are one page long each, but together, they would lead many people to come together to discover whether that is how the universe actually works.
June 26, 2022
This is a difficult book to review. One of my criteria for evaluating a book is whether it is important. Will people be reading it a decade or more from now? With regard to this book, the answer is likely not. It is a good book, however, and I can recommend it. The enduring value of the book unfortunately rests on (1) the history of the development of particle physics and (2) on the life of Peter Higgs. The former is evolving all the time, and is difficult for the non physicist, and the latter, is not greatly interesting. I skimmed the part that described the Nobel prize ceremony. Who cares? Evidently not Higgs himself.
The author does a great job with the material, but the particle physics is not easy and Higgs is an admirable but not particularly "newsworthy" individual. I have no regrets that I read this book but it is for a narrow reading audience.
The author does a great job with the material, but the particle physics is not easy and Higgs is an admirable but not particularly "newsworthy" individual. I have no regrets that I read this book but it is for a narrow reading audience.
August 3, 2022
Extensively researched book about the life of Peter Higgs. This book traces his life from birth until the author's interviews with him in 2015. Throughout the book we see his life, his philosophies, and the evolution of the theories of science itself.
I recommend this to someone who likes biographies but also for those deeply interested in all kinds of physics or the sciences. It is a great STEM resource. It is a medium-to-heavy read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.
I recommend this to someone who likes biographies but also for those deeply interested in all kinds of physics or the sciences. It is a great STEM resource. It is a medium-to-heavy read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.
March 11, 2023
Set aside at about the halfway mark. If I hadn't gotten so busy while reading it I probably would have persevered. But the subject matter is, if I'm being honest, a bit beyond me. Not sure what level of training you would need to make sense of it, but certainly some formal post-secondary physics study is mandatory to fully engage. Haven't touched the book in a couple weeks, so time to move along.
June 30, 2024
Excellent review of particle physics and the search for Higg's boson. Narrative fairly readable, the mathematics in the appendices less so (at least third semester college calculus or higher).
Read
October 13, 2022Sometimes I try to read physic-y books for the lay reader, and then I often realize I should just read wikipedia articles. Some of the reviews for this book gave me more insight than the book itself! I was led to check it out from the NYT review https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/bo... but unfortunately the book didn't hold my interest.
April 28, 2024
This is a book about a particle physicist (Peter Higgs) written by another particle physicist (Frank Close) who happens to write really well.
I don’t have enough technical background to appreciate some of the discussions, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Great insights about the significance of the Higgs boson for our understanding of the universe, the interplay (in this case, over nearly 50 years) between theoretical modelling and experimentation, and also about how CERN’s large hadron collider (LHC) works.
I don’t have enough technical background to appreciate some of the discussions, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Great insights about the significance of the Higgs boson for our understanding of the universe, the interplay (in this case, over nearly 50 years) between theoretical modelling and experimentation, and also about how CERN’s large hadron collider (LHC) works.
August 28, 2022
*4.5 solid stars
January 13, 2023
Elusive comes in two parts: it is a book about a man, and it is also a book about his discovery. It works more as a book on Higgs boson than on Peter Higgs.
The book's primary objective is to look into the famous scientist's life. The author repeatedly highlights Higgs' shy and unassuming personality and how he goes to great lengths to deflect attention from himself. It is almost like the most interesting stories in the life of the celebrated scientist are all about how he makes himself uninteresting! Clearly, he does not make a good subject for a biography.
His discovery is a different matter. A part of the tale of his boson is about the particles' validation journey from around the mid-1990s until recently. A handful of books have come out on the LHC in the last few years. This book does not have much new to add to this part of the boson's rise to preeminence.
The author shines in his explanations of the discovery itself. Particle physics is a challenging topic for a popular science book, and the Higgs boson, with its intricate conceptualization, is worse. However, the author does an exceptional job of tackling the subject head-on, providing a detailed and comprehensive explanation of the relevant concepts without wasting space on more basic discussions on forces and fields commonly found in other popular books.
The author uses clear language and interesting analogies to make the topics more accessible. For example, when the author discusses why certain bosons are massless while others have mass, he explains utilizing the effect of plasma in the ionosphere. A plasma structure causes the reflection of waves below a certain frequency, causing an illusion of mass. Another good analogy is that of flat galaxy structures (and not spherical): this is an understandable example of how unstable symmetries break to create stable asymmetries. Once explained so clearly, it becomes easier for an average reader to understand the breaking of the electroweak force.
With additional arguments adopted from gauge theory (equations that remain invariant under certain transformations), the arguments move to non-zero vacuum expectation value and with associated Goldstone bosons that have mass.
Higgs' Boson story is incomplete. One knows extremely little about the underlying field and its mechanism. Those interested in the subject are assured of enhancing their understanding of what is achieved and what is pending.
The book's primary objective is to look into the famous scientist's life. The author repeatedly highlights Higgs' shy and unassuming personality and how he goes to great lengths to deflect attention from himself. It is almost like the most interesting stories in the life of the celebrated scientist are all about how he makes himself uninteresting! Clearly, he does not make a good subject for a biography.
His discovery is a different matter. A part of the tale of his boson is about the particles' validation journey from around the mid-1990s until recently. A handful of books have come out on the LHC in the last few years. This book does not have much new to add to this part of the boson's rise to preeminence.
The author shines in his explanations of the discovery itself. Particle physics is a challenging topic for a popular science book, and the Higgs boson, with its intricate conceptualization, is worse. However, the author does an exceptional job of tackling the subject head-on, providing a detailed and comprehensive explanation of the relevant concepts without wasting space on more basic discussions on forces and fields commonly found in other popular books.
The author uses clear language and interesting analogies to make the topics more accessible. For example, when the author discusses why certain bosons are massless while others have mass, he explains utilizing the effect of plasma in the ionosphere. A plasma structure causes the reflection of waves below a certain frequency, causing an illusion of mass. Another good analogy is that of flat galaxy structures (and not spherical): this is an understandable example of how unstable symmetries break to create stable asymmetries. Once explained so clearly, it becomes easier for an average reader to understand the breaking of the electroweak force.
With additional arguments adopted from gauge theory (equations that remain invariant under certain transformations), the arguments move to non-zero vacuum expectation value and with associated Goldstone bosons that have mass.
Higgs' Boson story is incomplete. One knows extremely little about the underlying field and its mechanism. Those interested in the subject are assured of enhancing their understanding of what is achieved and what is pending.
February 2, 2023
An enjoyable non-too-deep look at Higgs and his eponymous bosun. It's almost impossible to write clearly about advanced physics for a general audience. Frank Close is no better than most, but what really helps him here is his long friendship with Peter Higgs. He has interviewed his subject extensively, and it shows.
The book travels two tracks, one that of Higgs' life and one that of advances in physics that led to Higgs' signal realization of how subatomic particles get their mass. And, because of the mathematical formulae Higgs devised, it was actually possible to test for the presence of said mechanism: the Higgs field and bosun. Enter the Large Hadron Collider.
The best part of this book is probably the epilog, in which Close addresses what's next. Now that we've confirmed the existence of the Higgs bosun, where does physics go from here? I'll give you a hint: figure out how this stuff interacts with the Planck scale, and there's a Nobel or two in there for you, not to mention a fame on the level of Einstein.
The book has some other enjoyable parts too, such as Higgs' going out of his way to hide himself for the public, or the spark of interest among the general public caused by the discovery of the bosun. And plenty of interesting science too. Do you know the difference between a lepton and a hadron, for example? The book explains it simply, and well.
The book travels two tracks, one that of Higgs' life and one that of advances in physics that led to Higgs' signal realization of how subatomic particles get their mass. And, because of the mathematical formulae Higgs devised, it was actually possible to test for the presence of said mechanism: the Higgs field and bosun. Enter the Large Hadron Collider.
The best part of this book is probably the epilog, in which Close addresses what's next. Now that we've confirmed the existence of the Higgs bosun, where does physics go from here? I'll give you a hint: figure out how this stuff interacts with the Planck scale, and there's a Nobel or two in there for you, not to mention a fame on the level of Einstein.
The book has some other enjoyable parts too, such as Higgs' going out of his way to hide himself for the public, or the spark of interest among the general public caused by the discovery of the bosun. And plenty of interesting science too. Do you know the difference between a lepton and a hadron, for example? The book explains it simply, and well.
November 7, 2022
I really enjoyed this book, but it is definitely problematic. In order to really appreciate what Peter Higgs did, you kind of need to be able to follow the physics, and the physics in question here is up to the level where you need to maybe an undergraduate or even graduate physic major to really get.
I'm not that guy, but I was able to follow along well enough to at least understand that long long ago, Higgs and a bunch of other guys were able to figure out a way to give mass to the bosons associated with the weak charge by breaking a specific symmetry. Higgs seems to have gotten a little ahead of the pack by not only showing the math that was needed to make this happen, but also showing that as a consequence, there would be another massive boson with spin 0 and a field associated with it. The Higgs field and the Higgs boson.
I barely follow it at that level, and really, that does get in the way of an interesting story. I don't know what you do about it...
Anyway, if you don't at least have a passing acquaintance with that well-known graphic showing the three tiers of leptons, the three tiers of quarks, and the motley bag of bosons, I think you might have trouble enjoying this book and might want to consider skipping it.
I'm not that guy, but I was able to follow along well enough to at least understand that long long ago, Higgs and a bunch of other guys were able to figure out a way to give mass to the bosons associated with the weak charge by breaking a specific symmetry. Higgs seems to have gotten a little ahead of the pack by not only showing the math that was needed to make this happen, but also showing that as a consequence, there would be another massive boson with spin 0 and a field associated with it. The Higgs field and the Higgs boson.
I barely follow it at that level, and really, that does get in the way of an interesting story. I don't know what you do about it...
Anyway, if you don't at least have a passing acquaintance with that well-known graphic showing the three tiers of leptons, the three tiers of quarks, and the motley bag of bosons, I think you might have trouble enjoying this book and might want to consider skipping it.
February 13, 2023
A decent and informative book. At times somewhat dry and repetitive, and teetered between being too technical and not technical enough. Still, I learned a remarkable amount. Close worked very hard to make this topic approachable, but I think it’s honestly so esoteric that there’s only so much a layperson can get out of it. I enjoyed the sections about Higgs’ life, CERN and the LHC, and the various discoveries and papers surrounding the Higgs boson both before and after Higgs’ papers. I will say Higgs as a a character is tragic to me, a man thrust into the spotlight who appears to know deep down he deserves little of it. He’s achieved external success but is he satisfied? I’m not sure.
This book also made me rethink big awards like the Nobel prize, and other institutions of authority. So often we’re conditioned to accept this authority, but did the Nobel committee make the right choice here? There’s certainly an argument.
This book also made me rethink big awards like the Nobel prize, and other institutions of authority. So often we’re conditioned to accept this authority, but did the Nobel committee make the right choice here? There’s certainly an argument.
September 29, 2023
If I was a little smarter, I'd probably give it 4 stars instead of 3.
Part biography of Peter Higgs and part story of the development and discovery of the Higgs Boson. Even though sections of it went way above my head, (not sure what they mean by gauge symmetry and super symmetry, among other things) it was an engaging book about a likeable scientist who seemed to view his own contributions to science modestly and preferred to stay out of the public eye. It also covers the development and use of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, as well as its predecessors in the quest to reveal the nature of the most fundamental structures of the physical world. It's well written. The audiobook narrator had an odd inflection when quoting Higgs that might have fit better on a comedy, but I still felt that I came out of it with a better understanding of those structures and this person.
Part biography of Peter Higgs and part story of the development and discovery of the Higgs Boson. Even though sections of it went way above my head, (not sure what they mean by gauge symmetry and super symmetry, among other things) it was an engaging book about a likeable scientist who seemed to view his own contributions to science modestly and preferred to stay out of the public eye. It also covers the development and use of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, as well as its predecessors in the quest to reveal the nature of the most fundamental structures of the physical world. It's well written. The audiobook narrator had an odd inflection when quoting Higgs that might have fit better on a comedy, but I still felt that I came out of it with a better understanding of those structures and this person.
January 10, 2024
A fascinating look into some of the more complicated science, and into the quiet researcher behind the popularly known "God Particle" or "Higgs Boson". While I have always heard the short summary "responsible for giving protons their mass", I haven't had a clue what that meant. I am 10% smarter on the subject after reading this - but I think that more would require many classes. In other words, it's good coverage of what a layman can understand. As far as the personal bio of Peter Higgs, it is interesting and illuminating without going too far. I was reminded of the Doudna bio by Isaacson in that he went way too far into boring bits on his character, while Close kept is simple and short where necessary. These are fascinating people at some level, but a single (no matter how major) breakthrough doesn't provide enough popular interest to sustain many more pages.
August 25, 2024
Comprehensive book on the Higgs boson, describing how Higgs came to describe it, how engineers came to proof it and what the impact of all of this was on Peter Higgs his life.
Despite the best efforts of the author at times the theory describes was too complex for me, hindering the ease of reading. It does make the discovery of it all even more impressive.
That is what will remain with me most. How almost beyond imagination it is that someone can describe using mathematics theories so abstract and unknown that is takes nearly half a century to proof it. The wonders of the human mind never cease to amaze me.
Despite the best efforts of the author at times the theory describes was too complex for me, hindering the ease of reading. It does make the discovery of it all even more impressive.
That is what will remain with me most. How almost beyond imagination it is that someone can describe using mathematics theories so abstract and unknown that is takes nearly half a century to proof it. The wonders of the human mind never cease to amaze me.
September 15, 2022
As the title says, it focuses on Higgs and the search for his eponymous boson. The author does a good job of describing the other folks involved. Higgs was a bit of a recluse, so there's not much there about the person or his life. The science rarely gets too technical, and there's fairly good higher level coverage. However, sometimes it gets too repetitive and, without enough personal information, a bit too dry. Still, a good, above average, book
November 14, 2022
This book often lost me in the science. It got technical in places and hard to follow. I am sure that someone with a more technical understanding would enjoy it more. It did do a very good job with the life of Higgs and giving a real understanding of the man behind the idea as well as the idea in the scope of his academic career. It is interesting that this idea was his only significant accomplishment that advanced the field.
May 27, 2023
Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this! The tale of Peter Higgs. This was one of my favorite books on science and biography that I have read. It is likely not for the average reader or someone that steers away from technical books. I thoroughly enjoyed this and will absolutely be reading this author again. Very well written. Compelling. Highly recommended for the science inclined. For the willing, I believe this is worth the effort. Some readers will struggle with the subject.
January 4, 2023
This is not for the common physics enthusiast. Frank Close is no Simon Singh. Admittedly, particle physics is not exactly intuitive and Quantum theory even less so , but the author’s attempts to explain it start laboriously and leaves you panting by page 60.
It’s my favorite subject but I had to finally put myself out of misery by giving it up. Only the 3rd or 4th time , I have done this .
It’s my favorite subject but I had to finally put myself out of misery by giving it up. Only the 3rd or 4th time , I have done this .
January 26, 2023
A read to stretch your understanding of the finding of the Higgs Boson and to find out about the scientist who came up with his"best and only idea"
Excellent
A difficult read if a non physicist. Close does not water down the path to its discovery. He does give a brief description of Higgs' 1064 papers, which is admirable.
Excellent
A difficult read if a non physicist. Close does not water down the path to its discovery. He does give a brief description of Higgs' 1064 papers, which is admirable.
December 26, 2023
Most of the physics went right over my head -- nothing wrong with Close's explanations, quantum physics is just difficult and weird -- but I enjoyed the story of Peter Higgs. He has just quietly gone about his business for years and years, studying and teaching and having his "one original idea" that changed the world. A most remarkable unremarkable man.
February 4, 2024
Really enjoyed this book. It's hard to convey the physics in a popular book (and I was on an audiobook, making it even more difficult), but I felt the author did a pretty good job of it. Really liked understanding better why the Higgs Boson matters and a bit more about how it was discovered theoretically and (later) practically.
October 18, 2022
Felt like there was enough technical jargon to keep the science nerds happy while being readable and well suited for the interested layman.
TLDR: it was more than just Peter Higgs responsible for the discovery of the boson, and don't call it "the god particle"
TLDR: it was more than just Peter Higgs responsible for the discovery of the boson, and don't call it "the god particle"
April 15, 2023
Gives more info on Higgs the person than I really need, though of course that is what biographies are for. I more enjoyed the discussion of the physics, though didn't understand some. That's ok. Even now no one knows how to pronounce "Gerard 't Hooft", and I doubt anyone ever will.
July 24, 2022
5* Excellent combination of the science aspects of the Higgs boson and the human interactions of the saga.
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