Update: here’s the amazon page, where the book is ready for pre-order.
Speaking of writing popular books, I’m at it again. I’m currently hard at work writing The Particle At the End of the Universe, a popular-level book on the Large Hadron Collider and the search for the Higgs boson. If all goes well, it should appear in bookstores at the end of this year or beginning of next. (Ideally, it will go on sale the same day they announce the discovery of the Higgs. I’m trying to bribe the right people to make that happen.) The title is somewhat tentative, so it might change at some point.
This will be a somewhat different book than From Eternity to Here. While both are aimed at a general audience, FETH was a rather lengthy tome that made a careful argument in a hopefully novel way. Anyone could read it, but to get the most out of it you have to really sit and think about certain ideas. Particle, on the other hand, aims to be a fun and narratively gripping page-turner — a book that makes you eager to move quickly to the next chapter, rather than taking a few minutes to let the last one sink into your head. A bodice-ripper, if you will. It will be full of stories and fun anecdotes about the human beings who made the LHC happen and have devoted their lives to searching for the Higgs and particles beyond the Standard Model. A book you would be happy to give to your Grandmom in order to convey some of the excitement of modern physics. (Unless your Grandmom is a particle physicist, in which case she might think it’s at too low a level.)
At the same time, of course, I’m going to try to illuminate the central ideas of the Standard Model in as clear a fashion as I can manage. It won’t just be a list of particles; I’ll cover field theory, gauge bosons, and spontaneous symmetry breaking. All in fine bodice-ripping style. (Maybe get Fabio for the cover?)
If you are a particle physicist yourself, I’m happy to take input. This could take the form of a favorite analogy you like to use to explain some subtle concept, or some physics idea or piece of history you think really doesn’t get the attention it deserves in the popular media. Even better if you have some personal involvement in a fun story — you lost your virginity in the LHC tunnel, or you discovered asymptotic freedom but didn’t get around to publishing it. I’m talking to as many physicists as I can, but I can’t talk to everyone. I’m looking for tales that will make the human side of physics come alive.
Also happy to take input if you’re not a particle physicist! What are the concepts that we don’t do a good job explaining? What are the buzzwords you’ve heard about the don’t make sense? The questions you really want answered?
I sincerely believe the search for the Higgs and whatever might lie beyond is a Big Deal in the history of science, and I hope to convey some of the importance and excitement of this question to as large an audience as possible. I’ll be flitting around the country giving talks when the book comes out, so let me know if you have a big lecture hall full of eager minds that want to hear the latest dispatches from the particle trenches. Should be a fun ride.
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It all depends upon the precise Inflaton mass (unknown), but the nearest natural scale is,
Mh = 2pi*alpha^8*Mp = 122.8 Gev, just ~ 2 Gev below the preliminary indication.
We shall see !
This is my first visit to your site and I am fascinated by the amount of particle physics I read here. I have read Leon Lederman’s book “The God Particle” and I think I grasp the concepts behind Peter Higgs and his search for the elusive boson that imparts mass to other particles.
As an adherent to Francis Collins’ principles of theistic belief in the midst of scientific truth,
I am not antagonistic to science, but much in accord with its requirements of evidentiary testimony that explain the natural world. Inasmuch as many scientists had hedged their bets in the 1920’s on George LeMaitre’s theory of the Big Bang because of his Catholic priesthood, it was necessary for me to know that he had based his research directly on Einsteins field equations to arrive at his concept of the primeval atom.
The reason is abundantly clear in both scientific and religious disciplines – that man should find signifcant meaning to his existence both in the natural and spiritual worlds. But it does not help to have a Nobel Laureate in particle physics announce to the world that he finds the universe “meaningless.”It is only by cooperation in the most cosmic sense of the word, that we can mitigate the hostility that has been generated by the current crop of atheists who themselves are not scientists and have no connections to the scientific world. There is evil apparent in all human endeavor, and we need to seek the paradise together that demonstrates our own human capacities to achieve this ideal world.