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Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space
On July 4, 2012, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva madehistory when they discovered an entirely new type of subatomic particle that many scientists believe is the Higgs boson. For forty years, physicists searched for this capstone to the Standard Model of particle physics—the theory that describes both the most elementary components that are known in matter and the forces through which they interact. This particle points to the Higgs field, which provides the key to understanding why elementary particles have mass. In Higgs Discovery, Lisa Randall explains the science behind this monumental discovery, its exhilarating implications, and the power of empty space.
79 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
217 people are currently reading
1159 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Randall
15 books479 followersLISA RANDALL is Professor of Physics at Harvard University. She began her physics career at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. She was a finalist, and tied for first place, in the National Westinghouse Science Talent Search. She went on to Harvard where she earned the BS (1983) and PhD (1987) in physics. She was a President's Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and a junior fellow at Harvard University. She joined the MIT faculty in 1991 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1995 and received tenure in 1997. Between 1998 and 2001 she had a joint appointment at Princeton and MIT as a full professor. She moved to Harvard as a full professor in 2001.
She was the 1st tenured woman in physics at Princeton; the 1st tenured woman theorist in science at Harvard and at MIT. She's the most cited theoretical physicist in the world in the last five years as of last autumn — a total of about 10,000 citations. In this regard, she is most known for two papers: "A Large mass Hierarchy From a Small Extra Dimension" (2500 citations); and and "An Alternative to Compactification" (about 2500 citations). Both concern "Warped Geometry/Spacetime" and show that infinite extra dimension and weakness of gravity can be explained with an extra dimension.
Lisa Randall’s research in theoretical high energy physics is primarily related to the question of what is the physics underlying the standard model of particle physics. This has involved studies of strongly interacting theories, supersymmetry, and most recently, extra dimensions of space. In this latter work, she investigates “warped” geometries. The focus of this work has been a particular class of theories based on five-dimensional AdS space which has the remarkable property that the graviton is localized and the space need not be compactified. Related work demonstrates that this theory yields a very natural resolution to the hierarchy problem of particle physics (the large ratio of the Planck and electroweak scales) and furthermore, is compatible with unification of gauge couplings. This latter class of theories suggests interesting experimental tests. The study of further implications of this work has involved string theory, holography, and cosmology. Lisa Randall also continues to work on supersymmetry and other beyond-the-standard-model physics.
Within a year of her work on extra dimensions, it was featured on the front page of the Science Times section of The New York Times. It has also been featured in the Economist, the New Scientist, Science,Nature, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Daily News, a BBC Horizons television program, BBC radio, and other news sources. She has also been also been interviewed because Science Watch and the ISI Essential Science Indicators have indicated her research as some of the best cited in all of science.
http://edge.org/memberbio/lisa_randall
She was the 1st tenured woman in physics at Princeton; the 1st tenured woman theorist in science at Harvard and at MIT. She's the most cited theoretical physicist in the world in the last five years as of last autumn — a total of about 10,000 citations. In this regard, she is most known for two papers: "A Large mass Hierarchy From a Small Extra Dimension" (2500 citations); and and "An Alternative to Compactification" (about 2500 citations). Both concern "Warped Geometry/Spacetime" and show that infinite extra dimension and weakness of gravity can be explained with an extra dimension.
Lisa Randall’s research in theoretical high energy physics is primarily related to the question of what is the physics underlying the standard model of particle physics. This has involved studies of strongly interacting theories, supersymmetry, and most recently, extra dimensions of space. In this latter work, she investigates “warped” geometries. The focus of this work has been a particular class of theories based on five-dimensional AdS space which has the remarkable property that the graviton is localized and the space need not be compactified. Related work demonstrates that this theory yields a very natural resolution to the hierarchy problem of particle physics (the large ratio of the Planck and electroweak scales) and furthermore, is compatible with unification of gauge couplings. This latter class of theories suggests interesting experimental tests. The study of further implications of this work has involved string theory, holography, and cosmology. Lisa Randall also continues to work on supersymmetry and other beyond-the-standard-model physics.
Within a year of her work on extra dimensions, it was featured on the front page of the Science Times section of The New York Times. It has also been featured in the Economist, the New Scientist, Science,Nature, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Daily News, a BBC Horizons television program, BBC radio, and other news sources. She has also been also been interviewed because Science Watch and the ISI Essential Science Indicators have indicated her research as some of the best cited in all of science.
http://edge.org/memberbio/lisa_randall
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
March 11, 2019
Perpetual Motion Sickness
For someone who obviously knows what she’s talking about based on her qualifications, Randall certainly tries hard to make it look like she’s winging it. She is repetitive, thematically unorganised, grammatically challenged, and uses simple words like the verb ‘to implement’ in ways one doesn’t find in the OED.
I have learned from Randall’s account that it’s very important to distinguish between the Higgs particle, the Higgs field and the Higgs mechanism (because I have been told so a number of times). But I’m uncertain if the particle has actually been observed or only inferred from the remnants of its existence. I am told that the field is everywhere and is connected with dark energy but not how it comes to be. Whether the field is constituted by dark energy or is only affected by it (or vice versa) isn’t explained. And about all I can say about the mechanism is that it’s been known about for some time; but the process by which the field generates matter by interactions with energy is still a mystery to me if not to Randall.
Part of the problem is writing like this:
For someone who obviously knows what she’s talking about based on her qualifications, Randall certainly tries hard to make it look like she’s winging it. She is repetitive, thematically unorganised, grammatically challenged, and uses simple words like the verb ‘to implement’ in ways one doesn’t find in the OED.
I have learned from Randall’s account that it’s very important to distinguish between the Higgs particle, the Higgs field and the Higgs mechanism (because I have been told so a number of times). But I’m uncertain if the particle has actually been observed or only inferred from the remnants of its existence. I am told that the field is everywhere and is connected with dark energy but not how it comes to be. Whether the field is constituted by dark energy or is only affected by it (or vice versa) isn’t explained. And about all I can say about the mechanism is that it’s been known about for some time; but the process by which the field generates matter by interactions with energy is still a mystery to me if not to Randall.
Part of the problem is writing like this:
“I’ll answer one more interesting question that I’ve been asked. Where does the mass of the Higgs boson itself come from? The answer is that the Higgs boson interacts with the Higgs field. So just as with other elementary particles, the Higgs field accounts for the Higgs boson’s mass.”I have read this sentence thirty or forty times. I’m sure it means something but not to me. Apparently the Higgs boson, a particle, is transformed when it enters a Higgs field, which it never really left since the field is everywhere, but through which the existing Higgs boson becomes... a Higgs boson. Clears that up then, doesn’t it?
May 30, 2019
It's difficult to know whom this book by Lisa Randall is aimed at. I would think its target audience is people who are scientifically literate but are not physicists, least of all particle physicists. After all, if it was directed at physicists it would be far more mathematical. Regrettably, if the intended audience really is scientifically literate, non-physicists, then I feel it misses the mark by a mile. I doubt that anyone who was not a physicist would understand much of this book. I had already read and enjoyed, despite the tough going, Sean Carroll's account of the Higgs boson ("The Particle at the End of the Universe") but even with this background I could barely make head or tail of much of the content of Randall's book.
The book shows every sign of being put together in a hurry, maybe so as to publish something ahead of the competition. This is evident from the inclusion of a chapter from another of Randall's books ("Knocking on Heaven's Door"), this added chapter accounting for approaching 40% of the total book. This tactic results in a disjointed story to the extent that ideally the borrowed chapter, essential to the understanding of the whole, needs to be read before the new text. It might have been better if the author had integrated the new with the old.
I also felt that Randall doesn't do a thorough job of explaining what's meant by symmetry in the context of particle physics. This is crucial to understanding the Higgs mechanism but she seems to assume that readers are already fairly familiar with this concept.
However, in her defence, I accept that explaining the Higgs mechanism to non-physicists, such as me, is extremely challenging - and perhaps nigh on impossible! It may be an unattainable goal except to describe the mechanism in anything other than the simplest of terms. Nonetheless, in my opinion this book falls well short of its intended objective. Perhaps one needs to read the whole of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" to get the most from this new book but, if that's the case, it's not stated and I'm now put off from trying.
The book shows every sign of being put together in a hurry, maybe so as to publish something ahead of the competition. This is evident from the inclusion of a chapter from another of Randall's books ("Knocking on Heaven's Door"), this added chapter accounting for approaching 40% of the total book. This tactic results in a disjointed story to the extent that ideally the borrowed chapter, essential to the understanding of the whole, needs to be read before the new text. It might have been better if the author had integrated the new with the old.
I also felt that Randall doesn't do a thorough job of explaining what's meant by symmetry in the context of particle physics. This is crucial to understanding the Higgs mechanism but she seems to assume that readers are already fairly familiar with this concept.
However, in her defence, I accept that explaining the Higgs mechanism to non-physicists, such as me, is extremely challenging - and perhaps nigh on impossible! It may be an unattainable goal except to describe the mechanism in anything other than the simplest of terms. Nonetheless, in my opinion this book falls well short of its intended objective. Perhaps one needs to read the whole of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" to get the most from this new book but, if that's the case, it's not stated and I'm now put off from trying.
August 19, 2012
I suppose if I were a physicist specializing in subatomic particles, I would understand more of what the author is talking about. Take, for example, a quote such as the following:
On a humorous note, I wrote a blog based on my own humble perception of the discovery. It can be found at my blog site. (Please forgive in advance my indiscrete language.)
It is quite evident that Lisa Randall knows what she is talking about: It’s just that she can’t seem to communicate it.
Spurious polarizaqtions are the source of problematic predictions for high-energy scattering, so the symmetry allows only physical polarizations -- the ones that really exist and are consistent with the symmetry -- to remain.Hoo boy! If I were a Tea Party type, I would at this point take out my checkbook and write a huge contribution to CERN, whose Large Hadron Collider staff discovered the proof for the existence of the so-called God Particle.
On a humorous note, I wrote a blog based on my own humble perception of the discovery. It can be found at my blog site. (Please forgive in advance my indiscrete language.)
It is quite evident that Lisa Randall knows what she is talking about: It’s just that she can’t seem to communicate it.
June 13, 2023
Una magnífica y breve narración acerca del descubrimiento del bosón de Higgs en el LHC en 2012.
Explica de manera concisa qué diantres es el bosón de Higgs y su diferencia y relación con el campo de Higgs y el mecanismo de Higgs. Y como es que la interacción del Higgs con las demás partículas les otorga su masa a éstas (la parte más concisa de lo que hace el Higgs dentro del Modelo Estándar).
Una parte súper interesante es que explica por qué se necesitan tantos eventos de colisiones con características muy especificas para poder proclamar el descubrimiento, y cuáles son los diferentes tipos de desintegración en otras partículas que demuestran que se produjeron bosones de Higgs.
Así como la excitación que se vivió en la comunidad de física de partículas en los días previos y posteriores al descubrimiento.
Finalizando con la relación que este descubrimiento tiene con aplicaciones prácticas, la religión y nuestra vida en la Tierra.
Explica de manera concisa qué diantres es el bosón de Higgs y su diferencia y relación con el campo de Higgs y el mecanismo de Higgs. Y como es que la interacción del Higgs con las demás partículas les otorga su masa a éstas (la parte más concisa de lo que hace el Higgs dentro del Modelo Estándar).
Una parte súper interesante es que explica por qué se necesitan tantos eventos de colisiones con características muy especificas para poder proclamar el descubrimiento, y cuáles son los diferentes tipos de desintegración en otras partículas que demuestran que se produjeron bosones de Higgs.
Así como la excitación que se vivió en la comunidad de física de partículas en los días previos y posteriores al descubrimiento.
Finalizando con la relación que este descubrimiento tiene con aplicaciones prácticas, la religión y nuestra vida en la Tierra.
December 5, 2014
Because I was trained as a high energy particle physicist, and happen to have the last name Higgs, I am naturally drawn to books that focus on the Higgs Boson. In fact, I have read quite a few, most of them written before the discovery of the Higgs Boson at CERN.
This book was apparently written in response to the discovery, and is an attempt to explain about the Higgs Boson. It seems to have been rushed into print for that purpose. It is a short book, and contains a couple of chapters at the end of the book from other books by the same author: Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions and Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World.
As an ex-physicist, and one who has done a lot of reading about the subject of elementary particles (and in particular about the Higgs Boson), I didn't have much trouble reading this very short book. However, I am not sure the same could be said for a 'typical intelligent layman' for whom I think this book is intended. The level of description is quite high, and implicitly assumes a lot of knowledge of the reader, and a lot of concepts that were not really explained (how could they be in a book this short?). For example, gauge bosons were talked about a lot, but I don't remember seeing any explanation of what a gauge boson might be (in particular, what the word gauge means in this context).
The book is fairly good, as it goes, I suppose. But I do get the impression it was rather rushed out in reaction to the Higgs Boson discovery.
I do have both of the above mentioned books by Lisa Randall, and intend to read them in due time.
This book was apparently written in response to the discovery, and is an attempt to explain about the Higgs Boson. It seems to have been rushed into print for that purpose. It is a short book, and contains a couple of chapters at the end of the book from other books by the same author: Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions and Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World.
As an ex-physicist, and one who has done a lot of reading about the subject of elementary particles (and in particular about the Higgs Boson), I didn't have much trouble reading this very short book. However, I am not sure the same could be said for a 'typical intelligent layman' for whom I think this book is intended. The level of description is quite high, and implicitly assumes a lot of knowledge of the reader, and a lot of concepts that were not really explained (how could they be in a book this short?). For example, gauge bosons were talked about a lot, but I don't remember seeing any explanation of what a gauge boson might be (in particular, what the word gauge means in this context).
The book is fairly good, as it goes, I suppose. But I do get the impression it was rather rushed out in reaction to the Higgs Boson discovery.
I do have both of the above mentioned books by Lisa Randall, and intend to read them in due time.
March 28, 2013
I like Lisa Randall, but her popular books are hit and miss. This one is a bit of a miss. Half of the 79 pages of this already-short book are recycled chapters from her other books. No wonder it's only $2.99 on Amazon! You get what you pay for. It seems like she really wanted to be first out of the gate with the whole Higgs discovery thing...
The explanations in the book are great for the novice/layperson. I actually learned a lot about how the different channels were pieced together to discover the candidate particle. So, anyone who's confused by why gamma-gamma, ZZ, and WW were chosen to look for the Higgs, check this book out! Also, anyone who's confused by the whole sigma statistical measurement thing, this book has a good explanation of that, too.
But if you want to know what the Higgs is, and why it's important in the Standard Model, I'd just read the entirety of Knocking on Heaven's Door.
The explanations in the book are great for the novice/layperson. I actually learned a lot about how the different channels were pieced together to discover the candidate particle. So, anyone who's confused by why gamma-gamma, ZZ, and WW were chosen to look for the Higgs, check this book out! Also, anyone who's confused by the whole sigma statistical measurement thing, this book has a good explanation of that, too.
But if you want to know what the Higgs is, and why it's important in the Standard Model, I'd just read the entirety of Knocking on Heaven's Door.
July 29, 2012
Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space by Lisa Randall
"Higgs Discovery" this timely and topical Kindle Single, is written to enlighten the public to what the discovery of the Higgs boson means and to explain where it will take us. Influential and highly acclaimed theoretical physicist and best-selling author of "Knocking on Heaven's Door", Lisa Randall, gives the reader an intellectual appetizer on the implications of the announcement that a key particle, the Higgs boson was discovered. Randall's expertise and ability to convey such a complex topic to the layperson is what makes this Kindle Single such a great value. This 83-page book is composed of three sections: Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space, An Excerpt from Warped Passages and An Excerpt from Knocking on Heaven's Door.
Positives:
1. A timely and fascinating topic, written at an accessible level for the layperson and everyone in between.
2. Randall's expertise in the field and background as an educator provides the perfect mix to reach out and educate the public.
3. A great Kindle Single value. A great Amazon idea that is now benefitting authors and readers alike. In merely 83 pages, the author provides much needed information on what has become a pop-scientific topic.
4. What the Higgs boson is. Finally, I get it, I think.
5. The implications of the discovery.
6. As a true scientist and educator, Randall keeps the discovery in perspective. That is, in science everything is a matter of degrees of certainty.
7. Not to be confused with the Higgs boson but also insight into what the Higgs mechanism is and its implications.
8. Understanding what empty space really is.
9. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)...what makes it a remarkable machine and its future use.
10. Debunking myths...faster than light neutrinos.
11. Understanding scalar particles.
12. The importance of the supersymmetric model.
13. Really does a good job of capturing the essence of what these discoveries entail.
14. The additional excerpts really help the readers gain a better understanding.
15. In order not to overwhelm the general public, Randall focuses on a number of key concepts and processes which helps move the narration along.
16. The Standard Model of particles and what the Higgs mechanism provides.
17. Spontaneous breaking of symmetry...and when it occurs.
18. The hierarchy problem of particle physics.
Negatives:
1. The topic can be daunting at times. This is a complex topic and despite Randall's ability to relay the basic concepts to the public it will test your resolve to comprehend.
2. The Kindle version loses something in translation. Some of the links did not function.
3. One of the problems of inserting excerpts of previous books is that some of the references to other chapters of those books do not translate over to this book.
4. There are a limited amount of charts. Such complex topics warrants more visual aid.
5. A recommendation for the general audience, you will be better served by reading the excerpts first before the Higgs Discovery section.
6. In many respects, there remains more questions than answers. "The Higgs boson, even if it is the Higgs boson, is almost certainly not the only particle yet to be discovered.".
In summary, this Kindle Single quenched my thirst for understanding the Higgs boson. This is a very complex topic but I'm glad that such an accomplished particle theorist like Lisa Randall took on the role to educate the public and even happier that it was done in a timely manner. That being said, the book can be daunting at times. It may take multiple readings or better yet I suggest you read the excerpts first and finalize with the meat of this brief book. If you are interested in becoming familiar with this pop-science topic, at this price and brevity you have nothing to lose. I highly recommend this book with the reservations noted.
Further suggestions: "Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World" and "Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions" by Lisa Randall, "A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing" by Lawrence Krauss, "The Quantum Universe (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does)", "Wonders of the Universe" and "Why Does E=mc2? (And Why Should We Care?)" by Brian Cox, "For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics" by Walter Lewin, "Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100" by Michio Kaku, "The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos" by Brian Greene, "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking and "The 4 Percent Universe" by Richard Panek.
"Higgs Discovery" this timely and topical Kindle Single, is written to enlighten the public to what the discovery of the Higgs boson means and to explain where it will take us. Influential and highly acclaimed theoretical physicist and best-selling author of "Knocking on Heaven's Door", Lisa Randall, gives the reader an intellectual appetizer on the implications of the announcement that a key particle, the Higgs boson was discovered. Randall's expertise and ability to convey such a complex topic to the layperson is what makes this Kindle Single such a great value. This 83-page book is composed of three sections: Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space, An Excerpt from Warped Passages and An Excerpt from Knocking on Heaven's Door.
Positives:
1. A timely and fascinating topic, written at an accessible level for the layperson and everyone in between.
2. Randall's expertise in the field and background as an educator provides the perfect mix to reach out and educate the public.
3. A great Kindle Single value. A great Amazon idea that is now benefitting authors and readers alike. In merely 83 pages, the author provides much needed information on what has become a pop-scientific topic.
4. What the Higgs boson is. Finally, I get it, I think.
5. The implications of the discovery.
6. As a true scientist and educator, Randall keeps the discovery in perspective. That is, in science everything is a matter of degrees of certainty.
7. Not to be confused with the Higgs boson but also insight into what the Higgs mechanism is and its implications.
8. Understanding what empty space really is.
9. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)...what makes it a remarkable machine and its future use.
10. Debunking myths...faster than light neutrinos.
11. Understanding scalar particles.
12. The importance of the supersymmetric model.
13. Really does a good job of capturing the essence of what these discoveries entail.
14. The additional excerpts really help the readers gain a better understanding.
15. In order not to overwhelm the general public, Randall focuses on a number of key concepts and processes which helps move the narration along.
16. The Standard Model of particles and what the Higgs mechanism provides.
17. Spontaneous breaking of symmetry...and when it occurs.
18. The hierarchy problem of particle physics.
Negatives:
1. The topic can be daunting at times. This is a complex topic and despite Randall's ability to relay the basic concepts to the public it will test your resolve to comprehend.
2. The Kindle version loses something in translation. Some of the links did not function.
3. One of the problems of inserting excerpts of previous books is that some of the references to other chapters of those books do not translate over to this book.
4. There are a limited amount of charts. Such complex topics warrants more visual aid.
5. A recommendation for the general audience, you will be better served by reading the excerpts first before the Higgs Discovery section.
6. In many respects, there remains more questions than answers. "The Higgs boson, even if it is the Higgs boson, is almost certainly not the only particle yet to be discovered.".
In summary, this Kindle Single quenched my thirst for understanding the Higgs boson. This is a very complex topic but I'm glad that such an accomplished particle theorist like Lisa Randall took on the role to educate the public and even happier that it was done in a timely manner. That being said, the book can be daunting at times. It may take multiple readings or better yet I suggest you read the excerpts first and finalize with the meat of this brief book. If you are interested in becoming familiar with this pop-science topic, at this price and brevity you have nothing to lose. I highly recommend this book with the reservations noted.
Further suggestions: "Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World" and "Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions" by Lisa Randall, "A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing" by Lawrence Krauss, "The Quantum Universe (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does)", "Wonders of the Universe" and "Why Does E=mc2? (And Why Should We Care?)" by Brian Cox, "For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics" by Walter Lewin, "Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100" by Michio Kaku, "The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos" by Brian Greene, "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking and "The 4 Percent Universe" by Richard Panek.
October 28, 2014
Very brief, more a booklet, and a bit repetative of details, could have used another edit. But since the event it describes happened only in July 2012, and this was rushed to print, I guess that explains that. Saying this the well informed author Lisa Randall is able explain the relevance of the Higgs boson, and it's place in quantum theory with clarity and genuine detail, at least as much detail as the average science savy layman can understand. The author is a theoretical physicist, and does not avoid the harder concepts, though the explanations are brief and to the point. There are nice asides about the original scientists, about the atmosphere at the announcement, (though she wasn't there) and about the future of high energy collisions. I am now better informed about the Higgs field and look forward to hearing more about it. It is basically an extended magazine article, but well worth checking it out if you want a rough and dirty understanding of that famous bit of kit, the LHC and the endeavours and thinking of current theoretical physics.Oh and if you do get it, the extention to the Standard Model made by the Higgs mechanism will be one to watch.
August 5, 2014
This is a very sloppy book. The first chapter is a hodge-podge of hastily written facts and impressions of what the LHC discovery of Higgs particle is and what it may mean for the direction of theoretical physics. And that’s what’s original in this short Kindle special. The rest consists of two chapters from previous books just slapped together on top of this one. Sort of ‘I am excited about the new discovery so I want to share, but I am not going to bother to write a new book on it’ book.
I remembered I had downloaded this book when I was watching Particle Fever the other day, an excellent documentary on the Large Hadron Collider and experiments leading to the confirmation of Higgs boson’s existence, or something closely resembling it anyway. Having fresh in mind how informative and well made the documentary was, I couldn’t help but notice how poorly this book was just slapped together.
But, I am going to give Ms. Randall another chance. Onto Knocking On Heaven’s Door…
I remembered I had downloaded this book when I was watching Particle Fever the other day, an excellent documentary on the Large Hadron Collider and experiments leading to the confirmation of Higgs boson’s existence, or something closely resembling it anyway. Having fresh in mind how informative and well made the documentary was, I couldn’t help but notice how poorly this book was just slapped together.
But, I am going to give Ms. Randall another chance. Onto Knocking On Heaven’s Door…
June 25, 2013
A short book that reintroduced me to the four fundamental forces: electromagnetism, weak-nuclear, strong-nuclear, and gravity (the latter of which was mentioned only in passing). Oh, yes, and a genteel recount of the author’s exposure to the behind-the-scenes activities at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, leading up to the 5-sigma-confidence announcement by physicists that the Higgs Boson predicted by their standard model has indeed been proven to exist (provisionally, of course, as is the case with all scientific proofs). Up-quarks and down-quarks, the Higgs mechanism, the Higgs particle, relativity (E=mc^2) and quantum mechanics (probabilistic), along with as brief as possible discussion of particle physics, and voilà, the Higgs is explained! I liked the brevity of the book and the author’s to-the-point writing style, for the most part. The kindle book I borrowed from the library includes excerpts from her books Warped Passages and Knocking on Heaven’s Door at the conclusion for additional reference.
August 13, 2012
This is a quick publication, intended to come quickly on the Higgs boson discovery, but Lisa Randall is clearly one of the best people to communicate the importance of this find. She seems to have a good knack for communicating to those who have some knowledge of the matter, but not being too much out of reach. Half of this e-book is a reprint of two chapters from her other books, but the section on the discovery itself is well worth the price and effort.
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February 28, 2014When I started reading this book, all what I was thinking of was that I'll finally be aware of the huge discovery & how it impacts the world; but unfortunately, all what I got is more new scientific terms that I may or may not search about later. I don't even know how many stars I should rate it.
October 22, 2014
Those with some elementary particle background will find it easy to read. I found it a bit too wordy. It reads and feels "stuck together."
March 13, 2015
This document is explained to concisely the Higgs particle.
Then it explains the basic quantum mechanics related to the Higgs boson.
Then it explains the basic quantum mechanics related to the Higgs boson.
December 1, 2012
Most people who were paying attention to the news in summer 2012 will have heard of an oddly named subatomic particle. On July 4, teams of scientists working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that the data generated so far by a hugely complex and expensive machine called the Linear Hadron Collider (LHC) justified saying that they had discovered a new particle, which was likely to be a long-sought particle called the Higgs boson. Physicists were excited because their best current view of how things work on the scale of atoms and their components, which is called the Standard Model of particle physics, requires the Higgs boson to exist, as part of a mechanism that imparts mass to those particles that have it (which is almost all of them).
The work of finding this thing has been daunting. The task of saying anything intelligible about it is, in a way, even more formidable. Every knowledgeable commentator among the handful I checked has taken a different tack. Some examples (minus many details):
Stephen Wolfram, a polymath who began following particle physics in his teen years and earned a physics doctorate at age 20, published a blog post the day after the July announcement. In it, he gave an overview of progress in the field over about 40 years, spiced with a good deal of personal flavor. Wolfram has the kind of mind that can easily harbor multiple attitudes, and here he seemed to reach two different conclusions. One involved a certain sense of letdown; particle physics had already lost much of its earlier excitement, and there was nothing (so far) genuinely new here, only the confirmation of something long expected. The other conclusion recognized that theory has much work left to do, though experiment may not. We still need some way of unifying everything that’s already known and also explaining some current mysteries. Unsurprisingly, Wolfram here mentioned the work he’s done on cellular automata, which--at least in his view--may serve to unify much that's currently unconnected.
Aidan Randle-Conde, a postdoc working at the LHC, wrote a post for the Quantum Diaries blog in August analyzing the first two papers on the initial results. There was one from each of the two teams running detectors involved in the search, the CMS team and the ATLAS team. That blog is written by and for particle physicists, and naturally a good deal of Randle-Conde’s report was technical, dealing with things like different decay modes. (I don’t claim to understand all of it; I like reading things I don’t understand, to see what I can figure out.) But he took care to stress more than once an important point you might not have gotten from the headlines: the results so far aren’t decisive. Stressing what he called the main message, he exclaimed, “we haven’t discovered the Standard Model Higgs boson yet! We still have a long road ahead of us and already we have moved on to the next stage.” What’s been found might be called a Higgs-like particle; more measurements are needed to find out whether it behaves exactly as the Standard Model says it should. If it misbehaves, either it’s something else or the theory is amiss.
Caltech theoretical physicist Sean Carroll began writing a book about the quest for the Higgs boson more than a year ago, hoping--justifiably, it turned out--that he’d be able to include a reported discovery in his text. I haven’t read the book, which is called The Particle at the End of the Universe, but I saw part of a lecture he presented in November 2012 to mark its publication, and I gather the lecture followed the book’s approach. Carroll began by looking all the way back to Democritus and the beginning of atomism. Then he surveyed discoveries involving gravity and electromagnetism and explained the idea of a field and its relation to particles. By the time I clicked off, his picture included all four known forces, the three generations of mass-carrying particles, and the set of force-carrying particles, and he had just added the Higgs boson to the mix. Judging from this lecture and others (I first heard him in Second Life), as well as his blog posts, Carroll is very good at this kind of from-the-ground-up explanation: easy to follow if you don’t already know the subject, still enjoyable if you do, and sprinkled with humor.
The July announcement from CERN, which was webcast, was so widely seen and remarked upon that there were even disagreements about the font used in the graphics. Errol Morris touched on the issue here.
Harvard theoretical physicist Lisa Randall is almost certainly better known to the public than anyone else I’ve mentioned. She’s been on Charlie Rose’s PBS program a handful of times, was featured in Vogue in 2007, has jousted with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and has published two books of science writing for the educated layman. After the Higgs announcement was made in July 2012, Randall decided to publish a short and quick e-book on the subject, which came out within a month.
A common stereotype (which seems to be true) has it that theoretical physicists, who pursue the chancy in their work, also do so in their recreation, tending to favor rock climbing and mountaineering. Randall fits the type; her current Twitter picture shows her clambering up a rock face. True to form, Randall chose a somewhat risky approach with her Higgs commentary. Producing an e-book in short order is daring enough; it allows little time for reflection or for careful polishing and revision. What’s more, she begins her Higgs story in medias res. Three paragraphs in, after reporting the July announcement of a new particle, she takes us to the heart of the matter:
Three more paragraphs and she’s done with the introduction. From there, she relates her personal reactions at the time of the two big CERN announcements so far (there was a preliminary one in late 2011, followed by the discovery report in July 2012). Then she gives a pretty thorough discussion of the Higgs mechanism (with its associated field and boson), particle decays, and how earlier accelerators played a role in the search. After talking over some broader matters, such as what’s next, her new text comes to an end. That makes up about half the e-book; it’s pretty smooth considering that it was written “very quickly” (as her acknowledgments begin by saying), but there are a few gawky bits. The rest of the e-book consists of one chapter each from Warped Passages and Knocking on Heaven’s Door, her two books, which explain a fair amount of the theoretical background and elaborate on some concepts her new text had discussed, such as the predicted decay modes of the Higgs boson.
The result may be a patchwork, but it's not patchy--it turns out to be a remarkably coherent presentation. It’s clear from the introduction I quoted that Randall isn’t going to sit you down and teach you all the relevant physics. Instead, she takes you in hand right where the story becomes exciting. At the risk of a grandiose comparison, that’s what Milton does in Paradise Lost (and what other traditional epics do): begin the story in medias res. If you ask me, Milton is more engaging than the Bible, and in case you need it he eventually fills in what he skipped at first. Similarly, Randall’s story conveys the thrill of deciphering events as they unfold: three paragraphs in, you’re grappling with the origin of mass, and later you’re in her head as she decides how to analogize the Higgs search for an interview. Unlike Milton vis-à-vis the Bible, there's some material that Randall never brings in--much of the particle zoo goes unmentioned, for instance--but it doesn’t affect the tale she’s telling.
Speaking of Milton reminds me of the term “God particle,” which is how the press often referred to the Higgs boson. Mentioning that phrase in two separate places, Randall very tactfully disposes of it, saying at one point that she’s “not a big fan” and later, in one of the excerpts, reminding us that it’s “just a name.” I can think of stronger objections. One is that, according to Peter Higgs in a Guardian article, the man who coined it, physicist Leon Lederman, had wanted to refer to the “goddamn particle” but was blocked by his publisher; its current form is almost the opposite of Lederman's original intention. Another objection is that “God particle” sounds as if the Higgs boson explains everything or caps a theory that explains everything, and neither is true. Physics hasn’t yet reached a theory of everything; the Standard Model doesn’t know how to deal with gravity. A bigger problem is that most of the universe is missing from the currently accepted theories; they don't account for dark matter and dark energy (see short account here).
Some decades ago, physicist Steven Weinberg made a major contribution to the Standard Model. A little later, perhaps feeling that a Theory of Everything was near, he wrote, in the epilogue to The First Three Minutes, “The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.” More recently, Stephen Wolfram seems to have felt something of the same letdown, as I indicated above. Maybe it’s only a matter of disposition, but whatever the reason, Lisa Randall betrays no such sense that the tale is nearly told. One of the quietest remarks she makes in her Higgs e-book may also be the most far-reaching: “most of us are humble enough to realize that nature can have surprises in store.”
Most likely, this will mean more discoveries, and more explanations. I’ll give Randall the last word on that prospect. In a 2005 article for the Edge website, she discussed issues in presenting science to the public. Near the end, she wrote this:
The work of finding this thing has been daunting. The task of saying anything intelligible about it is, in a way, even more formidable. Every knowledgeable commentator among the handful I checked has taken a different tack. Some examples (minus many details):
Stephen Wolfram, a polymath who began following particle physics in his teen years and earned a physics doctorate at age 20, published a blog post the day after the July announcement. In it, he gave an overview of progress in the field over about 40 years, spiced with a good deal of personal flavor. Wolfram has the kind of mind that can easily harbor multiple attitudes, and here he seemed to reach two different conclusions. One involved a certain sense of letdown; particle physics had already lost much of its earlier excitement, and there was nothing (so far) genuinely new here, only the confirmation of something long expected. The other conclusion recognized that theory has much work left to do, though experiment may not. We still need some way of unifying everything that’s already known and also explaining some current mysteries. Unsurprisingly, Wolfram here mentioned the work he’s done on cellular automata, which--at least in his view--may serve to unify much that's currently unconnected.
Aidan Randle-Conde, a postdoc working at the LHC, wrote a post for the Quantum Diaries blog in August analyzing the first two papers on the initial results. There was one from each of the two teams running detectors involved in the search, the CMS team and the ATLAS team. That blog is written by and for particle physicists, and naturally a good deal of Randle-Conde’s report was technical, dealing with things like different decay modes. (I don’t claim to understand all of it; I like reading things I don’t understand, to see what I can figure out.) But he took care to stress more than once an important point you might not have gotten from the headlines: the results so far aren’t decisive. Stressing what he called the main message, he exclaimed, “we haven’t discovered the Standard Model Higgs boson yet! We still have a long road ahead of us and already we have moved on to the next stage.” What’s been found might be called a Higgs-like particle; more measurements are needed to find out whether it behaves exactly as the Standard Model says it should. If it misbehaves, either it’s something else or the theory is amiss.
Caltech theoretical physicist Sean Carroll began writing a book about the quest for the Higgs boson more than a year ago, hoping--justifiably, it turned out--that he’d be able to include a reported discovery in his text. I haven’t read the book, which is called The Particle at the End of the Universe, but I saw part of a lecture he presented in November 2012 to mark its publication, and I gather the lecture followed the book’s approach. Carroll began by looking all the way back to Democritus and the beginning of atomism. Then he surveyed discoveries involving gravity and electromagnetism and explained the idea of a field and its relation to particles. By the time I clicked off, his picture included all four known forces, the three generations of mass-carrying particles, and the set of force-carrying particles, and he had just added the Higgs boson to the mix. Judging from this lecture and others (I first heard him in Second Life), as well as his blog posts, Carroll is very good at this kind of from-the-ground-up explanation: easy to follow if you don’t already know the subject, still enjoyable if you do, and sprinkled with humor.
The July announcement from CERN, which was webcast, was so widely seen and remarked upon that there were even disagreements about the font used in the graphics. Errol Morris touched on the issue here.
Harvard theoretical physicist Lisa Randall is almost certainly better known to the public than anyone else I’ve mentioned. She’s been on Charlie Rose’s PBS program a handful of times, was featured in Vogue in 2007, has jousted with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and has published two books of science writing for the educated layman. After the Higgs announcement was made in July 2012, Randall decided to publish a short and quick e-book on the subject, which came out within a month.
A common stereotype (which seems to be true) has it that theoretical physicists, who pursue the chancy in their work, also do so in their recreation, tending to favor rock climbing and mountaineering. Randall fits the type; her current Twitter picture shows her clambering up a rock face. True to form, Randall chose a somewhat risky approach with her Higgs commentary. Producing an e-book in short order is daring enough; it allows little time for reflection or for careful polishing and revision. What’s more, she begins her Higgs story in medias res. Three paragraphs in, after reporting the July announcement of a new particle, she takes us to the heart of the matter:
This discovery confirms that the Standard Model of particle physics is consistent. The Standard Model describes the most elementary components that are known in matter, such as quarks, leptons (like the electron), and the three nongravitational forces through which they interact— electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. Most Standard Model particles have nonzero masses, which we know through many measurements.… But the origin of those particle masses was not yet known.
Three more paragraphs and she’s done with the introduction. From there, she relates her personal reactions at the time of the two big CERN announcements so far (there was a preliminary one in late 2011, followed by the discovery report in July 2012). Then she gives a pretty thorough discussion of the Higgs mechanism (with its associated field and boson), particle decays, and how earlier accelerators played a role in the search. After talking over some broader matters, such as what’s next, her new text comes to an end. That makes up about half the e-book; it’s pretty smooth considering that it was written “very quickly” (as her acknowledgments begin by saying), but there are a few gawky bits. The rest of the e-book consists of one chapter each from Warped Passages and Knocking on Heaven’s Door, her two books, which explain a fair amount of the theoretical background and elaborate on some concepts her new text had discussed, such as the predicted decay modes of the Higgs boson.
The result may be a patchwork, but it's not patchy--it turns out to be a remarkably coherent presentation. It’s clear from the introduction I quoted that Randall isn’t going to sit you down and teach you all the relevant physics. Instead, she takes you in hand right where the story becomes exciting. At the risk of a grandiose comparison, that’s what Milton does in Paradise Lost (and what other traditional epics do): begin the story in medias res. If you ask me, Milton is more engaging than the Bible, and in case you need it he eventually fills in what he skipped at first. Similarly, Randall’s story conveys the thrill of deciphering events as they unfold: three paragraphs in, you’re grappling with the origin of mass, and later you’re in her head as she decides how to analogize the Higgs search for an interview. Unlike Milton vis-à-vis the Bible, there's some material that Randall never brings in--much of the particle zoo goes unmentioned, for instance--but it doesn’t affect the tale she’s telling.
Speaking of Milton reminds me of the term “God particle,” which is how the press often referred to the Higgs boson. Mentioning that phrase in two separate places, Randall very tactfully disposes of it, saying at one point that she’s “not a big fan” and later, in one of the excerpts, reminding us that it’s “just a name.” I can think of stronger objections. One is that, according to Peter Higgs in a Guardian article, the man who coined it, physicist Leon Lederman, had wanted to refer to the “goddamn particle” but was blocked by his publisher; its current form is almost the opposite of Lederman's original intention. Another objection is that “God particle” sounds as if the Higgs boson explains everything or caps a theory that explains everything, and neither is true. Physics hasn’t yet reached a theory of everything; the Standard Model doesn’t know how to deal with gravity. A bigger problem is that most of the universe is missing from the currently accepted theories; they don't account for dark matter and dark energy (see short account here).
Some decades ago, physicist Steven Weinberg made a major contribution to the Standard Model. A little later, perhaps feeling that a Theory of Everything was near, he wrote, in the epilogue to The First Three Minutes, “The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.” More recently, Stephen Wolfram seems to have felt something of the same letdown, as I indicated above. Maybe it’s only a matter of disposition, but whatever the reason, Lisa Randall betrays no such sense that the tale is nearly told. One of the quietest remarks she makes in her Higgs e-book may also be the most far-reaching: “most of us are humble enough to realize that nature can have surprises in store.”
Most likely, this will mean more discoveries, and more explanations. I’ll give Randall the last word on that prospect. In a 2005 article for the Edge website, she discussed issues in presenting science to the public. Near the end, she wrote this:
[P]eople have to recognize that science can be complex. If we accept only simple stories, the description will necessarily be distorted. When advances are subtle or complicated, scientists should be willing to go the extra distance to give proper explanations and the public should be more patient about the truth. Even so, some difficulties are unavoidable.
August 12, 2021
This book did not make the author a good service. Randall has the reputation of being a good lecturer, and reading this book, you can almost say she knows a great deal of physics, but is bad in communicating it to laymen - a fatal flaw when it comes to science popularizers.
The writing style lies between two worlds - it's not mathematical enough to appeal to physicists, and it's not readable nor comprehensible enough for the laymen. I am a Physics dropout, so I might position myself in the target demographics for this - but even I didn't enjoy it.
The writing style lies between two worlds - it's not mathematical enough to appeal to physicists, and it's not readable nor comprehensible enough for the laymen. I am a Physics dropout, so I might position myself in the target demographics for this - but even I didn't enjoy it.
March 6, 2025
Not bad, a nice overview of what it was like for physicists leading up to the discovery of the higgs boson, with nice explanations. For how short it is, there was a lot of new information, but it was just very brief, hence why it's only got 3 stars.
June 5, 2021
Ugh! Books like this drive me crazy! It was an obvious rushed publication to capitalize on the Higgs discovery. Randall writes in the first half her personal feelings, locations and explanations of the event. Then, she cheats by adding an excerpt from Warped Passages in the second half. Also, the writing is extremely repetitive-the organization is abysmal.
Obviously, this was for the Curriculum Vitae as another “published” work. I would try to find other books on the Higgs somewhere else.
Obviously, this was for the Curriculum Vitae as another “published” work. I would try to find other books on the Higgs somewhere else.
May 7, 2016
Estaba escribiendo mi comentario a este libro, y mi comentario se fue por otros caminos, y el texto era bello, al menos a mí me tenía contento. Mientras escribía, me decía mentalmente que tendría que editar el texto y dejar solo lo que era relevante a la lectura de Randall, pero, quienes han leído mis comentarios en Goodreads saben cuál es mi postura.
No, no escribo reseñas. Mis calificaciones son guiadas por mi gusto, por el contexto de mi lectura, incluso (no ha sucedido aún, pero puede) podría volver a una entrada anterior y modificar la calificación en vista de un nueva luz a una lectura previa.
Y, sobre todo, para mí la lectura de libros y su comentario, no podrían estar ajenas a mi persona, a mi momento histórico: se vuelven parte del libro.
El caso es que, mientras escribía --y vaya que casi nunca lo hago directamente sobre la app de Goodreads-- por error tecleé Ctrl+R en lugar de Ctrl+T para googlear algo que ahora ya ni puedo recordar qué chingados era.
Ctrl+R es el comando rápido para refrescar la página.
En ese primer texto recordaba cuándo, dónde y cómo comencé a leer este pequeñísimo libro hace un año. Casi un año exactamente.
Rebeca y yo aún trabajábamos codo con codo en nuestros textos de la tesis de la Maestría en Humanidades de la UDEM. Nos refugiamos en diferentes cafés de la ciudad o en diferentes áreas de la Biblioteca de la universidad. Por ese entonces, los dos aún teníamos la misma fecha para defender nuestras investigaciones, aunque era más que claro que yo no terminaría a tiempo.
Nunca salgas sin un libro. Corrijo: nunca salgas sin al menos dos, tres libros; le decía a Rebeca la semana pasada.
Esa tarde noche, tomé este librito de Randall porque creía que me serviría de descanso de las otras lecturas que me afanaba en realizar para desarrollar mi tesis sobre el papel de la identidad y huella digital en alumnos universitarios.
De pronto, Rebeca se recargó en mi hombro y se durmió. Nada sorprendente, ya que uno de sus súper poderes es tener la capacidad de dormirse en dónde sea y cómo sea. Pero, ella se recargó en mí, y lo único que quedaba a mi mano era el librito. Así que lo abrí.
Randall se mueve, como lo mejor de la difusión científica, entre lo anecdótico y lo técnico, entre lo campechano, las bromas o chistes científicos pueden ser unas delicias cómicas increíbles, y lo puramente científico. A las pocas páginas de lectura, me di cuenta que no podría seguir leyendo sin tener la capacidad de googlear lo que no entendía. Así que lo dejé para después.
Cuando conocí la música de John Cage, esta no me dijo gran cosa: una serie de “ruiditos” y silencios. Cuando leí lo que el hombre había comprendido sobre el silencio, la cosa cambió: no existe el silencio absoluto.
Básicamente: no existen los absolutos.
Un año después, hace unas semanas; tesis presentada y defendida y grado obtenido; retomé el librito de Randall. Me parece fascinante cómo pueden hacernos partícipes los científicos de sus descubrimientos y contagiarnos de su emoción. La mayoría de nosotros quizá no entendemos cabalmente lo que está sucediendo, pero, en esforzarnos por comprender: algo sucede, algún rincón oscuro de nuestras mentes se ilumina y eso, al menos a mí: me parece importante.
Hacia las últimas páginas del libro, Randall responde las preguntas básicas que le realizaron en distintas entrevistas, al respecto del descubrimiento del bosón de Higgs, es decir, sobre la relación con la religión o lo divino --que es como lo prensa prefirió denominar a esta partícula--, y su utilidad.
Para esto, Randall ya lleva varias decenas de páginas tratando de explicarnos todo lo que está alrededor de este descubrimiento y que nos ayudan a comprender mejor su relevancia y como --para esa época, 2013-- este descubrimiento aún no era certeza.
La relevancia de este libro puede residir en que nos dice bastante del afán del hombre por comprender el universo a todas sus escalas. Nos habla de una especie que es capaz de aprovechar ciertos sistemas económicos para realizar las inversiones necesarias para que exista la tecnología que ayude al hombre a correr experimentos increíbles a escalas ínfimas… de partículas elementales. Nos habla, también, de la ignorancia que nos rodea, que nos abraza, que es parte inherente del hombre, sin esa ignorancia no habría preguntas, sin esas preguntas no habría descubrimientos… ¿para qué sirve todo esto? Podría no servir para nada, o sí. Eso ya lo dirán los nuevos descubrimientos, y es casi seguro que alguien encontrará alguna aplicación.
A mí, en lo personal, me parece fascinante que haya científicos que “nos habla del poder del espacio vacío”. Y mis notas sobre este libro rondan en esa idea: el vacío. La nada, la nada que resulta que es algo, o es residuo de algo que fue por una cantidad de tiempo que no somos capaces de pensar.
Allí donde no hay “nada”, el hombre sigue descubriendo. Allí donde se perdió mi primer texto: algo quedó.
No, no escribo reseñas. Mis calificaciones son guiadas por mi gusto, por el contexto de mi lectura, incluso (no ha sucedido aún, pero puede) podría volver a una entrada anterior y modificar la calificación en vista de un nueva luz a una lectura previa.
Y, sobre todo, para mí la lectura de libros y su comentario, no podrían estar ajenas a mi persona, a mi momento histórico: se vuelven parte del libro.
El caso es que, mientras escribía --y vaya que casi nunca lo hago directamente sobre la app de Goodreads-- por error tecleé Ctrl+R en lugar de Ctrl+T para googlear algo que ahora ya ni puedo recordar qué chingados era.
Ctrl+R es el comando rápido para refrescar la página.
En ese primer texto recordaba cuándo, dónde y cómo comencé a leer este pequeñísimo libro hace un año. Casi un año exactamente.
Rebeca y yo aún trabajábamos codo con codo en nuestros textos de la tesis de la Maestría en Humanidades de la UDEM. Nos refugiamos en diferentes cafés de la ciudad o en diferentes áreas de la Biblioteca de la universidad. Por ese entonces, los dos aún teníamos la misma fecha para defender nuestras investigaciones, aunque era más que claro que yo no terminaría a tiempo.
Nunca salgas sin un libro. Corrijo: nunca salgas sin al menos dos, tres libros; le decía a Rebeca la semana pasada.
Esa tarde noche, tomé este librito de Randall porque creía que me serviría de descanso de las otras lecturas que me afanaba en realizar para desarrollar mi tesis sobre el papel de la identidad y huella digital en alumnos universitarios.
De pronto, Rebeca se recargó en mi hombro y se durmió. Nada sorprendente, ya que uno de sus súper poderes es tener la capacidad de dormirse en dónde sea y cómo sea. Pero, ella se recargó en mí, y lo único que quedaba a mi mano era el librito. Así que lo abrí.
Randall se mueve, como lo mejor de la difusión científica, entre lo anecdótico y lo técnico, entre lo campechano, las bromas o chistes científicos pueden ser unas delicias cómicas increíbles, y lo puramente científico. A las pocas páginas de lectura, me di cuenta que no podría seguir leyendo sin tener la capacidad de googlear lo que no entendía. Así que lo dejé para después.
Cuando conocí la música de John Cage, esta no me dijo gran cosa: una serie de “ruiditos” y silencios. Cuando leí lo que el hombre había comprendido sobre el silencio, la cosa cambió: no existe el silencio absoluto.
Básicamente: no existen los absolutos.
Un año después, hace unas semanas; tesis presentada y defendida y grado obtenido; retomé el librito de Randall. Me parece fascinante cómo pueden hacernos partícipes los científicos de sus descubrimientos y contagiarnos de su emoción. La mayoría de nosotros quizá no entendemos cabalmente lo que está sucediendo, pero, en esforzarnos por comprender: algo sucede, algún rincón oscuro de nuestras mentes se ilumina y eso, al menos a mí: me parece importante.
Hacia las últimas páginas del libro, Randall responde las preguntas básicas que le realizaron en distintas entrevistas, al respecto del descubrimiento del bosón de Higgs, es decir, sobre la relación con la religión o lo divino --que es como lo prensa prefirió denominar a esta partícula--, y su utilidad.
Para esto, Randall ya lleva varias decenas de páginas tratando de explicarnos todo lo que está alrededor de este descubrimiento y que nos ayudan a comprender mejor su relevancia y como --para esa época, 2013-- este descubrimiento aún no era certeza.
La relevancia de este libro puede residir en que nos dice bastante del afán del hombre por comprender el universo a todas sus escalas. Nos habla de una especie que es capaz de aprovechar ciertos sistemas económicos para realizar las inversiones necesarias para que exista la tecnología que ayude al hombre a correr experimentos increíbles a escalas ínfimas… de partículas elementales. Nos habla, también, de la ignorancia que nos rodea, que nos abraza, que es parte inherente del hombre, sin esa ignorancia no habría preguntas, sin esas preguntas no habría descubrimientos… ¿para qué sirve todo esto? Podría no servir para nada, o sí. Eso ya lo dirán los nuevos descubrimientos, y es casi seguro que alguien encontrará alguna aplicación.
A mí, en lo personal, me parece fascinante que haya científicos que “nos habla del poder del espacio vacío”. Y mis notas sobre este libro rondan en esa idea: el vacío. La nada, la nada que resulta que es algo, o es residuo de algo que fue por una cantidad de tiempo que no somos capaces de pensar.
Allí donde no hay “nada”, el hombre sigue descubriendo. Allí donde se perdió mi primer texto: algo quedó.
May 12, 2014
The book: Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space
The author: Lisa Randall, theoretical physics professor at Harvard University.
The subject: An explanation of CERN's landmark discovery of the Higgs boson (or something that looks very like it, at least).
Why I chose it: I really like Randall's books – Warped Passages was what got me to finally choose to study physics at university – so wanted to check this out.
The rating: Four out of five stars
What I thought of it: This was an even shorter read than I anticipated, as about half the already short eBook is taken up with a chapter from Knocking On Heaven's Door, Randall's latest book. I wish there had been a bit more to it, but what was there was very enjoyable.
I should state that I'm currently in my second year of a theoretical physics degree at Imperial College London (and really ought to be studying, but that's by the by), so I am a little more familiar with how certain things work. However, I'm unfortunately not that good at physics, so I by no means count as an expert or anything near it. I thought the book was very well explained and accessible, but looking at other people's reviews it seems like that wasn't a universal experience.
I really enjoy Randall's style of writing; I like how she incorporates stories from her life as a physicist as well as other fun asides. They certainly add to the topic and distinguish her books from other popular science. I haven't really been enjoying my degree lately, but this book actually helped to spark a bit of interest in me. If you are interested in the Higgs, but have found popular articles not in-depth enough and journal papers too much, then I think this is a great place to start. You will definitely have to pay attention though.
Just one more thing: Okay, this is a personal anecdote rather than extra information, but bear with. As I said, Lisa Randall's book Warped Passages was what got me to study physics. That was in 2007. In 2012 I had the privilege of attending the 2012 EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in Dublin. It was such an amazing event with a ton of brilliant speakers, many of whom I admire deeply. Including... well, I wouldn't be mentioning it if it weren't relevant. I attended Randall's talk, which was very interesting, and at the end found that for once I had a halfway interesting question to ask. It was something to do with the interplay between theoretical and applied physics. It was scary to put my hand up and talk in front of a huge auditorium of people (not to mention the eminent scientist on the stage), but I did. The first thing I said to her was, "your book is the reason I'm studying physics". I know people say to never meet people you admire, but I'm so glad I got the chance to tell her that and that she responded positively.
The author: Lisa Randall, theoretical physics professor at Harvard University.
The subject: An explanation of CERN's landmark discovery of the Higgs boson (or something that looks very like it, at least).
Why I chose it: I really like Randall's books – Warped Passages was what got me to finally choose to study physics at university – so wanted to check this out.
The rating: Four out of five stars
What I thought of it: This was an even shorter read than I anticipated, as about half the already short eBook is taken up with a chapter from Knocking On Heaven's Door, Randall's latest book. I wish there had been a bit more to it, but what was there was very enjoyable.
I should state that I'm currently in my second year of a theoretical physics degree at Imperial College London (and really ought to be studying, but that's by the by), so I am a little more familiar with how certain things work. However, I'm unfortunately not that good at physics, so I by no means count as an expert or anything near it. I thought the book was very well explained and accessible, but looking at other people's reviews it seems like that wasn't a universal experience.
I really enjoy Randall's style of writing; I like how she incorporates stories from her life as a physicist as well as other fun asides. They certainly add to the topic and distinguish her books from other popular science. I haven't really been enjoying my degree lately, but this book actually helped to spark a bit of interest in me. If you are interested in the Higgs, but have found popular articles not in-depth enough and journal papers too much, then I think this is a great place to start. You will definitely have to pay attention though.
Just one more thing: Okay, this is a personal anecdote rather than extra information, but bear with. As I said, Lisa Randall's book Warped Passages was what got me to study physics. That was in 2007. In 2012 I had the privilege of attending the 2012 EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in Dublin. It was such an amazing event with a ton of brilliant speakers, many of whom I admire deeply. Including... well, I wouldn't be mentioning it if it weren't relevant. I attended Randall's talk, which was very interesting, and at the end found that for once I had a halfway interesting question to ask. It was something to do with the interplay between theoretical and applied physics. It was scary to put my hand up and talk in front of a huge auditorium of people (not to mention the eminent scientist on the stage), but I did. The first thing I said to her was, "your book is the reason I'm studying physics". I know people say to never meet people you admire, but I'm so glad I got the chance to tell her that and that she responded positively.
March 23, 2014
Probably the best book that explains the Higgs mechanism and it's relationship to the Higgs particle and possibly a Higgs sector with possible more than one "Higgs particle". She brings home the point that only further experimentation will illuminate whether there will only be one Higgs particle or not as the Standard Model continues to be worked upon.
I like that she points out that the Higgs boson is not a god particle, and what is truly important in how elementary particles get their mass is the Higgs mechanism and the Higgs field that permeates the vacuum. I like that she only deals in trying to explain this phenomenon. Unlike other physics book for the lay person, she doesn't go off on some tangent about the cosmological constant and what not. Though I imagine she may do so in 2 books from which the appended chapters are taken.
By no means was this an easy read but she does try to make it as similar as possible. She also tends to repeat herself which in my opinion is a good thing since understanding the Higgs mechanism and what it is that particle physicists are looking for in particle collision experiments need a lot of repetition to really understand.
I appreciated the Feynman diagrams but the lay population won't understand them. I still don't understand them but they are important in conveying the interactions that occur at the subatomic level. The more we look at them and try to understand them the more they will make sense, and hopefully every physics book I have read thus far will make even more sense.
I like that she points out that the Higgs boson is not a god particle, and what is truly important in how elementary particles get their mass is the Higgs mechanism and the Higgs field that permeates the vacuum. I like that she only deals in trying to explain this phenomenon. Unlike other physics book for the lay person, she doesn't go off on some tangent about the cosmological constant and what not. Though I imagine she may do so in 2 books from which the appended chapters are taken.
By no means was this an easy read but she does try to make it as similar as possible. She also tends to repeat herself which in my opinion is a good thing since understanding the Higgs mechanism and what it is that particle physicists are looking for in particle collision experiments need a lot of repetition to really understand.
I appreciated the Feynman diagrams but the lay population won't understand them. I still don't understand them but they are important in conveying the interactions that occur at the subatomic level. The more we look at them and try to understand them the more they will make sense, and hopefully every physics book I have read thus far will make even more sense.
March 8, 2017
Lisa Randall es la física teórica más citada de los años más recientes; sus trabajos sobre supersimetría, teoría de la unificación e inflación cósmica le han valido el reconocimiento no sólo de sus colegas en la Universidad de Harvard (donde es catedrática), sino de varios expertos del CMS, del ATLAS y del Laboratorio Europeo de Física de Partículas; pero ¿qué tiene que ver esto con un espacio dedicado a la literatura? Ah, pues que Randall también tiene dotes para divulgar, de forma amena y comprensible, los estudios más recientes sobre la física. Y uno de sus libros más flamantes, “El descubrimiento del Higgs”, es clara muestra de ello.
El texto es, inicialmente, una crónica sobre cómo se dio el anuncio de que se había descubierto una nueva partícula (llamada el bosón de Higgs, pero que algunos pseudorreligiosos han querido denominar “la partícula de Dios”), para pasar después a sus implicaciones para futuros estudios en esta materia; como dice la propia autora: “…uno de los aspectos más hermosos del mecanismo de Higgs es que nos habla de la riqueza del espacio vacío”. Y es ahí donde la visión cosmogónica decae: Randall nos dice que el descubrimiento es una gran revelación, pero seguramente es apenas la punta del iceberg: debe haber muchas partículas más por encontrar, por lo que darle condiciones divinas al bosón de Higgs resultaría grotesco y caería en el ridículo; “son partículas, y no tienen nada que ver con la religión”, señala.
Un libro para todos aquellos neófitos que buscamos entender –aunque sea un poco– el sorprendente campo de la física.
El texto es, inicialmente, una crónica sobre cómo se dio el anuncio de que se había descubierto una nueva partícula (llamada el bosón de Higgs, pero que algunos pseudorreligiosos han querido denominar “la partícula de Dios”), para pasar después a sus implicaciones para futuros estudios en esta materia; como dice la propia autora: “…uno de los aspectos más hermosos del mecanismo de Higgs es que nos habla de la riqueza del espacio vacío”. Y es ahí donde la visión cosmogónica decae: Randall nos dice que el descubrimiento es una gran revelación, pero seguramente es apenas la punta del iceberg: debe haber muchas partículas más por encontrar, por lo que darle condiciones divinas al bosón de Higgs resultaría grotesco y caería en el ridículo; “son partículas, y no tienen nada que ver con la religión”, señala.
Un libro para todos aquellos neófitos que buscamos entender –aunque sea un poco– el sorprendente campo de la física.
October 20, 2013
Amazon.com Review: Talk about fireworks. On July 4, 2012, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider--the famed European particle accelerator and Earth's biggest and most powerful machine --announced the discovery of evidence confirming the existence of the Higgs boson. This long-theorized fundamental particle has represented the Holy Grail for physicists exploring the world of the very, very small for almost 50 years, and its discovery paves the way forward for our understanding of a range of questions about the physical universe, from why matter has (is) mass to what exactly happens in "empty" space. And who better to clarify the implications of this enormous discovery than Lisa Randall? Author of two popular books on cutting-edge physics and a celebrated theorist herself, Randall passionately guides those of us without the scientific background through the meaning, the implications, and the ensuing global enthusiasm. For those who have followed the elusive search for the Higgs, Randall's near-breathless gusto will only confirm our own. Newcomers may find the scientific vocabulary daunting, but set against the enormity of thought and effort put into this research by some of the world's smartest people, the challenge nevertheless rewards curious readers who wonder about the hype powering the headlines. --Jason Kirk
January 16, 2016
The verification of the existence of the higgs boson with high confidence by the LHC is one of the most important scientific findings on the 21st century so far. Predicted the in 1960s by Peter Higgs, the higgs field, mechanism and associated boson would in great part explain the masses of the elementary particles. Lisa Randall takes a very technical subject and turns it into physics for everyone - even people who can't (or won't) do math. No, you won't *understand* the physics involved, but you'll be able to grasp its importance and its implications to advancing the frontiers of physics in the coming years when the LHC will operate at full power. Should you read this Kindle Short? Well, if science to you is all about making a better toaster, then no. You should go through life clueless about the nature of the universe you live in in. However, if you long to get a handle of why reality is the way it is, you'll get an appreciable amount of satisfaction from reading anything that Lisa Randall writes, because she doesn't dumb down the physics concepts. She explains the limitations of her analogies and cleans up any misconceptions that they might cause. She makes it clear that a lack of mathematical treatment of the subject matter severely limits the depths of the subject matter, but takes care bring the mathematically uninitiated as far along as possible.
June 26, 2015
Please don't interpret my One Star as an intention to demean this book from a scientific perspective, or to be rude toward the author. There is "as much new information in this book as was available at the time it was assembled", and that new information is very informative. Her information regarding the decay vectors of the Higgs bosun were unique, and the first time I had a sense of some of their options. And yet: Read some of the other reviews about rush-to-print, Ms. Randall's "slapping two chapters from previous books into this one to fluff up the page count", etc. All of that is true. And there are no mathematics to justify and support the conclusions.
Even then, I'd award two stars. But what'll drop this book into solid "one-star territory", is this: Ms. Randall has the annoying habit of qualifying, and over-segmenting her sentences. There are so many "howevers", "on the other hands", "basically-s", etc in the text, it simply becomes unreadable. Each sentence must be re-read several times, and parsed for meaning and parity. And this fact simply proves that the effort was slapped-together in a hurry, and was not proofed or edited for reader clarity. Or maybe she was paid by the word.
In any case, if this is the delivery technique she uses in her class lectures, I pity her students.
Even then, I'd award two stars. But what'll drop this book into solid "one-star territory", is this: Ms. Randall has the annoying habit of qualifying, and over-segmenting her sentences. There are so many "howevers", "on the other hands", "basically-s", etc in the text, it simply becomes unreadable. Each sentence must be re-read several times, and parsed for meaning and parity. And this fact simply proves that the effort was slapped-together in a hurry, and was not proofed or edited for reader clarity. Or maybe she was paid by the word.
In any case, if this is the delivery technique she uses in her class lectures, I pity her students.
January 2, 2014
If you have a physics background, this can be a fun and enlightening reading about the Higgs mechanism. Keep in mind it is not a book for a layperson. It helps a lot if you are majoring in physics or chemistry, or if you are a physicist or chemist. 16% through the book you find this passage: "the bump [in the number of events] isn't just a line". I know what she is talking about, but other people will be left kind of clueless. I found several other similar statements which require background in physics.
One criticism: it looks like the book was put together without much revision. They joined chapters of different books and included an updated introduction by the author. Expect considerable repetition throughout the text and different formatting in the different chapters.
ps. I am an astrophysicist by the way.
One criticism: it looks like the book was put together without much revision. They joined chapters of different books and included an updated introduction by the author. Expect considerable repetition throughout the text and different formatting in the different chapters.
ps. I am an astrophysicist by the way.
January 7, 2014
The book was very fascinating because I heard everyone getting excited about the discovery of the higgs boson but had no idea on its implication on science whether the implication is minor or extremely significant. This book made me understand and realize how great the impact is and the effects of higgs boson on our world.
The book explains in detail the workings of the higgs boson. However, the negative side effects of the rich detail is that the book has a lot of science jargon that is very hard to understand. I had to read many passages multiple times just to have a rudimentary comprehension of the topic. If you have a preliminary perception of physic concepts, I strongly suggest not to read this book.
The book explains in detail the workings of the higgs boson. However, the negative side effects of the rich detail is that the book has a lot of science jargon that is very hard to understand. I had to read many passages multiple times just to have a rudimentary comprehension of the topic. If you have a preliminary perception of physic concepts, I strongly suggest not to read this book.
August 23, 2013
Very interesting even if a bit over my head - I realized that I'm more interested in molecular biology and genetics than particle physics but the Higgs discovery is such a vital part of current scientific discovery and thought that I wanted to know more. This straightforward and concisely written Kindle Single provided a nice overview of the Higgs theory that the layperson could enjoy.
Recommended for anyone interested in the recent work at CERN with the Large Hadron Collider.
Recommended for anyone interested in the recent work at CERN with the Large Hadron Collider.
October 13, 2014
This is a brief compendium of chapters from the author's current books on the subject of Quantum physics that are concerning the Higgs Mechanism, its subsequent effects and particles, and the acquisition of mass by gauge bosons and other particles. This Ecco Solo was written and published before the recent discoveries at the LHC in CERN of a Higgs Boson. It is well written, but not for the novice.
December 1, 2014
Excellent
This book, although short, gives a thorough grounding to a complicated subject using language and examples that the non-scientific community can follow.
If you are interested in the strange world of quantum physics and want to learn more, or if the recent fuss made by reports of Peter Higgs and his boson (and Nobel Prize) has piqued your curiosity, this book is a great starting point.
A great read - thank you Lisa Randall
This book, although short, gives a thorough grounding to a complicated subject using language and examples that the non-scientific community can follow.
If you are interested in the strange world of quantum physics and want to learn more, or if the recent fuss made by reports of Peter Higgs and his boson (and Nobel Prize) has piqued your curiosity, this book is a great starting point.
A great read - thank you Lisa Randall
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