Particle Connection: The Most Exciting Scientific Chase Since DNA and the Double Helix

by Christine Sutton

Recreates the project at CERN, Europe's center for research in particle physics, in which scientists working with the world's most powerful particle accelerators confirmed the existence of the W particle, the carrier of one of nature's most fundamental forces

Genres: Science

176 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1984

About the author

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Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a 30+ year-old science book about cutting edge research, I enjoyed it. The book itself started slowly going through the modern history of subatomic particles, theories, and discoveries. The latter half walked through the exciting discoveries at CERN in the early 80's which was surprisingly interesting. (I am a former Physics teacher, so it might not be for everyone.)

The real takeaway, however, is that man's quest for understanding or explaining the complexity of the universe is insatiable. Although talked about and hoped for in the book, we have already heard reports of finding the Higgs boson. That's cool, but we, as a species, remain unable to put it all together in some grand unified theory, yet. We have ideas, will always have ideas, and will always search for ideas. If we find all the answers to our questions, it just seems like we'd ask more questions.