Introducing Particle Physics: A Graphic Guide

Introducing Graphic Guides

by Tom Whyntie, Oliver Pugh (Illustrator)

What really happens at the most fundamental levels of nature?

Introducing Particle Physics explores the very frontiers of our knowledge, even showing how particle physicists are now using theory and experiment to probe our very concept of what is real.

From the earliest history of the atomic theory through to supersymmetry, micro-black holes, dark matter, the Higgs boson, and the possibly mythical graviton, practising physicist and CERN contributor Tom Whyntie gives us a mind-expanding tour of cutting-edge science.

Featuring brilliant illustrations from Oliver Pugh, Introducing Particle Physics is a unique tour through the most astonishing and challenging science being undertaken today.

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Comics, History, Stem

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2014

About the author

Tom Whyntie was born in 1983. This makes him slightly younger than the W and Z gauge bosons, the force-carrying particles of the weak nuclear force. (Well, technically these have existed in their current form since a microsecond or so after the Big Bang, but it's been thirty odd years since we discovered them.)

After reading Natural Sciences at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge (specialising in Experimental and Theoretical Physics), Tom accepted a place at Imperial College London to complete a PhD with the High Energy Physics group. He was assigned to the ironically-named "Compact Muon Solenoid" (CMS) experiment, a 15,000 tonne, cathedral-sized digital camera buried in Cessy, France, that would take pictures of the high energy particle collisions that would take place at the Large Hadron Collider. His thesis focussed on the search for supersymmetry - a theory which provided candidate particles for Dark Matter, which supposedly makes up a missing 26% of the Universe - in the LHC's first data.

He didn't find it.

However, a null result is still a result - and in 2011 was awarded his PhD, after which he briefly worked as a post-doctoral researcher on the upgrade of the CMS silicon detector system. However, in early 2012 an opportunity arose that would allow him to combine his love of both doing physics and talking about physics. The CERN@school project takes cutting-edge particle detectors developed by CERN's Medipix Collaboration into the classroom to allow students and teachers to conduct their own, original physics research. In June 2012 Tom became the full-time scientist for the project, based at the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury, Kent, and the Particle Physics Research Centre (PPRC) at Queen Mary, University of London.

Tom is a regularly speaks about particle physics at science festivals and events around the country, notably the Times Cheltenham Science Festival and the British Science Association's British Science Festival. With Dr Andrew Pontzen, a cosmologist at University College, London, he also contributes to the YouTube "HeadSqueeze" channel's SciGuides, presenting a light-hearted look at the great questions in experimental and theoretical physics.

Reviews

[S. Shelton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors make a valiant attempt to familiarize Quantum Field Theory to an educated public in 192 illustrated lesions in a small paperback book. Unfortunately, they fail. Their goal was unattainable. Such a manifold complicated subject is a serious challenge for doctoral candidates majoring in Quantum Mechanics Physics. Each page is presented clearly, has a picture of the physicist(s) who discovered or developed the quantum point discussed, and shows relevant graphics. That’s fine. The most educated of the general public would find this book an easy read but exceedingly difficult to understand. The problem is that the subject is just too complicated to be presented in such a miniature manner.

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics—admittedly many years old. Nonetheless, I try to maintain minimum currency in Quantum Mechanics. I could understand, more or less, the concepts presented on most pages. The problem is the way the book is structured in headline tidbits. There’s no chance for an in-depth understanding or to tie concepts into a coherent understanding

To the author’s credit, they do cover the field—albeit superficially. They start with definitions of the atom, electron, proton, neutron; and proceed forthwith with the standard model, quarks, and the Higgs Boson; and conclude with supersymmetry, negative energy, dark matter, string theory, and a discussion of the solar neutrino.

[Mohamed · Rating 5 out of 5]

اشتريت هذا الكتاب في الأساس كهدية لشخص عزيز سألني ما الذي أقوم به، فأنا طالب دراسات عليا في فيزياء الجسيمات الأولية
ولما كان من الصعب جدا علي أن اقوم بشرح الموضوع بشكل كافي في لقائنا القصير فظللت أبحث عن كتاب قد يصلح لذلك.
قرأت نسخة كندل ولحسن الحظ فهو مجاني لمستخدمي خدمة amazon prime.
النسخة الورقية ما زلت انتظرها حتي أهديها له.

وفق الكاتب في جعله كتاب مسلي،. يفتقر للدقة التي قد يبحث عنها شخص مثلي لكن في النهاية هذا الكتاب كتب لفئة أنا اخر من يمكن أن ينتمي إليها. الرسومات أضفت نكهة جيدة ورائعة للكتاب.
أكثر ما اعجبني هو التدرج السلس في الموضوعات فمن الذرة حتي المادة السوداء رحلة جميلة وشيقة. كما أنه يعطي تاريخ تطور أفكارنا ومعلوماتنا واسهامات العلماء وصور لكل عالم.

[Walt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to follow (of course, it's about quantum physics!) , but it provides a clear chronological record of the major discoveries.

[Dana Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty solid entry in the series, but you'll probably have a difficult time following it unless you have read other things in the field. It's a pretty complex, abstract subject, though, so it's not surprising that you might not have a solid grasp of the concepts after reading a comic about it. Still, it's worth a read - just understand that you are probably going to need to read other books to get a better understanding. It's been a while, but I recall The Particle Hunters by Ne'eman and Kirsh being quite good for this.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a basic introduction to particle physics.

The illustrations and text were relatively straight forward but I found many of the concepts were not explained clearly enough (at least for me).

[Nigel Upcott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A valid attempt at making it accessible

I am not going to pretend that I followed everything, but it is certainly not easy to condense this vast field if research into a small volume and this was a good attempt.

[Mick Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good short introduction to quantum physics. Easy to read and follow, and a great intro to read before the revamped LHC makes the rewrite it!

[Sally Sugarman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another graphic guide that helps open new areas of knowledge. This is a complex topic and not one that can be fully comprehended through the reading of one book. However, the book does a good job of providing history and context for the subject and makes one want to read more. The use of graphics is most helpful in some of these more difficult subjects. There is a combination of drawings and photographs that are most useful as are the dialogue balloons. For tiny objects there are a lot of parts to a particle. The issue of matter and anti-matter is intriguing as is the way in which scientists build on each other’s work and try to test theories in this case using expensive technology. Unlike most of the books in this series, there is no bibliography which is disappointing since I want to read more. However, I am sure I can find additional material. This was a good beginning.

[Javier · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to particle physics.

It provides a very interesting insight about the process which led to the discovery of the different subatomic particles. It is this account of predictions based on some theories and inconsistencies in other theories which made it particularly interesting for me. It is a very different approach to the one used in more academic books and provides some interesting information even for those who have studied some relevant related fields.

The book may require more than one reading to squeeze all the juice out of it. I’m about to start my second 😉

[Petr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it as a nice fast introduction to even deep topics of Particle physics. The book shows really well how science is not merely a one man show but a joint effort of scientists over a longer period of time with sometimes slower or even erroneous progress. I found the graphical part to sometimes limit the information value. However, I found it in general a good introduction to the topic which does not shy away from touching upon all the main contemporary subjects. Probably not the best option for too young kids, but certainly worth skimming for anyone who starts to get interested in particle physics and wants to get a general picture.

[Dani · Rating 1 out of 5]

Imagine if you purchased a book titled "Evolution: a graphic guide" then it comprised entirely of pictures of Charles Darwin with some speech bubbles. This is essentially the case of this book, except it has many famous old white male physicists. I was expecting the book to be with lots of nice physics diagrams to aid with understanding and was very disappointed. In my view this is a very misleading title, as a graphic guide shouldn't just be speech bubbles of men.

I also don't think the authors considered how this might also be for a non-white male audience. I much preferred Particle Physics: A very short introduction by Frank Close.

[Asaf Cygelberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this would be a science book, and not a popular science book.

I guess that was foolish of me.

Anyhow, it is a popular science book.


It is a comic book sort of book, with pictures and balloon text, and has regular text too.

It wasn't anyway what I was looking for, or what I would want.

A lot of history of the discoveries, which doesn't much interest me.
Mostly really a historical account of the discoveries.

Learned a thing or two, but mostly was not that interested.

[Mangosmoothie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐tranh ảnh bắt mắt, sách nhẹ dễ cầm và di chuyển. Mỗi trang thì đc minh hoạ đầy đủ, chi tiết và mấy lúc cũng khá hài=))))). Nhưng khổ nỗi tác giả chọn khai thác cái chủ đề nó khá là trừu tượng và chuyên sâu nên khi truyền tải thì ng đọc bình thường cảm thấy rất khó hiểu hết đc toàn bộ thông tin. Mình đọc trong vòng 1 tuần mặc dù sách có 190 trang thôi mà khổ nhỏ nữa. Đơn giản bởi vì rất khó hiểu nên sinh ra nản (⁠╯⁠︵⁠╰⁠,⁠). Mà tại cái bìa bắt mắt nên cố đọc hết, và chắc giờ nhớ khoảng 30% dung lượng quyển sách༎ຶ⁠‿⁠༎ຶ.

[Johannes Duckeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book, though I could only comfortably follow a little more than the first third of it. I’m not sure how much a second read through would improve my understanding, because it might simply be that the topic is too complex for this style of presentation. It is nevertheless well written and fascinating!

What is the universe made of? Is there a theory of everything that particle physics?

Worth investigating!

[Brian Asalone · Rating 4 out of 5]

mainly a history of how we got to where we are on the standard model. Interesting to see the effort and creative thinking that goes into the physical part of this--building the accelerators and devising clever ways to use them. You couldn't renormalize without these achievements. Only slightly dated at the end still discussing supersymmetry and the search for sparticles, although string theory is mentioned.

[GeorgeH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Give it a Spin or at least a Half Spin

I read about Particle Physics in newspapers and the Scientific American in the 70s. This guide is as good intro into the efforts and progress that has been made in this field. You will also learn the names and contributions that were made by key physicists. I recommend this book to anyone looking for an introduction into Particle Physics.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

One reviewer notes that it’s basically impossible to explain physics in a book this short. But then that’s a philosophical question as well, multiple questions.

The book does put together a timeline of major discoveries and achievements. And it manages to let the scientific work of discovery be what it is: exciting and fascinating.

[Ian McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent review of a deep subject in an easily understandable format

I have always had a fascination for particle physics as I grew up in the 50's. This book brought me up to date with this intriguing subject in a fun and easy manner. Now I need to go into it by reading more details in Scientific America.

[Ram S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good summary

A good summary of how the various particles which make up the universe were discovered initially through various apparatuses and which led to creation of theories which further drove a narrow search based on prediction.

[Desgreene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good general synopsis

This book tries to outline the development of the standard model without recourse to mathematical theory or deep physics. It will be of more value to those already acquainted with the broad theoretical basis...

[tim p white · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't say I understand particle physics one iota (I'm surprised I didn't find an iota particle in the book) better. To bad a scholar can't do the small amount of research needed to know where the "Texan" desert is located.

[Larry B Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

As an introduction to particle physics this book is great. It is a clear and consistent guide full of information that is easy to understand. I really like this book and I highly recommend it.

[Jorvon Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a brief overview of the history of particle physics. It describes some of the most important experiments in particle physics up until the present day. I would have given the book five stars, but I felt that the book was too technical in some places for light reading.

[Donna Herrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sprint thru the history of physics

It was amazing to have such a short review of the history of particle physics. But some references for books that would explain the experiments and help me with the mathematics would have resulted in a stellar review.

[Graham Cammock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome! Although I have read one other particle physics book, I now know the history of how particle physics has been discovered and technically developed since the 19th century. If you want to learn more of history of particle physics and how it was technically achieved, then read this book.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow was able to understand this one a bit better. I guess it must be because "by trying to find out what we're made of, we really have found out just what we're made of"

[LuluRockets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview, wonderful for a recap when one hasn’t studied this material in years ...

[raghunadh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great start needs little more clarity

Book is great ...but I lost little continuity at places...I found it amazing to learn about new theories and models

[Bob & · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great summary

Up to date ( as much as possible for this type of book) summary of the lesson s and struggle to get the standard model we use.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Particle physics by the bullet point.