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Exploding the myths about the Higgs
CULTURELAB
Exploding the myths about the Higgs Sean Carroll’s book on the Higgs boson is a gripping but involved read, says Michael Brooks The Particle at the End of the Universe by Sean Carroll, Oneworld/ Dutton, £16.99/$27.95
lynn koenig/flickr/getty
THE Higgs boson might be the most misrepresented particle in the universe. Contrary to popular conception, for instance, it’s not the source of all our mass. If the Higgs suddenly ceased to exist, you wouldn’t lose much weight. Not that you’d want to do without it altogether. As Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, points out in this excellent book, the Higgs does make a significant contribution to the mass of the electron, and Like those books, it does a lighter electron would undo all sometimes require effort and the chemical bonds in your body, concentration. But Carroll is causing you to explode. unapologetic – particle physics The Particle at the End of the is hard: “It’s not supposed to be Universe provides a masterful simple; we’re talking about a coda to all the Higgsteria of the series of discoveries that resulted past few months. Why, exploding in multiple Nobel Prizes.” bodies aside, were physicists so It’s the same refreshing honesty interested in making sure the that Peter Higgs himself has Higgs boson was there? Not shown. When, in 1993, the UK because it was ever going to be science minister offered prizes for directly useful, Carroll says, the best explanation of the Higgs but because discovering exactly that could fit on a side of A4, the how nature works is a quest man after whom it’s named that “leads to all sorts of “It’s not supposed to be good places”. easy, we’re talking about This is a refreshingly straightforward, explicatory book. discoveries that resulted in multiple Nobel prizes” It’s not dressed up as a personal narrative of discovery or a book on the meaning of it all. It’s refused to take part. His objection somehow old-fashioned in the was that all the analogies out best possible way, reminiscent of there fail in some way. Indeed, Richard Feynman’s QED, Richard why should physics that requires Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene half a century and billions of or Stephen Hawking’s A Brief pounds of investment to bring to History of Time. fruition be easy to grasp? Nature 44 | NewScientist | 3 November 2012
is indifferent to our love of metaphors. It’s surprising then, that this book is so hard to put down. That’s testament to Carroll, a practising scientist, also being a gifted writer. Carroll got into science because, aged 10, he discovered the science section of his local public library in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His reading there, on the big bang, black holes and particle physics, made such an impression that he decided to become a physicist. This book could well pass the favour on; it’s impossible to read it without feeling that being a physicist – or perhaps any scientist – is the best of all possible jobs. There’s even some sex. Carroll asked a researcher at CERN if it was true that researchers working on the CMS and ATLAS detectors really don’t know each other’s results, so that the data could be analysed blind. “Are you kidding?” came the response. “Half of ATLAS
Without the Higgs boson, people would explode
is sleeping with half of CMS. Of course they know!” What’s still not known is the future of big physics. It is expensive, and governments are poor these days. It is entirely possible that, by the time Carroll’s inspired younger readers begin to contribute to physics, they will find themselves employed at privately funded facilities. Nonetheless, there will be those working at the Intel Steve Jobs Memorial Telescope or the Large Facebook Collider who look back and fondly remember that, for them, it all started here, with an insight into the grandest of human endeavours, the story of an obscure little particle and the reassurance that physicists do get some action in the sack. ■ Michael Brooks is the author of Free Radicals (Profile/Overlook, 2012)
Exploding the myths about the Higgs Sean Carroll’s book on the Higgs boson is a gripping but involved read, says Michael Brooks The Particle at the End of the Universe by Sean Carroll, Oneworld/ Dutton, £16.99/$27.95
lynn koenig/flickr/getty
THE Higgs boson might be the most misrepresented particle in the universe. Contrary to popular conception, for instance, it’s not the source of all our mass. If the Higgs suddenly ceased to exist, you wouldn’t lose much weight. Not that you’d want to do without it altogether. As Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, points out in this excellent book, the Higgs does make a significant contribution to the mass of the electron, and Like those books, it does a lighter electron would undo all sometimes require effort and the chemical bonds in your body, concentration. But Carroll is causing you to explode. unapologetic – particle physics The Particle at the End of the is hard: “It’s not supposed to be Universe provides a masterful simple; we’re talking about a coda to all the Higgsteria of the series of discoveries that resulted past few months. Why, exploding in multiple Nobel Prizes.” bodies aside, were physicists so It’s the same refreshing honesty interested in making sure the that Peter Higgs himself has Higgs boson was there? Not shown. When, in 1993, the UK because it was ever going to be science minister offered prizes for directly useful, Carroll says, the best explanation of the Higgs but because discovering exactly that could fit on a side of A4, the how nature works is a quest man after whom it’s named that “leads to all sorts of “It’s not supposed to be good places”. easy, we’re talking about This is a refreshingly straightforward, explicatory book. discoveries that resulted in multiple Nobel prizes” It’s not dressed up as a personal narrative of discovery or a book on the meaning of it all. It’s refused to take part. His objection somehow old-fashioned in the was that all the analogies out best possible way, reminiscent of there fail in some way. Indeed, Richard Feynman’s QED, Richard why should physics that requires Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene half a century and billions of or Stephen Hawking’s A Brief pounds of investment to bring to History of Time. fruition be easy to grasp? Nature 44 | NewScientist | 3 November 2012
is indifferent to our love of metaphors. It’s surprising then, that this book is so hard to put down. That’s testament to Carroll, a practising scientist, also being a gifted writer. Carroll got into science because, aged 10, he discovered the science section of his local public library in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His reading there, on the big bang, black holes and particle physics, made such an impression that he decided to become a physicist. This book could well pass the favour on; it’s impossible to read it without feeling that being a physicist – or perhaps any scientist – is the best of all possible jobs. There’s even some sex. Carroll asked a researcher at CERN if it was true that researchers working on the CMS and ATLAS detectors really don’t know each other’s results, so that the data could be analysed blind. “Are you kidding?” came the response. “Half of ATLAS
Without the Higgs boson, people would explode
is sleeping with half of CMS. Of course they know!” What’s still not known is the future of big physics. It is expensive, and governments are poor these days. It is entirely possible that, by the time Carroll’s inspired younger readers begin to contribute to physics, they will find themselves employed at privately funded facilities. Nonetheless, there will be those working at the Intel Steve Jobs Memorial Telescope or the Large Facebook Collider who look back and fondly remember that, for them, it all started here, with an insight into the grandest of human endeavours, the story of an obscure little particle and the reassurance that physicists do get some action in the sack. ■ Michael Brooks is the author of Free Radicals (Profile/Overlook, 2012)