Customer Reviews

The God Particle

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Leon Lederman is an experimental physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics (1988). If there will be Nobel Prize for the humor, he will be double winner. I read more than 100 books about popular physics, quantum theory and cosmology and this book is certainly in my Top 5 of all time! From the first hand you can read all newest information about what experimental physicists do, where are the problems, what is the next discovery they expect, and how look the atmosphere between scientists in the lab. In this book you can also read a much about history of experimental physics. But the main subject of this book is search for mysterious particle, Higss boson (God particle).

Why all material things have a mass? Nobody knows. God particle is propose to be an answer. Problem is that this particle is never been seen to interact with other particles or even to exist. It is pure imagination. But, if Higgs boson does not exist there will be a lot of serious problems for todays physical theories.

'The God Particle' is written with such a great charm and humor that I can not imagine better style than his. Lederman is first-class mind and in this book there are no speculations and mysticism, but only a pure scientific facts.

It seems to me that always a greatest minds (Gell-Mann, Feynman, Hawking, Weinberg,...) write a best book on the subject. This is the one. No doubt 'God Particle' deserve all 5 stars. Enjoy your self!

As with most physics books we get a history lesson of the long road of discoveries that has led up to our current point in research, in this case the higgs boson. The history section is probably one of the best written in physics books but unfortunately that's not why I had read the book. The section that actually concerns the title of the book is actually pretty small. The second part of the book is more concerned with the authors history with Fermi lab, winning the nobel prize, interesting anecdotes and some friendships with other physicists. The God particle subject is very elusive in this book, as it is in the real world.

Dr. Lederman takes the reader through the history of the search for the smallest building block(s) of the universe, from the thought experiments of Greek philosopher Democritus through today's superconducting supercolliders. Along the way he never fails to entertain with his wit.

When I wasn't laughing out loud or bugging my wife by reading her funny snippets, I was wishing I had read this book BEFORE college (where I took four freshman/sophomore level physics classes to satisfy the science requirements for my engineering degree.) After reading this book I understand much more about subjects I allegedly "learned" in college, including the model of the chemical atom, what a quark is, etc. I also feel better about not liking the "hand-waving" involved in quantum physics. (If nothing else, at least I'm in good company with Einstein.) In addition, the insight into how science was and is actually practiced is fascinating.

I am giving this as a present to my college-bound nephew!

This is a brilliant book. The book speaks for itself. My words can't do it justice. I think everyone should read this book.

The only thing that bothers me about it is that it needs updating. The author of this new edition did explain in the forward that it was written over a decade ago, in anticipation of the SSC, whose funding got cut. However, that is not enough. If the author or publisher did not want to update the text of the book itself, they should have provided footnotes throughout. For example, when it mentions that the top quark has not been discovered, that deserves a comment about its discovery, if not an appendix. It wouldn't take that much effort to just add footnotes, and it would help make the book more timeless.

Also, the paper in this edition could be better. The quality is not quite as bad as "mass market paperback", but almost.

Regardless of my few negative comments, this is one of the all-time best scientific books written for a popular audience.

A tremendously entertaining book covering much of the history of physics by one of the best known particle physicists. Lederman's book is interspersed with some of the most humorous stories I've ever read in a science book and I can't resist sharing two of them here. In an imaginary conversation with the greek philosopher Democritus, Lederman is talking about how elusive the Higgs particle is, and comments that the book's title refers to this particle, but that his publisher wouldn't allow the book to be called "The God-damned Particle. The second is from a discussion of building a piece of laboratory equipment to use in a particle accelerator. They acquired a 12 inch naval cannon to use as a collimator, and needed to fill it with beryllium as a filter, but the inside of the bore had deep rifling grooves. He sent a skinny graduate student inside the tube to stuff steel wool into the grooves. After a few hours of work, the graduate student crawled out all hot, sweaty and irritated and said "I quit," to which Lederman is said to have replied, "You can't quit, where will I find another student of your caliber?"

This book proves something that I have long suspected about physicists; a lot of them are children at heart, and they approach the physical world with the same sense of awe and glee that a child does by instinct.

Lederman has a lot of fun here, writing a chronological account of particle physics in a narrative style yet the book contains enough non-physics humor to captivate someone totally disinterested in the world of physics. I particularly enjoyed his little elbow-jabs at those lazy physics theoreticians, since he himself is a technician of physics.

I unreservedly recommend this book to anyone. I don't think you will be disappointed.

This is undoubtedly one of the best popular science
books ever written!

Comparable in content and richness of presentation
with the 'Cosmos' by Carl Sagan, this book takes us
into a fascinating journey in pursuit of the a-tom!
The *truely* indivisible building block!

The fact that Leon is an authority makes this book a
godsend for the layman who has no clue of what's going
on in the wonderful sub-atomic world!

This is a very lucid account of the history of the search for the atom taking us one step at a time right from the very beginning of the atomic notion.

The highlight of the book is the manner in which Leon describes clearly and slowly, "How,Why and What led each individual to ask the various questions and their efforts to arrive at plausible answers", and how this endless sequence of such individuals, their questions and their theories built the tower of science one brick at a time.

A must read on *any* list.

An excellent book entirely! My background isn't math or physics but I have read a good deal on Quantum physics for the layman and found this to be an excellent addition to the list. The writing style is exceptional and the technical information is easy enough to understand that I have found myself discussing the subject with collegues who do have a science background! Everything from the history of physics to the future of reality (possibly).

A must read!

Now I want to know more about the 1/137... is an update in the works?

As hard as it is to believe that a book about physics
could be riveting, I was unable to put this book down once
I started reading it. If you have even the least bit of
interest in how the universe is put together, you'll find
this book facinating. Leon Lederman is a master at relating
physics to laypeople in a way that they can understand.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Lederman says in the book, among other things, that he would have called it the "God-damned particle," but his publisher nixed the idea, for understandable reasons.

He has a sense of humor, and he writes in a very easy-to-understand style; yet he is one of the top--maybe THE top--experimental physicists on the planet. I'd really like to hear him debate Tom Van Flandern, author of DARK MATTER, MISSING PLANETS AND NEW COMETS, even if I wouldn't be able to follow the conversation due to my own lack of education in physics. They both write well, and have greatly interesting things to say if you are interested in cosmology.

For the price, how can you go wrong? Give it a try.

Joseph Pierre