The Big Bang, the birth of the universe, was a singular event. All of the matter of the universe was concentrated at a single point, with temperatures so high that even the familiar protons and neutrons of atoms did not yet exist, but rather were replaced by a swirling maelstrom of energy, matter and antimatter. Exotic quarks and leptons flickered briefly into existence, before merging back into the energy sea. This book explains the fascinating world of quarks and leptons and the forces that govern their behavior. Told from an experimental physicist's perspective, it forgoes mathematical complexity, using instead particularly accessible figures and apt analogies. In addition to the story of quarks and leptons, which are regarded as well-accepted fact, the author who is a leading researcher at the world's highest energy particle physics laboratory also discusses mysteries on both the experimental and theoretical frontier, before tying it all together with the exciting field of cosmology and indeed the birth of the universe itself. The text spans the tiny world of the quark to the depths of the universe with exceptional clarity.
Born in 1964, Don Lincoln holds a Ph.D. in physics from Rice University. He is a senior scientist at Fermilab, the US' premier particle physics laboratory. He splits his research time between data using the Fermilab Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider, a new accelerator based at CERN in Europe. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame. He has published 300 scientific papers, two popular physics books and an occasional popular science article in magazines such as "Analog: Science Fiction and Fact."
He is first and foremost a researcher. Understanding the fundamental nature of reality is his passion. However he is also an author. He thinks it is his responsibility to share the excitement he feels when he or one of his colleagues discover something entirely new about the universe. Slowly, in fits and starts, with an occasional backslide, our understanding of our universe grows. Our species' long-held goal becomes more likely with each discovery.
Neither of his parents went to college (in fact, one did not graduate high school.) However, his mother was especially encouraging that he read and learn. And read he did. As a child, he mostly read science fiction...a genera which he still enjoys, although he has a dwindling amount of time in which to indulge. However as he grew older, he became aware of popular science writing, of George Gamow and Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov and Stephen Jay Gould. And it was they who opened his eyes to the beauty of the natural world. In some respects, his popular science writing is an attempt to pay a long-held debt. He is sure that somewhere out there, there is a child or young adult of modest circumstances who only needs an introduction to science to have a new vista open to them, to show them a new life. He hopes that someday one of his books has that effect.
You can become a fan of Don on his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Don-Lincoln/100958137881
