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Leon Lederman

The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? Paperback – January 1, 1994

by Leon Lederman (Author)

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"Two leading physicists discuss the importance of the Higgs Boson, the future of particle physics, and the mysteries of the universe yet to be unraveled. On July 4, 2012, the long-sought Higgs Boson--aka "the God Particle"--was discovered at the world'slargest particle accelerator, the LHC, in Geneva, Switzerland. On March 14, 2013, physicists at CERN confirmed it. This elusive subatomic particle forms a field that permeates the entire universe, creating the masses of the elementary particles that are the basic building blocks of everything in the known world--from viruses to elephants, from atoms to quasars. Starting where Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman's bestseller The God Particle left off, this incisive new book explains what's next. Lederman and Hill discuss key questions that will occupy physicists for years to come: * Why were scientists convinced that something like the "God Particle" had to exist? * What new particles, forces, and laws of physics lie beyond the "God Particle"? * What powerful new accelerators are now needed for the US to recapture a leadership role in science and to reach "beyond the God Particle," such as Fermilab's planned Project-X and the Muon Collider? Using thoughtful, witty, everyday language, the authors show how all of these intriguing questions are leading scientists ever deeper into the fabric of nature. Readers of The God Particle will not want to miss this important sequel"--

Print length

448 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Delta
Publication date

January 1, 1994
Dimensions

6.08 x 0.91 x 9.18 inches
ISBN-10

0385312113
ISBN-13

978-0385312110
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the clearest, most enjoyable new science books in years... explains the entire history of physics and cosmology. En route, you'll laugh so hard you won't realize how much you are learning." -- San Francisco Examiner

From the Back Cover

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Delta (January 1, 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385312113
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385312110
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.08 x 0.91 x 9.18 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,373,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8,565 in Astronomy (Books)
- #42,366 in Physics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
264 ratings

About the author

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Leon Lederman

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Leon M. Lederman, Nobel Laureate (Batavia, IL), is Resident Scholar at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Pritzker Professor of Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the author of the highly acclaimed The God Particle, the editor of Portraits of Great American Scientists, and a contributor to Science Literacy for the Twenty-First Century. Dr. Lederman and coauthor Christopher T. Hill are also the coauthors of Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe.

Customer reviews

5 star		73%
4 star		21%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
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Amazon Customer

Good book; very poor Kindle edition

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2015

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Note that this review is for the KINDLE edition:
1) I continue to be surprised--in a sad way--that so many Kindle book versions are as poor as they are, and this book is certainly an example. Whether it's true or not, this Kindle version gives every indication of having been generated by an OCR program scanning a paper document, and released without proofreading. Every few pages you'll find missing punctuation--which is perhaps merely annoying--but all too often you'll see words misspelled in ways that clearly indicate what was originally written (e.g. "for example, the sim, and indeed, in time, the distant stars" where "sim" should obviously be "sun.") Sometimes the problems are more serious than a simple misspelling: in a section discussing Thompson's experiments involving a ratio e/m, "e/m" is constantly written as "elm" (like the tree); in a description of Maxwell's equations, the text says "In these equations, £ stands for the electric field, £ stands for the magnetic field, and c, the velocity of light...". In case it doesn't print correctly here on Amazon, the text not only uses the symbol for Pounds Sterling for the electric field...which would be bad enough...it uses that same symbol for _both_ the electric field and the magnetic field. These are just a couple of _far_ too many text mistakes that occur throughout this edition.
The bottom line is that if you're at least a little familiar with the material, you'll only be annoyed every couple of pages, but if this is new to you, you should definitely avoid the Kindle edition of this book, because it'll just be confusing.
(I should admit I haven't seen the paper copy; it's possible, though I'd be amazed to find that this level of mistakes exists in all editions.)
2) The book itself is interesting and and enjoyable. Frankly, I think the author should leave out his nearly-constant attempts at humor--most of which fall flat in my opinion, and so are nothing but distractions--but humor is highly subjective, and I'm sure others will think it gives the book a boost. Overall, though, I enjoyed the perspective supplied by this book as the history of physics was used to lead the reader up to the title matter.

91 people found this helpful

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Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

Entertaining

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2019

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There is only one good reason for reading popular science books that are going-on thirty years of age: and that is for entertainment. _The God Particle_, subtitled "If the Universe is the answer, what's the question?", entertained me.

More: it told me things I didn't know, mostly about the history of science. The book is framed as a search for the indivisible particle, and it begins with Democritus of Abdera, who first came up with the idea that the universe was made of a-toms. Lederman fantasizes a dialogue in which he gives Democritus a tour of Fermilab and we are to be amazed by how amazed he isn't.

The book moves through the usual suspects - Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein - and a number of less-known folks who made their contribution to the search for the underlying structure of matter, with a wealth of amusing anecdotes (and the occasional wretched pun). In the last few chapters he brings the story up to the near-present of 1993, and describing the Standard Model as it was then, including the theoretical and experimental problems with it. The main problem was that, above certain relatively reasonable energies, the Standard Model predicted infinite quantities, which seems an absurdity on the face of it. Higgs proposed his field and its boson as a way of removing those infinities; explaining where mass comes from is a bonus.

The Higgs boson would not be confirmed until 2014, twenty-one years after Lederman (and Teresi) gave it its fanciful and misleading nickname. And, as it goes with real science, it didn't so much answer the questions as provide new ones. But for someone just seeking to understand what the Higgs thing is all about, plus a general non-mathematical introduction to the Standard Model, you could do worse than _The God Particle_.

(As a side note: Leon Lederman, Nobel laureate for his work with the neutrino, died late last year at the age of 96.)

9 people found this helpful

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John J. Falkenstine

STILL A VERY GOOD BOOK!

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2018

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Let's not forget. This book was not written in the 21st century. I'm reading a lot of reviews here that are critical of the book because it's not current. Lederman's sense of humor is quite good, and despite the fact that I'm not a scientist, a theoretician or a philosopher, merely a grunge lumpenproletariat dreamer, the book is highly understandable and still relevant. I bought it dirt cheap and I have no regrets. Those who use it as a platform to display their own limited knowledge are missing the enjoyment.

19 people found this helpful

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Mr. Jerome Brown

Excellent book, excellently written.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2013

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I have recently read "The God Particle" by Professor Leon Lederman, and can truthfully say I was disappointed, that is disappointed when I came to the end of the book. this book is a great read for anybody who is interested in the development of scientific discovery into the the basic particles which make up the atoms of our universe, and thus ourselves.
While following the route through history, one is shown the important steps that were discovered both by design and by accident, by such great Physicists as galileo, Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Einstein, Feynman, Lederman, Higgs and many many more, whose names I cannot recall .The end point of the book is the search for and discovery of the ultimate particle "The God Particle",
or "Higgs Boson" , which is thought to be the final particle, which will make the Quantum Equation make complete sense (well almost).
Professor Lederman leads the reader along with style and panache, and plenty of laugh out loud humour, so much so, that when Icame to the end of the book , I was disappointed , though at the same time elated, and with a much greater understanding of particle physics than I had before, I read the book. Lederman ensures that fact and supposition are clearly defined, and that even if the Higgs Boson is found, the story of Physics will not end there,but will have travelled one more step on the road to enlightenment.
I must also say that I had previously read Professor Brian Cox's " Why does E=MC2", and so had a reasonable grounding in particle physics ( as much as could be expected of a layman!). Another great read, recommended by a fellow Yahoo "ranter" after the CERN announcement last summer, that they may have found the "Higgs Bosun".
Long Live scientific discovery , and the search for truth!

2 people found this helpful

Dj Canetti

I am half way through this excellent well put together book on the so called"God Particle" ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2016

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I am half way through this excellent well put together book on the so called"God Particle" and I am still confused about what it is ( even they dont know) I recently watched a TV programme about this subject made in 2016 and they still dont know what it is or if it exist,????
perhaps God does ?

Lor

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2015

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Interesting book

Happy

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2015

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A great read. Funny, clever and by far the best book to learn and enjoy particle physics.

Plammito

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 8, 2017

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Thank you

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