Smashing Physics

Inside the World's Biggest Experiment

Jon Butterworth

$26.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Headline
14 July 2015

Mathematics & Sciences; Popular science; Physics

The discovery of the Higgs boson made headlines around the world. Two scientists, Peter Higgs and Francois Englert, whose theories predicted its existence, shared a Nobel Prize. The discovery was the culmination of the largest experiment ever run, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

But what really is a Higgs boson and what does it do? How was it found? And how has its discovery changed our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature? And what did it feel like to be part of it? Jon Butterworth is one of the leading physicists at CERN and this book is the first popular inside account of the hunt for the Higgs. It is a story of incredible scientific collaboration, inspiring technological innovation and ground-breaking science. It is also the story of what happens when the world's most expensive experiment blows up, of neutrinos that may or may not travel faster than light, and the reality of life in an underground bunker in Switzerland.

This book will also leave you with a working knowledge of the new physics and what the discovery of the Higgs particle means for how we define the laws of nature. It will take you to the cutting edge of modern scientific thinking.

By: Jon Butterworth
Imprint: Headline
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 199mm, Width: 132mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 250g
ISBN: 9781472210333
ISBN 10: 1472210336
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 14 July 2015
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jon Butterworth is a leading physicist on the Large Hadron Collider, and Head of Physics and Astronomy at UCL. He writes the popular Life & Physics blog for the Guardian and has written articles for a range of publications including the Guardian and New Scientist. Jon often discusses physics in public, including talks at the Royal Institution and the Wellcome Trust and appearances on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, The Infinite Money Cage, BBC Newsnight, Horizon, Channel 4 News and Al Jazeera. He was awarded the Chadwick Medal of the Institute of Physics in 2013 for his pioneering work in high energy particle physics, especially in the understanding of hadronic jets.

Reviews for Smashing Physics: Inside the World's Biggest Experiment

Most of the existing popular accounts of the events leading up to the July 2012 discovery claim at CERN are written from a theoretical perspective by outsiders. Jon Butterworth is an experimentalist and is the first to give a vivid account of what the process of discovery was really like for an insider. - Peter Higgs Read this book! - Brian Cox [A] charming, enlightening bulletin from one of the most exciting fields of human endeavour - The Guardian [An] excellent account of one of the greatest intellectual adventures of modern times . . . I loved this insider's story of the discovery of the Higgs boson. - Sunday Times More than just another telling of the story of the hunt for the Higgs at the LHC - the reader here is utterly immersed in the politics, excitement and sheer intellectual adventure of discovery... from someone who was actually there! - Jim Al-Khalili The story of the search for the Higgs boson is so edge-of-your-seat exciting that it practically tells itself-but still, why not get the story from someone who was there for every step along the way? Jon Butterworth is a talented writer and a world expert in the physics, and his book is hard to put down - Sean Carroll, author of The Particle at the end of the Universe Seethes with insights on the project's science, technology and 'tribes', as well as his personal (and often amusing) journey as a fron