PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Steven Vigdor is a well-known experimental physicist with more than 45 years of experience in cutting-edge research in nuclear and particle physics. Currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Indiana University, he was formerly the Chair of that department and the Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear and Particle Physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). In the latter role, he oversaw in 2007-2012 operations of the largest U.S. facility for nuclear physics research - the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider - as well as all of BNL's research in nuclear and high-energy physics, and most of its efforts in accelerator science research. Since returning to Indiana in 2013, he has started a small business to develop state-of-the-art instrumentation for next-generation proton radiotherapy treatments of cancer, in parallel with the writing of this book.
This is a very carefully structured and well written book about the physical constraints that allow life to exist in the universe. It gives a much more detailed discussion of the relevant physics than comparable books, because the author is an experimentalist. However it does not lose sight of the big picture, and is entertainingly written and well illustrated. It is a good read. * George Ellis, University of Cape Town * Vigdor takes us on a breathtaking excursion around the perimeters of our physics knowledge, opening vistas for the connections between what lies beyond and our type of life. He wittily describes the landscape and, in more depth than most other authors, how we know what we know. And he wonders, is there an artist behind such an imperfect masterpiece? * Ubirajara van Kolck, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique * Detailed chapters. He covers the most recent research... Highly recommended. * C.G. Wood, CHOICE *
