
Smashing Physics
Jon Butterworth
The discovery of the Higgs boson made headlines around the world. Two scientists, Peter Higgs and François 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.
Buy this book at AmazonAd- Publisher
- Hachette UK
- Year
- 2014
- ISBN-13
- 9781472210326
- Genre
- Science & Technology
- Topics
- Higgs boson discoveryLarge Hadron ColliderCERNParticle physics
Awards
- Royal Society Science Book PrizeShortlisted(2015)
If you liked Smashing Physics, you could also like these

The Particle at the End of the Universe
Sean Carroll
1 win · 8 score

Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science
Ian Sample
0 wins · 3 score

The Elegant Universe
Brian Greene
1 win · 8 score

Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists
Fred Alan Wolf
1 win · 12 score

The Universe in a Nutshell
Stephen Hawking
1 win · 8 score

Faust in Copenhagen: A Struggle for the Soul of Physics
Gino Segrè
0 wins · 3 score

A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
1 win · 12 score

Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Story of the Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe
Dennis Overbye
0 wins · 3 score

Strange Beauty
George Johnson
0 wins · 3 score

Disturbing the Universe
Freeman Dyson
0 wins · 8 score

Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe
Dennis Overbye
0 wins · 4 score

Cosmos
Carl Sagan
0 wins · 4 score

Backroom Boys
Francis Spufford
0 wins · 3 score

Isaac Newton
James Gleick
0 wins · 4 score

H. G. J. Moseley: The Life and Letters of an English Physicist, 1887–1915
J. L. Heilbron
0 wins · 4 score