Massive: the hunt for the God particle

A great deal of effort is being put nto the search for the Higgs boson, in particular it is a major reason for the building of the Large Hadron Collider. You might wonder why it is so important. In Massive: the hunt for the God particle Ian Sample tells the story.

The book starts with a short history of particle physics, and tells of Peter Higgs early life, and how he came up with his ideas of the origin of mass. It also tells of others who had similar ideas - the name 'God Particle' might be a bit over the top, but at least it doesn't give rise to priority disputes. Sample then gets on to the search for the Higgs boson, describing the competition between the Europeans at CERN and the Americans, (mostly at Fermilab). He tells of the ill fated Superconducting Supercollider. Also, there is always the question 'How sure do you need to be about a result to announce it to the world'. Just before the LEP was closed down to make way for the LHC there were results which just might have been the Higgs. Should the LEP have been kept going for longer to make sure?

It's a well written book, keeping away from the technicalities but giving the reader a flavour of the world of particle physics, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know more of what the LHC is all about.