Book description
In the early 1960s, three groups of physicists, working
independently in different countries, stumbled upon an idea that would
change physics and fuel the imagination of scientists for decades.
That idea was the Higgs boson - to find it would be to finally
understand the origins of mass - the last building block of life
itself. Now, almost 50 years later, that particle has finally been discovered.
Award-winning science writer Ian Sample weaves together the personal
stories and intense rivalries of the teams of scientists behind the
Higgs boson. Massive is a tale of grand ambition,
trans-Atlantic competition, clashing egos and occasionally spectacular
failures. From the giant particle colliders built to further the
scientists' quest to the political fallout of budget blowouts, debates
over whether the search might even destroy the universe, to the
incredible discovery of the particle itself, this is an epic story of
imagination, personal ambition, sub-atomic exploration and global significance.
Whichever way you look at it, this story is massive.
Ian Sample is an award-winning science correspondent at the
Guardian
newspaper. He was named investigative journalist of the year in 2005 by
the Association of British Science Writers and was previously a feature
writer for
New Scientist.
He holds a PhD in biomedical science from Queen Mary, University of
London. Born in Oxfordshire, he now lives in London.
