Name: The Particle at the End of the Universe
Rating: 4.7 (73 reviews)
Author: Sean Carroll

What’s in it for me? Learn about the bizarre fabric that holds our universe together.

Over the last five years, you may have heard news about the awe-inspiring Large Hadron Collider, developed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva.

But what is it exactly? And why is it important, not only to physicists, but to the world?

To answer these questions, you’ll need to understand some of the fundamental principles that define how our universe functions, as well as learn the basics of subatomic physics.

And that’s exactly what you’ll learn in The Particle at the End of the Universe.

You’ll submerge yourself in the bizarre world of atomic interactions, all the way down to the very tiniest of particles. You’ll also grasp why these particles are important, both in how they give our universe its form as well as how the discovery of these particles has advanced civilization.

With these basics, you’ll then be ready to follow the science team at CERN in their recent landmark discovery of one of the most elusive of fundamental particles: the Higgs boson.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why Angelina Jolie will never reach the buffet because of her social “mass”;
why some quarks are “charming” and others “strange”; and
how scientists were able to prove the existence of the elusive Higgs boson.

Atoms, the building blocks of ordinary matter, are made of protons, neutrons and electrons.

From the very beginning, we’ve wondered what exactly our bodies are made of. Modern science has revealed that everything – including you – is comprised of tiny particles or building blocks called atoms.

And these building blocks are composed of smaller, subatomic particles: protons, neutrons and electrons.

Every single atom has a unique number of protons in its nucleus – its atomic number. This number can be used to identify the atom on the periodic table, first published by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869.

For example, the atom Helium has two protons in its nucleus, and is thus identified with the atomic number “two.” Plutonium, on the other hand, has 94 protons (a “heavier” atom) and can be found on the table at number 94.

In 1913, Niels Bohr made an important contribution to our understanding of the atom with his atom model. He found that electrons “orbit“ around the nucleus and its protons and neutrons, much like the moon orbits the earth.

Protons and electrons differ in two important ways: charge and weight. Electrons are negatively charged and relatively light compared to protons, which are positively charged and 1,840 times as “heavy” as electrons.

An atom is the smallest unit for certain chemical elements. Sometimes, however, atoms can join together and form what’s called a molecule. Many common substances, such as water or carbon dioxide, are actually molecules, or a specific combination of atoms stuck together.

For example, when two hydrogen atoms join with an oxygen atom, they create a water molecule. You can think of this as the tiniest possible drop of water.

As miniscule as atoms are, however, scientists soon came to know of an even stranger, tinier world within the protons, neutrons and electrons themselves.

In the twentieth century, scientists discovered the tiny particles called leptons and quarks.

If atoms are the building blocks for matter, what are the building blocks for atoms? As it turns out, scientists have discovered more, even smaller subatomic particles.

But how did they discover something so tiny?

Our universe is held together by gravity, electromagnetism and strong and weak nuclear forces.

What would happen if you jumped out a window? Would you soar off toward the horizon, or glide down like a leaf?

Well no. Instead, you’d hit the ground with a loud thud.

Interactions with the Higgs field give every particle its mass.

Have you ever thought about why some things are heavier than others? The answer lies in understanding mass.

You can think of mass as the resistance that you feel when you push against an object. For example, pushing a car up a hill is far more difficult than pushing a bicycle. The essential difference is that the car has more mass.

Think of the Higgs field as a sea of party guests keeping you from reaching the buffet.

All this talk of quarks, bosons and muons may leave you feeling a bit overwhelmed. Particle physics is not an easy subject, and keep in mind that some of the most talented people on the globe spend their entire lives deciphering how all these elements work together.

To simplify, let’s return to the concept of the Higgs field and consider two analogies.

Scientists built the enormous Large Hadron Collider to learn more about tiny particles.

By the time it was turned “on” in September 2008, the Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva had already generated quite the buzz not only in the scientific community but worldwide.

But what does this machine do, exactly?

By smashing particles into each other, scientists hoped to find proof that the Higgs boson exists.

What happens when two cars collide? In the crash, the car’s parts – screws, shards of glass, pieces of plastic – are tossed about, revealing material usually hidden beneath the car’s frame.

This example illustrates what scientists seek when they smash particles together in the LHC. The hope is that, rather than screws and shards of glass, the collision of two protons might reveal a Higgs boson.

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider finally discovered the elusive Higgs boson in 2012.

Once the Large Hadron Collider performed these groundbreaking experiments, scientists could finally begin their search for evidence of the Higgs boson. It wasn’t easy at first.

To verify whether the Higgs boson actually had been discovered, scientists first needed to sift through reams of statistical analysis from the experiments.

The discovery of the Higgs boson may open new doors in both science and technology.

You might be asking, “What was the point of all this? Why did scientists sink so much time and money into looking for the Higgs boson?”

Importantly, the discovery of the Higgs boson can help us better understand some of the deeper mysteries of the universe.

The Particle at the End of the Universe summary