The Infinity Puzzle by Frank Close

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Summary

Forty or so years ago, three physicists - Peter Higgs, Gerard 't Hooft, and James Bjorken - made the spectacular breakthroughs that led to the world's largest experiment, the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Played out against a backdrop of high politics, low behaviour, and billion dollar budgets, this is the story of their work and its implications.

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The Infinity Puzzle by Frank Close

We are living in a Golden Age of Physics. Forty or so years ago, three brilliant, yet little-known scientists - an American, a Dutchman, and an Englishman - made breakthroughs which later inspired the construction of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva: a 27 kilometer-long machine which has already costs ten billion dollars, taken twenty years to build, and now promises to reveal how the universe itself came to be. The Infinity Puzzle is the inside story of those forty years of research, breakthrough, and endeavour. Peter Higgs, Gerard 't Hooft and James Bjorken, were the three scientists whose work is explored here, played out across the decades against a backdrop of high politics, low behaviour, and billion dollar budgets. Written from within by Frank Close, the eminent physicist and award-winning writer, The Infinity Puzzle also draws upons the author's close friendships with those involved.
fascinating book Nature thoroughly researched and well-crafted narrative New Scientist masterpiece..I never normally give 5 stars but for this I make an exception. John Gribbin, BBC Focus If [the Higgs Boson] does turn up, some people in Stockholm will likely be among the book's most avid readers ... Close is especially diligent in investigating the priority of ideas and in crediting researchers who may have been left behind, either by the Nobel committee or by popular imagination ... The result is a much more nuanced picture of history. Physics World
Frank Close is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Oxford University and has just retired from his position as head of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. During his career he has worked closely with CERN, home of the LHC. He is a well-established science writer, and his recent short books for OUP The Void and Antimatter - have been very successful.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780199593507
ISBN 10 0199593507
Title The Infinity Puzzle
Author Frank Close
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Oxford University Press
Year published 2011-11-08
Number of pages 288
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.