Elusive, Frank Close
Elusive, Frank Close
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Elusive
How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass

Author: Frank Close

Narrator: Richard Burnip

Unabridged: 10 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 06/14/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

The first major biography of Peter Higgs, revealing how a short burst of work changed modern physics On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have mass, had finally been discovered. On the rostrum, surrounded by jostling physicists and media, was the particle’s retiring namesake—the only person in history to have an existing single particle named for them. Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs and others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world’s most famous scientists. Close finds that scientific competition between people, institutions, and states played as much of a role in making Higgs famous as Higgs’s work did.  A revelatory study of both a scientist and his era, Elusive will remake our understanding of modern physics.  

About Frank Close

Frank Close is an eminent research theoretical physicist in nuclear and particle physics. Currently Emeritus Professor of Physics at Oxford University and a Fellow of Exeter College, he was formerly the Head of the Theoretical Physics Division at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. He served as Chair of the UK Space Exploration Working Group 2007 which culminated with Tim Peake's launch to the ISS. He is the author of several books, including the bestselling Lucifer's Legacy (2000), and his highly acclaimed biography of the Higgs Boson Elusive (2022). His other books include Antimatter (2018), Neutrino (2011), Eclipse: Journeys to the Dark Side of the Moon (2017), and A Very Short Introduction to Nuclear Physics (2015), Particle Physics (2004), and Nothing (2009). In 2013, Professor Close was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for communicating science and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Clif on September 05, 2022

This book is part biography of Peter Higgs and part history of the development of the Standard Model. Those two subjects overlap at the concept of the Higgs Boson. The second half of the book is devoted largely to the story of the concept, funding, design, and construction of the Large Hadron Collid......more

Goodreads review by Brian on July 07, 2022

The title of this book was probably selected because it's doubly apt. The Higgs boson and what the subtitle describes as 'the mystery of mass' were elusive for many years, but the term equally applies to the extremely low profile Peter Higgs himself. Frank Close is ideally placed to to give us a han......more

Goodreads review by John on July 07, 2022

One of my pieces from the Literary Review: Frank Close is a particle physicist who during a distinguished career developed a sideline in accessible popular books about the subatomic world, long before anyone outside the halls of academe had heard of Carlo Rovelli. After retiring from the day job, he......more

Goodreads review by Alvaro Francisco on September 15, 2023

The beginning of the book, which deals with the theoretical necessity of a Higgs boson, was a bit difficult to follow, requiring a bit of my time just to simply get the gist of what was going on. I can’t follow the maths necessary, so my understanding of this, in spite of the time spent thinking it......more

Quotes

“Rich, compelling, and surprising. Fundamental physics can be equal parts awe-inspiring and head-spinning, and Frank Close masterfully captures those qualities in this deeply satisfying tale of Peter Higgs's convoluted, and very human, journey through life and science.”
 —Caleb Scharf, author of The Ascent of Information

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