By Lisa Randall
Bodley Head
Paperback: £4.99
Readers of CERN Courier need no introduction to Lisa Randall, the well known theoretical physicist. Her previous books, Warped Passages and Knocking on Heaven’s Door, are exceptionally interesting and surprisingly easy to read, especially when considering the complexity of the topics that she addresses. I cannot judge if the fluidity of her writing is a natural talent or the result of much hard work through several editorial iterations – but the result is outstanding. Her new book, Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space, reports her reactions to the announcement by the CMS and ATLAS experiments that “a particle related to the Higgs mechanism had been found” – “I was flabbergasted” – and compiles her answers to the many questions that she has been asked since.
This is a small book of fewer than 50 pages, which can be read in a couple of hours. The writing style is refreshing and informal, with a warped sense of humour that helps to grab the target audience: the people who were fascinated with the discovery without knowing why. Sometimes it is a little repetitive and almost feels like “Higgs for dummies” but this is more a compliment than a criticism. Nowadays, most people forget to explain “the basics”, a challenge that Randall excels at. And she does not forget to wrap her teachings with passages that extend well beyond high-energy physics: “The Higgs boson discovery is more likely to be the beginning of the story than an end.” I wonder if she purposely paraphrased Winston Churchill.
I certainly agree that “the discovery is truly inspirational” and I am also glad that we can avoid the need to explain why not finding the Higgs boson would be even more interesting than actually finding it.
