The A-to-Z of CERN: Universe Unlocked, by Archana Sharma, Robin Mathews and Ben Richardson, Shubhi publications
This book by CERN’s Archana Sharma and her two students Robin Mathews and Ben Richardson merges the classic A-to-Z formula with CERN concepts, making it suitable for all audiences. Each letter is divided into four categories: physics, accelerator, computing and experiments, allowing the reader to get a good understanding of each area.
All concepts are described in a simple and understandable way, such as antimatter being the same particles of matter with opposite charge. More complex concepts are explained with fun facts to help the reader: the temperature of the quark–gluon plasma is 100,000 times hotter than the centre of the Sun, and the time it takes to record a video call of 1 exabyte is 237,823 years. Each description is accompanied by a photograph, logo or simulation representing the described concept, which makes the book visually attractive for the reader.
Born at the start of the global pandemic, the A-to-Z of CERN arose from the need to tell science and technology stories at CERN when internships and summer lectures were either limited or cancelled. Overall, it provides an informative and entertaining glossary of CERN and particle physics in general, peppered with some general physics and technology concepts, such as the SI-unit system and even some non-CERN experiments, such as the former ZEUS experiment at DESY.
