From molecules to stars, much of the cosmic canvas can be painted in brushstrokes of primary color: the protons, neutrons, and electrons we know so well. But for meticulous detail, we have to dip into exotic hues-leptons, mesons, hadrons, quarks. Bringing particle physics to life as few authors can, Jeremy Bernstein here unveils nature in all its subatomic splendor.
In this graceful account, Bernstein guides us through high-energy physics from the early twentieth century to the present, including such highlights as the newly discovered Higgs boson. Beginning with Ernest Rutherford's 1911 explanation of the nucleus, a model of atomic structure emerged that sufficed until the 1930s, when new particles began to be theorized and experimentally confirmed. In the postwar period, the subatomic world exploded in a blaze of unexpected findings leading to the theory of the quark, in all its strange and charmed variations. An eyewitness to developments at Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Bernstein laces his story with piquant anecdotes of such luminaries as Wolfgang Pauli, Murray Gell-Mann, and Sheldon Glashow.
Surveying the dizzying landscape of contemporary physics, Bernstein remains optimistic about our ability to comprehend the secrets of the cosmos-even as its mysteries deepen. We now know that over eighty percent of the universe consists of matter we have never identified or detected. A Palette of Particles draws readers into the excitement of a field where the more we discover, the less we seem to know.
From molecules to stars, much of the cosmic canvas can be painted in brushstrokes of primary color: the protons, neutrons, and electrons we know so well. But for meticulous detail, we have to dip into exotic hues-leptons, mesons, hadrons, quarks. Bringing particle physics to life as few authors can, Jeremy Bernstein here unveils nature in all its subatomic splendor.
In this graceful account, Bernstein guides us through high-energy physics from the early twentieth century to the present, including such highlights as the newly discovered Higgs boson. Beginning with Ernest Rutherford's 1911 explanation of the nucleus, a model of atomic structure emerged that sufficed until the 1930s, when new particles began to be theorized and experimentally confirmed. In the postwar period, the subatomic world exploded in a blaze of unexpected findings leading to the theory of the quark, in all its strange and charmed variations. An eyewitness to developments at Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Bernstein laces his story with piquant anecdotes of such luminaries as Wolfgang Pauli, Murray Gell-Mann, and Sheldon Glashow.
Surveying the dizzying landscape of contemporary physics, Bernstein remains optimistic about our ability to comprehend the secrets of the cosmos-even as its mysteries deepen. We now know that over eighty percent of the universe consists of matter we have never identified or detected. A Palette of Particles draws readers into the excitement of a field where the more we discover, the less we seem to know.
This is a superb little book. No one, with the possible exception of Freeman Dyson, writes so gracefully about physics and its recent history, or so effectively inserts himself into the story without self-advertisement. -- Kenneth W. Ford, author of 101 Quantum Questions
Jeremy Bernstein is the author of many books on science for the general reader, including Plutonium: A History of the World’s Most Dangerous Element and Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma. He is a former staff writer for the New Yorker.
Physicist Jeremy Bernstein pays homage to the subatomic, tinting
particles according to era of discovery. So electrons, neutrons and
neutrinos are assigned primary colors; the muons through to quarks,
secondary colors; and the Higgs boson, neutrino cosmology and
squarks, tachyons and the graviton, pastels. The abstractions come
alive as Bernstein meshes history and science with anecdotes on
everyone from Murray Gell-Mann to Richard Feynman. A colorful
chronicle backed by 50 years in the field.
*Nature*
[Bernstein] brings to this popular history of particle physics the
advantage of having been around when some of that history was being
made. Bernstein, now in his 80s, knew Wolfgang Pauli, who
hypothesized the existence of the neutrino in 1930, a
quarter-century before it could be confirmed...Bernstein covers the
material in a sprightly manner, with only the occasional equation
that will reveal the beauty of it all to the reader who can grasp
it...It turns out that Bernstein's sober and lucid introduction to
particle physics has an almost mystical quality, even if the author
shows no interest in that kind of cosmic thinking.
*Inside Higher Ed*
[Bernstein] pares away most of [the mathematical] complexities,
thereby allowing general readers to share in the excitement of
epoch-making science without shouldering the burden of rigorous
analysis. Not merely lucid, Bernstein's exposition is refreshingly
human, sprinkled with anecdotes revealing the piquant personalities
of pioneering scientists including Einstein, Pauli, and Gell-Mann.
A must-read for armchair physicists.
*Booklist (starred review)*
Overall, it is a pleasant, short read, and a reminder of the past
century-and-a-half crusade at the forefront of modern physics.
*Choice*
Few will resist [Bernstein's] accounts of the history, flamboyant
geniuses (many of whom he knew personally), and basics of protons,
neutrons and electrons that make up the familiar world.
*Kirkus Reviews*
Casting subatomic particles across a metaphorical painter’s
palette, Bernstein blends science, history, and anecdote (including
his own work on staff at Harvard University and Princeton’s
Institute for Advanced Study) to reveal the lively, often
bewildering world of particle physics… Bernstein is an unabashed
romantic, fondly recalling the tabletop experiments of the mid-20th
century (he’s worked in the field for more than 50 years). Later
discoveries, especially the Higgs—coaxed to visibility with
powerful accelerators and computer analysis—remain, in the author’s
estimation, coldly ‘abstract.’ For Bernstein and for readers, the
true wonder lies in how each discovery reveals yet another
mystery.
*Publishers Weekly*
The real appeal of A Palette of Particles…[is] Bernstein’s
infectious love not only for the mysteries of physics but also for
the minds behind the magic. The stories and photos of physicists in
action—especially that of Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr, two
venerable fathers of physics, bent over to watch the spinning of a
child’s top—bring physics to life in a way that equations simply
can’t.
*Bookslut*
This is a superb little book. No one, with the possible exception
of Freeman Dyson, writes so gracefully about physics and its recent
history, or so effectively inserts himself into the story without
self-advertisement.
*Kenneth W. Ford, author of 101 Quantum Questions*
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