Product Description

The Big Bang, the birth of the universe, was a singular event. All of the matter of the universe was concentrated at a single point, with temperatures so high that even the familiar protons and neutrons of atoms did not yet exist, but rather were replaced by a swirling maelstrom of energy, matter and antimatter. Exotic quarks and leptons flickered briefly into existence, before merging back into the energy sea.

This book explains the fascinating world of quarks and leptons and the forces that govern their behavior. Told from an experimental physicist’s perspective, it forgoes mathematical complexity, using instead particularly accessible figures and apt analogies. In addition to the story of quarks and leptons, which are regarded as well-accepted fact, the author who is a leading researcher at the world’s highest energy particle physics laboratory also discusses mysteries on both the experimental and theoretical frontier, before tying it all together with the exciting field of cosmology and indeed the birth of the universe itself.

The text spans the tiny world of the quark to the depths of the universe with exceptional clarity. The casual student of science will appreciate the careful distinction between what is known (quarks, leptons and antimatter), what is suspected (Higgs bosons, neutrino oscillations and the reason why the universe has so little antimatter) and what is merely dreamed (supersymmetry, superstrings and extra dimensions). Included is an unprecedented chapter explaining the accelerators and detectors of modern particle physics experiments. The chapter discussing the hunt for the Higgs boson, currently consuming the efforts of nearly 1000 physicists, lends drama that only big-stakes science can give. Understanding the Universe leaves the reader with a deep appreciation of the fascinating particle realm and just how much it determines the rich beauty of our universe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #580917 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Lincoln, a high energy physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), has an infectious love for physics. He also occasionally demonstrates a humorous writing style that successfully engages the reader. On the whole, however, his efforts to explain the basics of quantum physics to the lay reader do not succeed because the material he covers is often too complex to be presented in such a superficial manner, despite the book's 600-plus pages. Readers will be lost in a sea of subatomic particles-bosons, leptons, fermions, hadrons, gluons, baryons- and they'll be frustrated by the constant refrain that the material is complicated, but they can turn to the works in the bibliography for more detail. Lincoln does do a credible job of explaining some of the early history of physics, and he brings to life some of the excitement associated with multimillion-dollar physics experiments being done worldwide. He also touches on many of the unresolved mysteries of physics: why there appears to be so much more matter than antimatter, whether there are many more than three spatial dimensions and what constitutes the "missing" matter in the universe, to name just a few. By attempting to cover it all, Lincoln produces a very large but largely unsatisfying volume.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Lincoln's humor and personal tales do much to convey the flavor of modern particle physics research. -- Symmetry

About the Author
Don Lincoln is an experimental physicist on the scientific staff of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the world’s premier particle physics laboratory. Born in 1964, he received his PhD in 1993 from Rice University, where he was the Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellow. He then moved to the University of Michigan as a Research Fellow, where he joined the DØ experiment, one of two large international collaborations where the highest-energy research is performed. In 1998, he joined the Fermilab scientific staff. During his tenure at DØ, he has been responsible for a number of multi-million-dollar and very high-tech projects. It was during this time that the DØ experiment (along with its sister experiment) announced the exciting discovery of the top quark. A prolific author, Don has co-authored over 120 scientific papers in prestigious journals.

Don has a passion for public speaking and conveying the meaning of cutting-edge physics research to various audiences. While he has delivered scientific lectures on three continents and in many countries, he has also given over 100 talks to a wide range of audiences, including nonphysicist collegiates, teachers, children of all ages, and many adult groups. He is as comfortable speaking to an audience of hundreds as he is to an audience of one. He is heavily involved with the Fermilab Education and Public Outreach programs and feels that it is the duty of any practising scientist to share the excitement of their research with others.

Customer Reviews

A fascinating and informative introduction
Knowledgably written Don Lincoln (an experimental physicist and staff member of the world's premier particle physics laboratory), Understanding The Universe From Quarks To The Cosmos provides the nonspecialist general reader with a fascinating and informative introduction to the complex world of quarks, leptons, and the forces that govern particle physics. Written especially to introduce lay readers to subatomic mysteries, Understanding The Universe From Quarks To The Cosmos discusses the Big Bang, known and proven theories, suspected hypothesese that have yet to be firmly established, cutting-edge discussions of modern particle physics experiments, and much more. Black-and-white diagrams help illustrate the amazing ideas presented with a minimum of mathematics and a maximum of awe.

This Book Makes Learning Fun
A wonderful book.
Brilliant, engaging descriptions abound from cover to cover.
The amount of learning is tremendous, and the style, layout, and flow have perfect timing.
It is a very accessible introduction to Particle Physics understanding for novice science want-a-bees like me, but I'm absolute positive it would make a exemplary text for high-school and early college students.
Don Lincoln explains brilliantly our current cutting-edge knowledge, but while doing so, he adroitly describes, with much humor and anecdote, how we know it (the nuts and bolts), making the learning feel more real, and a lot more fun.
His descriptions of, and enthusiasm for, the tools of physics (the accelerators and experiments) and the excitement of discovery, are quite infectious.
I find that his down-to-earth, humorous analogies relating English and visuals to math were of the greatest benefit to me.
There's a heck of a lot of great humor all along the way. And that makes you smile a lot. And laugh a lot. And that makes it a lot easier to learn a lot!!! Very pleasant and entertaining to read.
There is an appeal to the anti-scientific-research hecklers in the epilogue that managed to give me goose bumps (ala Sagan and Dawkins).
I had a tremendous amount of fun reading it. I do Understand the Universe much, much better now.

At the Cuttting Edge of Particle Physics
Don Lincoln has done an excellent job writing about particle physics for the ordinary person. The book's title is "Understanding the Universe from Quarks to the Cosmos". The book's length is 567 pages including the index. Don has included a glossary of terms and a bibliography which pleased me.

This book was unavailable in Australia but Amazon had some copies. I have a college degree in science and I purchased the book to find out what was happenning at the cutting edge of particle physics. The book was published in 2004 so things have moved on a bit since then. For example Fermilab will aim its neutrino beams at a new complex being built at Ash River on the US Canadian border. They have been aiming the beam at the detector located underground in the old Soudan iron mine 720 miles north north east of Fermilab as explained in the book. This will give the neutrinos more time to oscillate before they are detected.

Unfortunately the Large Hadron Collider at CERN had a false start in September 2007 and it seems that Fermilab has not detected any evidence for the Higgs boson. So we're all waiting impatiently for news.

Don gives a basic explanation of superstring theory in Chapter 8 titled Exotic Physics (The Next Frontier).

I enjoyed reading this well crafted book and I learnt a lot.

Understanding the Universe: From Quarks to the Cosmos

Robert Hillier