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Overview
This is the absorbing account of one of the twentieth century's most revolutionary discoveries -- our first encounter with an essential mystery of the universe. Told by an active participant in this discovery, it is the saga of the search for quarks, the elementary particles lurking within the protons and neutrons of atomic nuclei, which constitute the fundamental basis of matter. Michael Riordan, physicist and author, was present at the key moments in this story.
He brings to life the personalities, triumphs and failures of this true-life scientific detective story, vividly portraying the soaring ambitions and clashing egos of modern physicists at work, vying for the coveted Nobel Prize. The Hunting of the Quark gives readers an insider's perspective on how frontier science actually occurs -- the great leaps of imagination, the blind alleys followed, and the final resolution of the mysteries that had to be overcome on the road to unity. Like James Watson's famous account The Double Helix, it has the immediacy and excitement of being on the trail of a monumental discovery -- leading to a striking new scientific paradigm, the Standard Model of particle physics.
"Many books on the 20th-century revolution in particle physics focus on the startling new notions introduced. Not as much attention is paid to those who dirtied their hands, nursing crotchety accelerator instruments, in order to prove the conjectures. Mr. Riordan, a physicist affiliated with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, presents an authoritative account of this less-told tale. A veteran quark-stalker himself, he deftly combines his technical expertise with a journalistic flair, personally acquainting us with many of the men and women who joined in the hunt... Mr. Riordan enables us to behold exactly how physicists work and the tortuous paths that experimentalists must travel to gain just a scrap of insight into the puzzling laws of nature." -- Marcia Bartusiak, The New York Times
"A great book that I couldn't put down even though I knew the plot." -- Sheldon Glashow, Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Harvard University, Nobel prize in physics (1979)
"Machines two miles long, pieces of matter elusive as lost souls, the likes of Richard Feynman 'snooping around,' reputations made and lost on the contumacious front lines of science -- what a wonderful mix for a book. Particle physics has seemed arcane, the quark business most of all. Michael Riordan, who lives the story he tells, makes it lively, literate and accessible." -- Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb
"Mr. Riordan... understands the physics, but he also has an eye for the human comedy associated with the work. The result is a fine book on elementary particle physics." -- Jeremy Bernstein, The New Yorker
"Riordan was an active participant in the search for the enigmatic quark, and his story reflects the excitement, passion and revelation of peeking into nature's most elusive realm." -- Rudy Rucker, San Francisco Chronicle
"An enjoyable book with enough good explanations and clear discussions to make it well worth reading both for the expert in modern high-energy physics and for the general reader." -- Alexander Firestone, Physics Today
"A physicist with first-hand experience chasing quarks at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) relates the high points of the search for those elusive subatomic particles... Riordan builds a suspenseful tale around the neck-and-neck race between MIT/Brookhaven (Sam Ting) and Stanford (Burton Richter) in discovering the J/psi particle... Riordan's epilogue is eloquent... Readers will... turn to Riordan for a close-in view and astute commentary on a pivotal period in 20th-century physics." -- Kirkus
He brings to life the personalities, triumphs and failures of this true-life scientific detective story, vividly portraying the soaring ambitions and clashing egos of modern physicists at work, vying for the coveted Nobel Prize. The Hunting of the Quark gives readers an insider's perspective on how frontier science actually occurs -- the great leaps of imagination, the blind alleys followed, and the final resolution of the mysteries that had to be overcome on the road to unity. Like James Watson's famous account The Double Helix, it has the immediacy and excitement of being on the trail of a monumental discovery -- leading to a striking new scientific paradigm, the Standard Model of particle physics.
"Many books on the 20th-century revolution in particle physics focus on the startling new notions introduced. Not as much attention is paid to those who dirtied their hands, nursing crotchety accelerator instruments, in order to prove the conjectures. Mr. Riordan, a physicist affiliated with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, presents an authoritative account of this less-told tale. A veteran quark-stalker himself, he deftly combines his technical expertise with a journalistic flair, personally acquainting us with many of the men and women who joined in the hunt... Mr. Riordan enables us to behold exactly how physicists work and the tortuous paths that experimentalists must travel to gain just a scrap of insight into the puzzling laws of nature." -- Marcia Bartusiak, The New York Times
"A great book that I couldn't put down even though I knew the plot." -- Sheldon Glashow, Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Harvard University, Nobel prize in physics (1979)
"Machines two miles long, pieces of matter elusive as lost souls, the likes of Richard Feynman 'snooping around,' reputations made and lost on the contumacious front lines of science -- what a wonderful mix for a book. Particle physics has seemed arcane, the quark business most of all. Michael Riordan, who lives the story he tells, makes it lively, literate and accessible." -- Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb
"Mr. Riordan... understands the physics, but he also has an eye for the human comedy associated with the work. The result is a fine book on elementary particle physics." -- Jeremy Bernstein, The New Yorker
"Riordan was an active participant in the search for the enigmatic quark, and his story reflects the excitement, passion and revelation of peeking into nature's most elusive realm." -- Rudy Rucker, San Francisco Chronicle
"An enjoyable book with enough good explanations and clear discussions to make it well worth reading both for the expert in modern high-energy physics and for the general reader." -- Alexander Firestone, Physics Today
"A physicist with first-hand experience chasing quarks at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) relates the high points of the search for those elusive subatomic particles... Riordan builds a suspenseful tale around the neck-and-neck race between MIT/Brookhaven (Sam Ting) and Stanford (Burton Richter) in discovering the J/psi particle... Riordan's epilogue is eloquent... Readers will... turn to Riordan for a close-in view and astute commentary on a pivotal period in 20th-century physics." -- Kirkus
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940161587850 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Plunkett Lake Press |
| Publication date: | 08/13/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Michael Riordan, a physicist and historian of physics and technology, earned his PhD in physics in 1973 from MIT, where he worked as postdoctoral researcher on the team credited with the discovery of quarks. He pursued research in experimental high-energy physics at the University of Rochester and at SLAC in the 1980s, before taking up the history of physics and technology during the 1990s. He was Adjunct Professor of Physics at UC-Santa Cruz and Lecturer in the Department of History at Stanford University.
Riordan’s books are The Hunting of the Quark, for which he won the 1988 Science Communication Award of the American Institute of Physics (AIP); with Lillian Hoddeson, Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age, a definitive history of the invention of the transistor which won the inaugural Sally Hacker Prize of the Society for the History of Technology in 1999; as coauthor, The Solar Home Book: Heating, Cooling and Designing with the Sun; and with David N. Schramm, The Shadows of Creation: Dark Matter and the Structure of the Universe. Riordan was also an editor of The Rise of the Standard Model: Particle Physics in the 1960s and 1970s.
His articles, essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union, Newark Star-Ledger, Seattle Times, American Scientist, Harvard Business Review, New Scientist, Physics World, Science, Scientific American, and Technology Review. He has written on the history of semiconductor technology in Physics Today, IEEE Spectrum, Interface, and Reviews of Modern Physics.
A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Riordan served on its governing body and as the Chair of its Forum on the History of Physics. He led a group of scholars who wrote Tunnel Visions, a book about the history of the Superconducting Super Collider. In connection with research for this book, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1999. In recognition of his achievements in communicating modern physics and its relationship to the wider culture, Riordan received the Andrew W. Gemant Award in 2002 from AIP.
Riordan’s books are The Hunting of the Quark, for which he won the 1988 Science Communication Award of the American Institute of Physics (AIP); with Lillian Hoddeson, Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age, a definitive history of the invention of the transistor which won the inaugural Sally Hacker Prize of the Society for the History of Technology in 1999; as coauthor, The Solar Home Book: Heating, Cooling and Designing with the Sun; and with David N. Schramm, The Shadows of Creation: Dark Matter and the Structure of the Universe. Riordan was also an editor of The Rise of the Standard Model: Particle Physics in the 1960s and 1970s.
His articles, essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union, Newark Star-Ledger, Seattle Times, American Scientist, Harvard Business Review, New Scientist, Physics World, Science, Scientific American, and Technology Review. He has written on the history of semiconductor technology in Physics Today, IEEE Spectrum, Interface, and Reviews of Modern Physics.
A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Riordan served on its governing body and as the Chair of its Forum on the History of Physics. He led a group of scholars who wrote Tunnel Visions, a book about the history of the Superconducting Super Collider. In connection with research for this book, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1999. In recognition of his achievements in communicating modern physics and its relationship to the wider culture, Riordan received the Andrew W. Gemant Award in 2002 from AIP.
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