The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question? is a 1993 popular science book by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi. The book provides a brief history of particle physics, starting with the Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Democritus, and continuing through Isaac Newton, Roger J. Boscovich, Michael Faraday, and Ernest Rutherford. This leads in to a discussion of the development of quantum physics in the 20th century.

PropertyValue
dbpedia-owl:Book/country
dbpedia-owl:Book/isbn
  • ISBN 0-385-31211-3 (Original hardcover)
dbpedia-owl:Book/mediaType
dbpedia-owl:Work/author
dbpedia-owl:Work/genre
dbpedia-owl:Work/language
dbpedia-owl:Work/publisher
dbpedia-owl:author
dbpedia-owl:country
dbpedia-owl:genre
dbpedia-owl:isbn
  • ISBN 0-385-31211-3 (Original hardcover)
dbpedia-owl:language
dbpedia-owl:mediaType
dbpedia-owl:publisher
dbpprop:abstract
  • The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question? is a 1993 popular science book by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi. The book provides a brief history of particle physics, starting with the Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Democritus, and continuing through Isaac Newton, Roger J. Boscovich, Michael Faraday, and Ernest Rutherford. This leads in to a discussion of the development of quantum physics in the 20th century. In a nod to the philosophy of atomism, Lederman follows the convention of using the word "atom" to refer to atoms in their modern sense as the smallest unit of any chemical element, and "a-tom" to refer to the actual basic indivisible particles of matter, the quarks and leptons. The book is written in a lighthearted tone, with numerous jokes and humorous anecdotes. The particle identified in the title is the Higgs boson proposed by the physicist Peter Higgs, and Gerald Guralnik, C. R. Hagen, and Tom Kibble, and François Englert and Robert Brout . Higgs actually joked that Lederman originally wished to label this particle as "the goddamn particle". In addition, the "The God Particle" is written for anyone interested in learning about particle physics. And no math is required. The history of the contributions made by the philosphers, and then the scientists, of physics, from ancient Greece to present day 1992 is interspersed with Dr. Lederman's personal experience in the field of particle physics. This book shares the view of the challenges encountered by the physicists involved in the science of particle physics with the 20th century's powerful accelerators. The reader gets to participate in looking at some of the theories and experiments of the past centuries, which led to today's current understanding of matter. Furthermore, the reader can develop an understanding of the 20th century Standard Model and Quantum Mechanics. The God Particle has a recurring theme of what Dr. Leon Lederman calls "the history of atomism", and many sections of the chapters in the book are focused through this lens. In the end, it is also the search for the God Particle.
dbpprop:author
dbpprop:country
dbpprop:ctopic
  • Expanding universe
dbpprop:genre
dbpprop:hasPhotoCollection
dbpprop:isbn
  • ISBN 0-385-31211-3 (Original hardcover)
dbpprop:language
dbpprop:mediaType
  • Print
dbpprop:name
  • The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?
dbpprop:portalProperty
  • Physics
  • Stylised_Lithium_Atom.svg
dbpprop:publisher
dbpprop:reference
dbpprop:releaseDate
  • 1993 (xsd:integer)
dbpprop:wikiPageUsesTemplate
rdf:type
rdfs:comment
  • The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question? is a 1993 popular science book by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi. The book provides a brief history of particle physics, starting with the Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Democritus, and continuing through Isaac Newton, Roger J. Boscovich, Michael Faraday, and Ernest Rutherford. This leads in to a discussion of the development of quantum physics in the 20th century.
rdfs:label
  • The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?
owl:sameAs
skos:subject
foaf:name
  • The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?
foaf:page
is dbpprop:redirect of