Book review: Massive, by Ian Sample

The story of the hunt for the missing piece in the particle physics jigsaw can be imagined as the rush of scientists trying to barge through the same door at the same time all trying to get there first.

In the '60s, three independent groups came up with the same theories about mass simultaneously and since then rival factions have sought to be the first to claim proof for the Higgs.

The fact that Scottish theoretical physicist Peter Higgs lent his name to the elusive particle is less about lonesome pioneering and more that his name had the qualities of simplicity and ease of use.

In total contrast, then, to the hunt for the particle that he theorised into being. Thus far, it has inspired almost 50 years of thought at the limits of human endeavour occupying thousands of scientists and engineers and culminating in the latest and most spectacular attempt - the Large Hadron Collider in Cern.

Even now the "God particle" remains damnably elusive.

Stephen Hawking has a $100 bet that it will not be found due to the destructive power of microscopic black holes. Holger Bech Nielsen has postulated that its uncovering is such an aberration that warnings will be sent back through time to prevent its discovery.

The energy required (physical, electrical, mental) may appear like staging a nuclear war on a pinhead but, as this book says, the electron was dismissed as pointless before it brought light, heat and TV into people's homes.

While the benefits of the Higgs are more nebulous, one theory has suggested that it holds the key to other worlds in other dimensions. Fanciful - but not wholly ridiculous in the bizarro realm of the quantum.

Journalist Ian Sample has talked to the key players and captures the excitement of this tumultuous rolling revolution.

He shies away from equations but painlessly interweaves complexity, allowing the reader to wrestle with the theories they can overcome but sidestep the concepts that require head-scratching specialist knowledge.

This is a strangely beautiful and moving story that revels in the wonders of human curiosity.

– From July 2010