IAN SAMPLE, aged 38, is an award-winning science correspondent at the Guardian newspaper in London. He has won several journalism prizes, including two from the Association of British Science Writers, which named him investigative journalist of the year in 2005. He joined the Guardian in 2003 after four years as a reporter, feature writer and news editor at New Scientist magazine. He has a PhD in biomedical science from Queen Mary, University of London. He was born in Oxfordshire and lives in London.

MASSIVE
The Hunt for the God Particle...
Or How Nature Brings Weight to the World

 

A book that does for physics what Moondust did for lunar travel, mixing cultural history, biography  and reportage, but underpinned with science.

 

Over the centuries scientists have refined their understanding of exactly what makes up the universe. Since the 1960s the existence of different particles, each now thought to be fundamental, has been postulated and observed. So far physicists have seen 16 of them. The problem is that none of these particles confers mass on the others - yet we know from nature that something must do this.

The likeliest explanation is that there is a 17th fundamental particle that has not yet been seen. According to this theory, an invisible field fills the whole of space. When different particles interact with this field, they gain mass, much as anything moving through treacle gets slowed down by it. The larger the interaction, the more mass the particle would have. The proposal was first made in the 1960s by Peter Higgs of the University of Edinburgh. The Higgs field cannot be observed directly, yet, as with other fields, there should be a particle associated with it that can be detected. In this case, it is a particle called the 'Higgs boson' - commonly called the 'God particle'. Unfortunately no one has ever seen one.

That may soon change. In MASSIVE, Ian Sample tells the story of the epic quest for the origins of mass that is about to reach its climax inside a particle accelerator deep  underground at CERN, the European Laboratory for Nuclear Research near Geneva. The most complex scientific instrument ever built, the Large Hadron Collider was switched on in September 2008 amidst a media storm. Shortly after, it was switched off again, owing to damage caused by a short circuit. The setback is painful and embarrassing for those involved, but scientists believe they will find the God particle now the machine has started working again - a hope boosted when in March 2010 it smashed the record for the highest energy particle collisions achieved in a laboratory.

Although this is the biggest scientific adventure of modern times, until now there has been no single sweeping historical narrative that brings together the science, culture and politics for the general reader. Drawing on his interviews with Peter Higgs and other scientists involved in the hunt for the God particle, Ian Sample tells a dramatic and surprising story of radical new theories, ingenious technologies and chance events; of the clash of personalities and motivations; of close collaboration and intense rivalry; of big business, international competition and public fears. What's more, he also looks to the future, explaining the profound scientific, technological and philosophical implications of the discovery - be it one God particle, many different types, or none at all.

 

Publisher: Virgin (UK)/Basic (US)
Publication: 17 June 2010
Status: Finished manuscript
Length: 320 pages

All rights available excluding:
UK & Commonwealth, US, Greece (Travlos)