About this item
Since 2008 scientists have conducted experiments in a hyperenergized, 17-mile supercollider beneath the border of France and Switzerland. The Large Hadron Collider (or what scientists call "the LHC") is one of the wonders of the modern world -- a highly sophisticated scientific instrument designed to recreate in miniature the conditions of the universe as they existed in the microseconds following the big bang. Among many notable LHC discoveries, one led to the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for revealing evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle. Picking up where he left off in The Quantum Frontier, physicist Don Lincoln shares an insider's account of the LHC's operational history and gives readers everything they need to become well informed on this marvel of technology. Writing about the LHC's early days, Lincoln offers keen insight into an accident that derailed the operation nine days after the collider's 2008 debut. A faulty solder joint started a chain reaction that caused a massive explosion, damaged 50 superconducting magnets, and vaporized large sections of the conductor. The crippled LHC lay dormant for over a year, while technical teams repaired the damage.Lincoln devotes an entire chapter to the Higgs boson and Higgs field, using several extended analogies to help explain the importance of these concepts to particle physics. In the final chapter, he describes what the discovery of the Higgs boson tells us about our current understanding of basic physics and how the discovery now keeps scientists awake over a nagging inconsistency in their favorite theory.As accessible as it is fascinating, The Large Hadron Collider reveals the inner workings of this masterful achievement of technology, along with the mind-blowing discoveries that will keep it at the center of the scientific frontier for the foreseeable future.
About the Author
Don Lincoln holds a Ph.D. in physics from Rice University. He is a senior scientist at Fermilab, the US' premier particle physics laboratory. He splits his research time between data using the Fermilab Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider, a new accelerator based at CERN in Europe. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame. He has published 500 scientific papers, three popular physics books and an occasional popular science article in magazines such as "Scientific American" and "Analog: Science Fiction and Fact." His scientific accomplishments include participating in the discovery of the top quark and the Higgs boson.He is first and foremost a researcher. Understanding the fundamental nature of reality is his passion. However he is also an author. He thinks it is his responsibility to share the excitement he feels when he or one of his colleagues discover something entirely new about the universe. Slowly, in fits and starts, with an occasional backslide, our understanding of our universe grows. Our species' long-held goal becomes more likely with each discovery.Neither of his parents went to college (in fact, one did not graduate high school) . However, his mother was especially encouraging that he read and learn. And read he did. As a child, he mostly read science fiction...a genera which he still enjoys, although he has a dwindling amount of time in which to indulge. However as he grew older, he became aware of popular science writing, of George Gamow and Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov and Stephen Jay Gould. And it was they who opened his eyes to the beauty of the natural world. In some respects, his popular science writing is an attempt to pay a long-held debt. He is sure that somewhere out there, there is a child or young adult of modest circumstances who only needs an introduction to science to have a new vista open to them, to show them a new life. He hopes that someday one of his books has that effect.You can become a fan of Don on his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Dr.Don.Lincoln
