1: What is matter made of? 2: What about the Higgs boson? 3: Accelertors and detector, the essential tools 4: The discovery of the Higgs boson 5: The dark side of the Universe 6: Going beyond the Standard Model: calling SUSY to the rescue 7: What does fundamental research put on our plate? 8: CERN experiments: a unique management and cooperation model 9: Diversity in science 10: What could th next big discoveries be?
Pauline Gagnon was born in Quebec, Canada. After teaching physics
for a few years in local colleges, she moved to California, where
she completed a PhD in particle physics at University of California
in Santa Cruz in 1993. She then started doing research at CERN, the
European laboratory for particle physics, and was a senior research
scientist at Indiana University until she retired in 2016. Since
2012, Pauline Gagnon has devoted all her time to popular
science
activities. In her own words, particle physics is too much fun to
leave it only to physicists!
`Pauline Gagnon tells the wonderful scientific adventure of CERN
that led to confirming the existence of the Higgs boson and that
should bring a revolution in physics in elucidating big enigmas in
the coming years such as the mystery of dark matter or the
disappearance of antimatter.'
Pauline Gravel, science writer, Le Devoir newspaper, Montreal
`Pauline Gagnon's book is a wonderfully detailed and comprehensive
look at how scientists have pieced together our best understanding
of the natural world, from accelerators to cosmology. If you want
to know how particle physicists really work and think, this is a
great place to start.'
Sean Carroll, author of The Particle at the End of the Universe
`I am fascinated. You should read it too; everybody can read it and
understand it. Madame Gagnon has a knack for finding very efficient
images to make us understand extremely complex phenomena.'
Catherine Perrin, host of Médium Large on Radio-Canada
`Pauline Gagnon is an inside-woman of the particle-physics world -
and this excellent book shows just that. The comprehensive account
of where particle physics stands today is peppered by colourful
metaphors that make even the most complex concepts accessible to
everyone. On top of that, Gagnon gives the reader a glimpse into
the inner workings of CERN and thoroughly describes how its huge
international collaborations actually make new discoveries. This
is
a book that admirably delivers on the promise of taking the general
reader seriously and a timely must-read if you want to get up to
speed with Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider.'
Leonie Mueck, Senior Editor, Nature
`During the two-year search for Higgs in the LHC, Dr. Gagnon's
lively and insightful blog was a key source for those outside the
physics community who needed to keep track of the process and have
it explained in layperson' terms. Her excellent book will now be
essential reading for those seeking to understand why the discovery
was important, and what might come next from the LHC.'
Robert Evans, former Reuter correspondent in Geneva
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