Smashing Physics
Inside the Discovery of the Higgs Boson
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Keeble
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By:
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Jon Butterworth
About this listen
The first insider account of the work at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the discovery of the Higgs particle - and what it all means for our understanding of the laws of nature.
The discovery of the Higgs boson made headlines around the world. Two scientists, Peter Higgs and François Englert, whose theories predicted its existence, shared a Nobel Prize. The discovery was the culmination of the largest experiment ever run, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
But what really is a Higgs boson and what does it do? How was it found? And how has its discovery changed our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature? And what did it feel like to be part of it?
Jon Butterworth is one of the leading physicists at CERN and this book is the first popular inside account of the hunt for the Higgs. It is a story of incredible scientific collaboration, inspiring technological innovation and ground-breaking science. It is also the story of what happens when the world's most expensive experiment blows up, of neutrinos that may or may not travel faster than light, and the reality of life in an underground bunker in Switzerland.
This book will also leave you with a working knowledge of the new physics and what the discovery of the Higgs particle means for how we define the laws of nature. It will take you to the cutting edge of modern scientific thinking.
Jon Butterworth is one of the leading physicists on the Large Hadron Collider and is Head of Physics and Astronomy at UCL. He writes the popular Life & Physics blog for the Guardian and has written articles for a range of publications including the Guardian and New Scientist.
Jon has appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Material World, The Infinite Money Cage, BBC Newsnight, Horizon, Channel 4 News, and Al Jazeera. He frequently gives public lectures including at the Welcome Institute and the Royal Institution.
©2014 Jon Butterworth (P)2014 Audible StudiosListeners also enjoyed...
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Reentry
- SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets That Launched a Second Space Age
- By: Eric Berger
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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From launchpad explosions to a pernicious cricket infestation to the demanding management style of Musk himself, the rise of SpaceX was beset with challenges and far from inevitable. Find out how the startup beat the odds and flew high enough to outpace their rivals... and where they're going next.
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Appreciated the engineering details
- By Will on 10-19-24
By: Eric Berger
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Inspired
- How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, Second Edition
- By: Marty Cagan
- Narrated by: Marty Cagan
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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How do today's most successful tech companies - Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla - design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently from the vast majority of tech companies. In Inspired, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides listeners with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love.
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Great book, terrible audio wanted to ask a refund
- By Srikanth Ramanujam on 11-15-18
By: Marty Cagan
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The Butchering Art
- Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
- By: Lindsey Fitzharris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of 19th-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters - no place for the squeamish - and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. They were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. A young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.
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Not one boring moment!
- By WRWF on 12-22-17
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Cosmic Queries
- StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
- By: James Trefil, Lindsey N. Walker - editor, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In this illuminating audiobook, Tyson and coauthor James Trefil, a renowned physicist and science popularizer, take on the big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia - How did life begin? What is our place in the universe? Are we alone? - and provide answers based on the most current data, observations, and theories.
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Not worth it
- By Daniel Earl on 03-15-21
By: James Trefil, and others
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Ranger Confidential
- Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Julia Motyka
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
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Depressing from Cover to Cover
- By Drew (@drewsant) on 04-13-15
By: Andrea Lankford
What listeners say about Smashing Physics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Frank
- 07-24-17
Smashing Good Book!
Would you consider the audio edition of Smashing Physics to be better than the print version?
I did not read the print version.
Who was your favorite character and why?
This does not seem applicable to this book.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The story about the children filing into the pool, swimming around, getting out, and the whole event being a surreal moment. I enjoyed the humorous and human interludes that were perfectly intertwined with a very dry and serious topic such as particle physics.
Any additional comments?
Fantastic book! As a mathematics major in college and someone that's studied physics, this was a very interesting and enjoyable listen.
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- christopher
- 10-02-17
Outstanding
Mr. Butterworth has a nice folksy way of writing, excellently captured by Mr. Keeble. And this is the very best sort of science writing. Butterworth makes a heroic effort to make comprehensible to the layman what is extremely complex. Many times I was out of my depth, but on the other hand, never did I feel that Butterworth was talking down to me. There are of course many successful scientific journalists, some better than others, but very few scientist of Mr. Butterworth's cutting edge caliber who can write. My guess is that his insights and descriptions have an authenticity that the journalist cannot hope to emulate. I have a nodding acquaintance with the subject matter and I feel that I have benefited not only from hearing the story but also from being exposed to Butterworth's observations about the relationships between investigative science on the one hand and the academic scientific community, the government, the press and the general public on the other. I do believe that a more solid ground in nuclear physics would have helped appreciate the excitements and disappointments involved. I also think this is not a book for the complete layman. But for me, it was an opportunity to bring myself up to date with developments even if my understanding was somewhat superficial, and it was an opportunity to enjoy Mr. Butterworth's engaging style.
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- Chris N
- 09-04-15
Interesting...but I didn't get as much as i hoped.
The booked lacked an easy to understand flow.
The author mixed up who the audience is. Some of the book is very simple (too simple) and the other is very complex (i have no idea whats going on).
I had a few moments where I was able to connect the dots on other information I knew about CERN and particle physics. Would not recommend making e this your intro to quantum related stuff.
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- Fiezullah
- 05-21-17
Detailed explanation
Where does Smashing Physics rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Very high
What was one of the most memorable moments of Smashing Physics?
Explains in detail the issues of quantum physics
What about Jonathan Keeble’s performance did you like?
The beginning wasn't too comprehensible, but got a lot better closer to the middle
Any additional comments?
Sometimes, these books are more about social issues of the discovery, thought this book had some, but most of it was explaining the science behind the discovery
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- Matt Maxwell
- 01-08-21
Wonderfully Told Story of the Search for the Higgs Boson
Jon, does a wonderful job of telling the story of the Search for the Higgs Boson. By including a splash of personal experiences, physics background, all intertwined with the chronological steps to finding the Higgs in the LHC, he was able to keep my attention throughout the book and even had me laughing several times with that British humor.
Well done Jon!
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- DanJMartin
- 08-22-15
A fun brain workout for me!
I'm sure I could listen to this about a dozen times before the law of diminishing returns takes effect. I have learned much from this book. The author's sense of humor kept my attention throughout.
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- Petr Kubat
- 07-26-17
Great book
Story of the LHC and the search for higgs boson. Some parts were too much for me, as a physics layman, but I liked it anyhow.
Narrator was superb. Excellent work with voice.
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- Ellisse
- 02-19-16
a lovely listen
well written, fairly easy to understand, and enjoyable to listen to. author explains complex thinking in a way that most common people will understand. narrator gives wonderful expression to the story.
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- M. C.
- 05-11-16
excellently written and told story
esoteric material story told very well. author wrote a good story. story read very well. no errors heard, and lots of quite technical words used correctly with the correct emphasis. not all that common for technical words to be spoken and emphasized correctly throughout a complex story. helps that the author and performer are both Brits!. Keebles diction is excellent
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- Wurm
- 10-29-14
Go inside the LHC
A view from an experimental physicist inside the Large Hadron Collider. An excellent peek into the miracle of modern particle physics.
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2 people found this helpful