How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch
In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang
-
-
5.0 • 6개의 평가
-
-
- US$14.99
출판사 설명
NAMED A BEST SCIENCE BOOK OF 2021 BY KIRKUS * An acclaimed experimental physicist at CERN takes you on an exhilarating search for the most basic building blocks of our universe, and the dramatic quest to unlock their cosmic origins. "A fascinating exploration of how we learned what matter really is, and the journey matter takes from the Big Bang, through exploding stars, ultimately to you and me." (Sean Carroll)
Carl Sagan once quipped, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” But finding the ultimate recipe for apple pie means answering some big questions: What is matter really made of? How did it escape annihilation in the fearsome heat of the Big Bang? And will we ever be able to understand the very first moments of our universe?
In How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch, Harry Cliff—a University of Cambridge particle physicist and researcher on the Large Hadron Collider—sets out in pursuit of answers. He ventures to the largest underground research facility in the world, deep beneath Italy's Gran Sasso mountains, where scientists gaze into the heart of the Sun using the most elusive of particles, the ghostly neutrino. He visits CERN in Switzerland to explore the "Antimatter Factory," where the stuff of science fiction is manufactured daily (and we're close to knowing whether it falls up). And he reveals what the latest data from the Large Hadron Collider may be telling us about the fundamental nature of matter.
Along the way, Cliff illuminates the history of physics, chemistry, and astronomy that brought us to our present understanding—and misunderstandings—of the world, while offering readers a front-row seat to one of the most dramatic intellectual journeys human beings have ever embarked on.
A transfixing deep dive into the origins of our world, How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch examines not just the makeup of our universe, but the awe-inspiring, improbable fact that it exists at all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Physicist Cliff (The Sun) takes readers on an enthusiastic tour of the universe and modern physics in this enlightening survey. Using Carl Sagan's quote, "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe" as a prompt, Cliff describes how the concept of the atom has changed over centuries, profiling relevant thinkers and scientists and giving accessible explanations of their research (Aristotle, for example, dismissed atomic theory in ancient Greece, while John Dalton's work with atoms in the late 18th century caused a stir). Cliff highlights the curiosity behind the experiments and discoveries that led to the modern understanding of the universe, covering the troublesome standard model of particle physics and the cutting-edge labs, "like a Bond villain's mountain lair," where experiments yield clues to the Big Bang and stellar evolution. Cliff describes complex ideas vividly and accessibly, and he's got a knack for making theory exciting. This enlightening and entertaining outing is worth savoring.
