Physics 101 professors will be discussing the impact of this discovery at every major university in the coming weeks including Harvard’s Lisa Randall where it will cost that of a luxury car to learn in 16 weeks what you can learn all you will need to know (unless you work in Geneva) for two dollars and ninety-nine cents.
Higgs Discovery is not a ground breaking novel like her previous books, hell this isn’t really even her own work. What it is is a 70 page explanation of what the atmosphere in the physics community was experiencing primarily from December 2011 until the reveal of discovery on July 4, 2012. Dr. Randall also give her personal feelings and doings during the surrounding time period giving this short-work the same personal touch she has lent to her more comprehensive works.
Since July we have been hearing numerous explanations of what this all means and in the big picture of it all the discovery does not directly affect 99.9% of the population, but it is nice to have an elementary understanding of what the discovery of the Higgs mechanism means to science.
Nearly any publication with a relation to knowledge reported or at least reprinted the essence of this discovery in their words. What you get here is a more in-depth explanation and interpretation from one of the best minds in physics today. While some scientific explanations for the find have been like reading directions across state in a foreign language that you don’t understand, Dr. Randall on the other hand can explain the most difficult topic in a way that we feel proficient and confident enough to explain what we have learned to someone else.
Imagine that most people will just ask a mechanic what is wrong with the car’s engine and how much it will cost to fix it, but there are some who will ask why there is an issue and what process they will take to repair the problem. This book is for those people who want all the meat and substance in between the discovery and where it will take us now.
If you are asking why I would give such a great piece a 4/5 consider this, in a year or when she is feeling there is enough material and understanding of the Higgs to write a full novel-length piece we need to have room to grow and improve on the rating. But this is the best material you will find on the Higgs discovery.
Dr. Randall, thank you for continuing to make science cool for the younger generations.
88 mph to Roswell 
August 29th, 2012 at 7:10 am
Well written review. A friend of mine goes to Harvard, I hope she can get my copy of Knocking on Heavens Door signed this semester.
August 29th, 2012 at 10:04 am
Tweeted from the author herself. You must be estatic.
August 29th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
I logged on last night and had several hundred hits, when I looked at the stats and most of them were on the Higgs review and from Twitter click links I checked and saw Dr. Randall had tweeted out a link to her feed. Was stricken silent for a moment. The science fan boy in me was honored she actually found and read something I wrote… even if it was about her book.
August 29th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Big fan of Randall, did you know she was a class mate of fellow physicist Brian Greene?
September 7th, 2012 at 7:55 am
Higgs boson!
September 9th, 2012 at 10:27 am
I wasn’t aware this book came out, I check the shelves at least twice a week at B&N and I am ashamed of myself for missing it.
September 9th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Don’t kick yourself too hard Jonathan your eyes don’t deceive you. This was an eBook only release and you would not have seen it on the shelves.
September 12th, 2012 at 4:36 am
I suppose if I were a physicist specializing in subatomic particles, I would understand more of what she is talking about. Take, for example, a quote such as the following: Spurious polarizaqtions are the source of problematic predictions for high-energy scattering, so the symmetry allows only physical polarizations — the ones that really exist and are consistent with the symmetry — to remain. Hoo boy! If I were a Tea Party type, I would at this point take out my checkbook and write a huge contribution to CERN, whose Large Hadron Collider staff discovered the proof for the existence of the so-called God Particle.
It is quite evident that Lisa Randall knows what she is talking about: It’s just that she can’t seem to communicate it.
September 20th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
i love the presentation and design of this website.
September 21st, 2012 at 5:30 pm
I still don’t get it.