The Particle at the End of the Universe
How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to The Edge of a New World
Sean Carroll, 2012, Hillsboro 539.721
Mostly about the development of the Standard Model, mathless. There is a large "bandgap" between word salad physics descriptions and the full-mathematical graduate-level description, and very little in between. This is among the best word-salad books, but I hope to find one which at least includes some algebra, and better technical illustrations of the geometry. Many more drawings explaining symmetries would help.
Lyn Evans, the man who built the LHC. Learn more about this engineer/scientist/manager.
Page 110 LHC, bunches collide 20 MHz. Hundreds of millions of collisions per second, up to 100 or more particles per collision, one megabyte per collision, "1000 1-terabyte hard drives per second"
- This compares to the data rate of scanning a stream of launch loop rotor bolts to 10 micrometer precision. This data would be compared to the prior history of the bolts, repeating every 8 minutes. Identifying "interesting" "evolving" defects that increase the probability of future failure for a bolt, then replacing that bolt in the stream, is a computation and pattern recognition problem on a similar scale to LHC particle detection. Launch loop will exploit many technological advances created by the genius researchers at LHC.
Page 119 "science consultant for big-budget Hollywood movie", planet shaped like a disk. COuldn't find reference with websearch.
Page 208 Particle Fever, David Kaplan, Walter Murch, Sundance 2013.
Page 219 More and Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon by Phil Anderson.
- book flap: "at press time, he was involved in several scientific controversies about high profile subjects, about which his point of view, though unpopular at the moment, is likely to prevail eventually"
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