Recommended: The Particle at the End of the Universe

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World
by Sean Carroll
Dutton, 2012 (($27.95))

For those wishing to understand the nitty-gritty of how physicists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider found the new entity-that-may-be-the-Higgs-boson, here is a timely account from physicist and author Carroll. Starting with the dramatic July 4, 2012, announcement of the new particle, then going briefly back in time to the Greek philosophers—the first to suggest that all matter was composed of tiny, elemental pieces—he reconstructs the global hunt for the particle that gives all others their mass, stopping to explain basic physics along the way.

COMMENT ATScientificAmerican.com/nov2012

Anna Kuchment is a contributing editor at Scientific American and a staff science reporter at the Dallas Morning News. She is also co-author of a forthcoming book about earthquakes triggered by energy production.

More by Anna Kuchment
Scientific American Magazine Vol 307 Issue 5This article was originally published with the title “The Particle at the End of the Universe” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 307 No. 5 (), p. 84
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1112-84a