We made a little video to promote The Particle at the End of the Universe. November 13, next Tuesday, is the official release date. (Although I suppose there’s nothing that strictly prevents you from ordering it now.)
13 thoughts on “The Excitement Grows!”
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Hi, Sean.
If, by any chance, the high-sigma events at CERN are not confirmed as the SM Higgs boson, would you consider to write a new book on the *new* subject?
By the way, congrats!
JT
November 13th.
Just happens to be on the date of my birth some 28 years ago.
Could this be more providential?
Ok, it’s official: Sean’s my newest telephysicist.
After Carl Sagan defined the breed, the scientist with the passion and ability to communicate broadly and effectively in multiple media, with a talent not only to educate the public, but also to inspire. Carl’s departure from the scene left an immense void.
The desire to communicate science in general and physics in particular is not uncommon, but it is often mediated by talented non-scientists, such as Alan Alda or Morgan Freeman, or dedicated journalists. Though many scientists have an abiding desire to share their knowledge and views, few are able to do so without a producer, an interlocutor, a co-writer, and an editor.
Me, I prefer to get my science “straight from the horse’s mouth”, from scientists who are also fluent communicators.
I thought Brian Greene had a shot at the telephysicist mantle, but he was too narrowly focused to have enough staying power. Neil deGrasse Tyson truly is a telephysicist, but he often waters things down too much for me (physics ‘lite’), though he has a congenial and magnetic personality with a great sense of humor, a talented educator in every sense of the word.
I initially had concerns about Sean, wondering if he’d become ‘over-exposed’, or would be a ‘one-trick pony’. No longer: Sean has not only the expected deep knowledge in his areas of expertise, along with a flair for communication, but he also has a comprehensive awareness of how his field connects with others, and how they in turn interconnect with the world we live in. And he seems to be curious about practically everything, and delights in sharing the threads that weave together apparently unreleated subjects.
Sean’s not afraid to push “God” out of the way, especially when others put Him where He does not belong (it’s not God’s fault: it’s those pesky believers with their Free Will). Unlike many other “skeptics”, Sean counters misplaced “God in the world” arguments without in any way limiting the degree of slack-jawed wonder we share when contemplating our amazing Universe at all scales, and our place in it. If anything, he enhances it with his contagious enthusiasm.
Hey, if they get their televangelists, I want my telephysicists!
Thanks, Sean.
PS: Does your book discuss mass that is independent of the Higgs field? Or the Higgs’ role in Weak interactions? I’m still grappling with those two.
I will be having the book delivered to me on Nov 13. Can’t wait to read it.
Totally darling.
Congratulations, Sean! This was an amazingly good short video reviewing the overall landscape that the Higgs particle and your book have to “help” us to understand.
Best wishes!
Thanks, all. BobC– absolutely, the book definitely deals with mass with and without Higgs, and the role in the weak interactions.
We cannot yet definitively say that it’s the Higgs now, can we?
It’s definitely a new particle, and it has some Higgs-like properties. Further work will be needed to be completely sure it’s the simple Higgs, but I’m comfortable with saying “we’ve discovered the Higgs” (and adding caveats as needed) until evidence the other way actually comes in.
How certain it is that the Higgs is a standard Higgs Boson? What if it isn’t? I guess it will open the door to some new beyond the standard model physics.
I really like how the book is coming out on my best friends birthday. So as opposed to buying it for myself, now I’m forced to buy it for him. No pun intended…
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