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The Higgs Boson and Beyond  By  cover art

The Higgs Boson and Beyond

By: Sean Carroll,The Great Courses
Narrated by: Sean Carroll
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Publisher's summary

The discovery of the Higgs boson is a triumph of modern physics. The hunt for the Higgs was the subject of wide media attention due to the cost of the project, the complexity of the experiment, and the importance of its result. And, when it was announced with great fanfare in 2012 that physicists has succeeded in creating and identifying this all-important new particle, the discovery was celebrated around the world.

And yet, virtually no one who read that news could tell you what, exactly, the Higgs boson was, and why its discovery was so important that we had to spend 10 billion dollars and build the single largest and most complex device in the history of mankind in order to find it. When you understand the details, this story ranks as one of the most thrilling in the history of modern science.

Award-winning theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, a brilliant researcher as well as a gifted speaker who excels in explaining scientific concepts to the public, is perfectly positioned to tell this story. In this 12-lecture masterpiece of scientific reporting, you'll learn everything you need to know to fully grasp the significance of this discovery, including the basics of quantum mechanics; the four forces that comprise the Standard Model of particle physics; how these forces are transmitted by fields and particles; and the importance of symmetry in physics.

You also get an in-depth view of the Large Hadron Collider - the largest machine ever built, and the device responsible for finally revealing the concept of the Higgs boson as reality. By the end, you'll understand how the Higgs boson verifies the final piece in the Standard Model of particle physics, and how its discovery validates and deepens our understanding of the universe.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2015 The Great Courses (P)2015 The Teaching Company, LLC

What listeners say about The Higgs Boson and Beyond

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Very well done

Sean Carroll gives a great summary about the history and discovery of the Higgs boson. The depth of which he explains is really good for those with some knowledge about particle physics, but you don't need to know too much about the subject and still not get lost in all the details.

I recommend listening to "Particle Physics for Non-Phycisists: A Tour of the Microcosmos" before diving in to this one. It gives a lot of good background information about the elementary particles as well as the different forces. "The Higgs Boson..." goes in some depth into the weak force, and I would say it is crucial to have some knowledge in this field before starting the lecture.

Sean Carroll is really experienced and great at giving these lectures. I also recommend "Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time" by Sean Carroll.

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77 people found this helpful

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Fascinating audiobook

I just finished listening for the third time and each time I enjoy it and understand the concepts involved a little more. This is a perfect supplement to the great courses audiobook "particle physics for non physicists"

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27 people found this helpful

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Masterfully done

This lecturer provides sufficient background to make comprehensible a very arcane body of knowledge based on.complex mathematics while only alluding to the math and not requiring the listener to get lost in those details.

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27 people found this helpful

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Challenging material

This was good but was difficult for me to keep up with as an amateur. The description read like the other science courses but was significantly more challenging.

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23 people found this helpful

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Passion for particles - dark matter is for WIMPs!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Higgs Boson and Beyond to be better than the print version?

Not having access to the printed version of this book I tend to assume that the printed version is far better - since the sheer amount of particle names, boson names, subliconistic farwongle names and terms or expressions for names of things that haven't been named in some memorizable scheme just blows a poor listener's mind.
That said, the printed version most likely lacks the passion and personal involvement Mr. Carroll brings to the stew, so I may still prefer the audio book ...

Who was your favorite character and why?

Strange question for a book on quantum physics, but, since you ask, my favorite actually isn't the Higgs (that'd be far too easy), but the WIMPs.
You don't know what WIMPs are? Well ... listen to this book/lecture, here you have a good reason.

What about Professor Sean Carroll’s performance did you like?

I really prefer lectures by those who were or are personally involved in what they talk about to sessions with spider-web covered, dust-settled old figures who never ever seem to have seen the light of day but learned what they pretend to know from books that someone else had read to them.
Mr. Carroll is a good example of this (the positive): He's "been there". He loves his topic, he wants his audience to get, at least, a glimpse of what those CERN-egg-heads are excited about. He tries hard (and, for me, succeeds) in giving an insight into what modern physics believe to be somewhat near to may be closely related to a thing one might call, for lack of better terms, truth-affine. At parts.

Any additional comments?

Although Mr. Carroll, after having explained that "particles" in the current world-view of physics really are waves or "ripples in wave fields", if I may put it that way, falls back to the more "classic" use of "particles" as something grasp-able, for me personally the image of interfering fields with waves, ripples in interactions is, by far, better understandable, especially when talking about the interactions of the different particle types. So, having this "image" in my back head, I was able to follow even those parts of the lectures where some illustrations might really have made understanding a lot easier ...

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Higgs or physics review?

Too much scientific detail for the general audience, in what was essentially a review
of the history of particle physics and less about the Higgs itself until the later chapters, which could have been enlarged and focused on. I liked the descriptions of the LHC itself.

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A book for people curious to learn about the Higgs

Any additional comments?

The topic is itself very interesting and timely in view of the recent confirmation of the discovery of the Higgs Boson, and the story is very well narrated. I am sure that other readers with an interest in particle physics will also enjoy this book. One minor downside is that – as in practically any of the many other books on physics for non-physicists that I have read so far (I am an engineer) – there are passages were I got lost in the explanations. I also missed more explanations as to how exactly the Higgs field interacts with certain particles to give them mass, and whether this field is uniformly spread across the universe and along time, which sounds strange, but which otherwise would result in particles acquiring different masses in different places or times.

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outstanding

My only complaint is that this course is shorter than most others in this series. It is so well done. I was utterly addicted from start to finish.

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10 people found this helpful

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Mind = Blown

As a layman I found that most of this went completely over my head but it is presented very well and very, very interesting. I think I will have to go back to a bit more of a "physics for dummies" type course and come back and listen to this again when I have a better grasp of the basics.

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Too good to be so short

After I had listened to this book I realised how much particle physics is dumbed down for the general public. I've read or listened to at least 5 books on the subject and none even mentioned that particles are actually vibrations on a field.

There is a lot of content crammed into these lectures but the techer is great and I highly recommend it.

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