Hard to believe I wrote another book. How did that happen? But it must be true, as The Particle at the End of the Universe is now available for pre-order on Amazon and elsewhere. Back to real work for me, for the foreseeable future. (Unless someone wants to give me a million dollars, which to date they have been reluctant to do.) I'm actually putting finishing touches on the copyediting as we speak. Events have prodded the publisher to move up the release date quite a bit (as I expected), so now it's coming out in November rather than in February. So we've been in a mad dash against the clock, although I've tried my best to be careful in the actual writing. And many people have been extremely generous with their time, reading over chapters and talking with me about the issues. Compared to From Eternity to Here, this book is obviously less about presenting a novel take on some deep issues in physics and more about helping people understand why the Higgs boson is important, and how the experiments actually look for the thing. But there are a couple of chapters in there where I get to try to explain gauge invariance, connections, and symmetry breaking. I can't help myself; it's in my nature. Speaking of generosity, even with the short timescale I scored pretty big with the back-cover blurbs. Check these out:
"In this superb book, Sean Carroll provides a fascinating and lucid look at the most mysterious and important particle in nature, and the experiment that revealed it. Anyone with an interest in physics should read this, and join him in examining the new worlds of physics to which this discovery may lead." --Leonard Mlodinow, author of The Drunkard's Walk "Carroll tells the story of the particle that everyone has heard of but few of us actually understand. After you read his book -- an enticing cocktail of personal anecdote, clever analogy, and a small dose of mind-bending theory -- you will truly grasp why the Higgs boson has been sought after for so long by so many. Carroll is a believer in big science asking big questions and his beliefs are infectious and inspiring." --Morgan Freeman, Actor and Executive Producer of Through the Wormhole "The science is authoritative, yet bold and lively. The narrative is richly documented, yet full of human drama. Carroll's saga pulls you aboard a modern voyage of discovery." --Frank Wilczek, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
If only the actual writing in the book could be that good! "Obtain blurbs from Oscar winner and Nobel laureate for same book" is now checked off my bucket list.
