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From one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, a rousing defense of the role of science in our lives
The latest developments in physics have the potential to radically revise our understanding of the world: its makeup, its evolution, and the fundamental forces that drive its operation. Knocking on Heaven’s Door is an exhilarating and accessible overview of these developments and an impassioned argument for the significance of science.
There could be no better guide than Lisa Randall. The bestselling author of Warped Passages is an expert in both particle physics (the study of the smallest objects we know of) and cosmology (the study of the largest). In Knocking on Heaven’s Door, she explores how we decide which scientific questions to study and how we go about answering them. She examines the role of risk, creativity, uncertainty, beauty, and truth in scientific thinking through provocative conversations with leading figures in other fields (such as the chef David Chang, the forecaster Nate Silver, and the screenwriter Scott Derrickson), and she explains with wit and clarity the latest ideas in physics and cosmology. Randall describes the nature and goals of the largest machine ever built: the Large Hadron Collider, the enormous particle accelerator below the border of France and Switzerland—as well as recent ideas underlying cosmology and current dark matter experiments.
The most sweeping and exciting science book in years, Knocking on Heaven’s Door makes clear the biggest scientific questions we face and reveals how answering them could ultimately tell us who we are and where we came from.
著者について
Lisa Randall studies theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University, where she is Frank J. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science. Her work has made her among the most cited and influential theoretical physicists today, and has been featured in Discover, the Economist, Newsweek, Scientific American, and many top-ranked scientific journals. She has been one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” and Rolling Stone’s “RS100: Agents of Change,” and her first book, Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions, was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2005. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. When not solving the problems of the universe, Randall can be found rock climbing, skiing, or contributing to art-science connections. Her libretto for Hypermusic Prologue premiered at the Pompidou Center in Paris in 2009.
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カスタマーレビュー
最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー
1 人中、1人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
形式:ハードカバー|Amazonが確認した購入
本のカバーには面白い仕掛けがある。前半は科学史の話でガリレオの観測と思考実験の大切さを説いた後で、中盤からLarge Hadron Collider(LHC)の話。見学ツアーをしているような気分にさせてLHCで何をしようとしているのかを説明している。標準理論を構成する素粒子に質量を与えるヒッグズ粒子を見つけようとしていること、エネルギーの階層問題を超対称性粒子やLandallの重力に関する余剰次元の理論により解決できるかもしれないこと、Randallの理論ではLHCのエネルギーでもミニブラックホールができるかもしれないしれないことなどを説明している。後半では宇宙論と素粒子論の密接な関係、LHCでダークマターを探そうとしていることなどを説明している。この本の特徴はRandallの人柄や宗教、経済、芸術と科学についての考えや科学に対する取り組み方が示されていることだ。
形式:ハードカバー
今話題のCERN研LHC加速器に理論で深く関わるHarvard大の有名美人教授が素粒子物理と宇宙物理の最先端を解説する417頁の大著である。
頁数の20%を費やして、科学オンチが抱き易い科学への誤解や宗教との差異、科学史、計測学の常識、金融危機まで言及してリスクの考え方、科学者の採るべき態度などを解説しているのは自己矛盾だと思った。最先端の物理学に興味を持つ人とは読者が違い、一方に興味を持つ人は他方を冗長と思うだろうからだ。
LHC加速器のHardwareの説明に1/3の頁数を割いている。滅法詳しい解説で、その工学的な困難と成果がよく分かる。LHCがBlack Holeを生成して地球を呑みこむリスクを心配して、米国ではLHC運転差止め訴訟まで起きたが、その心配は無いことを丁寧に説明している。
CERN研が2011年12月13日に、LHCでHiggs粒子発見の兆候が見えたと発表したことがマスコミを賑わした。本書は勿論それ以前の出版だが、Higgs粒子とその課題の解説が詳しい。また質量と重力に関わる未解明の問題点を解決しようとする仮説の幾つかを詳述する。その一つは筆者が案出し有望視している仮説で、我々が住む4次元の時空間に重力がWarpする1軸を加えた理論である。LHCでは届かない「ひも理論」String Theoryをも概説する。
最後に宇宙物理学の課題を解説し、暗黒物質と暗黒エネルギーを論じ、暗黒物質の候補と著者が考える粒子がLHCで発見できる可能性が高いとしている。
物理学の最先端領域を網羅する厚さが重荷に感じられる著書だが、時間を掛けて読むに値するというのが読後の感想だった。
頁数の20%を費やして、科学オンチが抱き易い科学への誤解や宗教との差異、科学史、計測学の常識、金融危機まで言及してリスクの考え方、科学者の採るべき態度などを解説しているのは自己矛盾だと思った。最先端の物理学に興味を持つ人とは読者が違い、一方に興味を持つ人は他方を冗長と思うだろうからだ。
LHC加速器のHardwareの説明に1/3の頁数を割いている。滅法詳しい解説で、その工学的な困難と成果がよく分かる。LHCがBlack Holeを生成して地球を呑みこむリスクを心配して、米国ではLHC運転差止め訴訟まで起きたが、その心配は無いことを丁寧に説明している。
CERN研が2011年12月13日に、LHCでHiggs粒子発見の兆候が見えたと発表したことがマスコミを賑わした。本書は勿論それ以前の出版だが、Higgs粒子とその課題の解説が詳しい。また質量と重力に関わる未解明の問題点を解決しようとする仮説の幾つかを詳述する。その一つは筆者が案出し有望視している仮説で、我々が住む4次元の時空間に重力がWarpする1軸を加えた理論である。LHCでは届かない「ひも理論」String Theoryをも概説する。
最後に宇宙物理学の課題を解説し、暗黒物質と暗黒エネルギーを論じ、暗黒物質の候補と著者が考える粒子がLHCで発見できる可能性が高いとしている。
物理学の最先端領域を網羅する厚さが重荷に感じられる著書だが、時間を掛けて読むに値するというのが読後の感想だった。
Amazon.com で最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー (beta)
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107件のカスタマーレビュー
244 人中、221人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Sparkling defense of physics and reason, but little that's new: 3.5 stars
2011/9/22
形式:ハードカバー|Amazon Vine™ レビュー
(詳しくはこちら)
The last few years have seen a proliferation of popular physics books aimed at explaining the mysteries of modern physics to the layman. This is a worthy endeavor and Lisa Randall is one of its leading expositors. This book is really two books in one. The first part is a clear and spirited discussion of particle physics and cosmology. The second part is an equally clear meditation on the nature of the scientific method and the value of science and reason.
Randall especially shines in explaining the real everyday science (as opposed to just the philosophy) behind frontier research in physics. Thus, she spends a sizable amount of time explaining some of the less emphasized practical aspects of the science like errors and uncertainty in measurements, risk factors, "effective theories" (theories applicable at particular scales) and statistics. She provides a readable treatment of the Standard Model of particle physics and emphasizes why finding the Higgs boson is so important. In addition she has what I think is one of the clearest accounts of the structure and function of the LHC in Geneva. In the part about cosmology, she discusses in detail the riddle of dark matter and dark energy and what the latest telescopes and satellites might tell us about the birth and structure of the universe.
The second half of the book presents a robust defense of science and reason as well as some thoughts on the connections between beauty, creativity and science. Randall understands that while mathematical beauty may be a guiding principle for theoretical physics, ultimately beauty is subjective and the only true test of a theory is a clear connection to experiment. Earlier in the book she traces the development of modern science from the seventeenth century, especially emphasizing Galileo's life and his pioneering work in exploring nature through indirect measurements which ever since have been at the heart of scientific investigation. She also touches on the science-religion debate but does not explore it in great detail; she concludes this section by admitting that if you are a religious scientist, you have to at least accept a disconnect in your mind between the very different worlds of science and faith.
In general the book is very well written and Randall's passion for science shines through. The reason I gave it three and a half stars is that it says very little that's new. Randall's discussions of particle physics, cosmology, the LHC and the value of scientific thinking have been explored in great detail by other writers and scientists. In the past few years, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Richard Panek, Ian Sample and John Barrow to name but a few authors have repeatedly treated us to treatments of the Big Bang, particle accelerators, neutrino astronomy, quantum theory, string theory and multiple universes. Is there really a need for yet another book on these topics for the layman, no matter how skillfully written? Plus, while Randall's explanations are reasonably clear, some of these other authors write much more clearly and present cleverer analogies to illustrate the concepts. In my opinion, Randall's book is emblematic of the state of the popular physics literature which seems to have reached a point of diminishing returns; it's become really hard to write a truly new book on the topic without recycling known facts and anecdotes or pitching highly speculative ideas.
On the other hand, there have been a few popular physics books published during the same period that have actually tried to present novel and original work. Examples of genuinely interesting and new thinking would include critiques of string theory by Lee Smolin and Peter Woit, Robert Laughlin's "A Different Universe", David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity" and (while not entirely about physics), Stuart Kauffman's "Reinventing the Sacred". While these books are not all as clearly written as books by Randall, Greene or Hawking, they present fresh perspectives and novel thought-provoking ideas and not just accounts of known science. In my opinion, while books like Randall's do a good job of introducing audiences to contemporary physics concepts, these other authors have done a much better job of disseminating original, groundbreaking material. They deserve to be more widely read and emulated.
Randall especially shines in explaining the real everyday science (as opposed to just the philosophy) behind frontier research in physics. Thus, she spends a sizable amount of time explaining some of the less emphasized practical aspects of the science like errors and uncertainty in measurements, risk factors, "effective theories" (theories applicable at particular scales) and statistics. She provides a readable treatment of the Standard Model of particle physics and emphasizes why finding the Higgs boson is so important. In addition she has what I think is one of the clearest accounts of the structure and function of the LHC in Geneva. In the part about cosmology, she discusses in detail the riddle of dark matter and dark energy and what the latest telescopes and satellites might tell us about the birth and structure of the universe.
The second half of the book presents a robust defense of science and reason as well as some thoughts on the connections between beauty, creativity and science. Randall understands that while mathematical beauty may be a guiding principle for theoretical physics, ultimately beauty is subjective and the only true test of a theory is a clear connection to experiment. Earlier in the book she traces the development of modern science from the seventeenth century, especially emphasizing Galileo's life and his pioneering work in exploring nature through indirect measurements which ever since have been at the heart of scientific investigation. She also touches on the science-religion debate but does not explore it in great detail; she concludes this section by admitting that if you are a religious scientist, you have to at least accept a disconnect in your mind between the very different worlds of science and faith.
In general the book is very well written and Randall's passion for science shines through. The reason I gave it three and a half stars is that it says very little that's new. Randall's discussions of particle physics, cosmology, the LHC and the value of scientific thinking have been explored in great detail by other writers and scientists. In the past few years, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Richard Panek, Ian Sample and John Barrow to name but a few authors have repeatedly treated us to treatments of the Big Bang, particle accelerators, neutrino astronomy, quantum theory, string theory and multiple universes. Is there really a need for yet another book on these topics for the layman, no matter how skillfully written? Plus, while Randall's explanations are reasonably clear, some of these other authors write much more clearly and present cleverer analogies to illustrate the concepts. In my opinion, Randall's book is emblematic of the state of the popular physics literature which seems to have reached a point of diminishing returns; it's become really hard to write a truly new book on the topic without recycling known facts and anecdotes or pitching highly speculative ideas.
On the other hand, there have been a few popular physics books published during the same period that have actually tried to present novel and original work. Examples of genuinely interesting and new thinking would include critiques of string theory by Lee Smolin and Peter Woit, Robert Laughlin's "A Different Universe", David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity" and (while not entirely about physics), Stuart Kauffman's "Reinventing the Sacred". While these books are not all as clearly written as books by Randall, Greene or Hawking, they present fresh perspectives and novel thought-provoking ideas and not just accounts of known science. In my opinion, while books like Randall's do a good job of introducing audiences to contemporary physics concepts, these other authors have done a much better job of disseminating original, groundbreaking material. They deserve to be more widely read and emulated.
100 人中、90人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Top particle physicist reveals how she thinks, how they think, and how you may think
2011/9/21
形式:ハードカバー
Several string theorists such as Brian Greene or Leonard Susskind and cosmologists such as Alexander Vilenkin have written popular books about physics but as far as I know, Lisa Randall is the only popular writer among the "high-energy phenomenologists", i.e. the theoretical particle physicists who think about Nature from the viewpoint of phenomena that have been observed or that may be observed in a foreseeable future (mostly at the particle accelerators).
And we, the readers, have been especially fortunate because the book about physics from the viewpoint of phenomenologists wasn't written by a random phenomenologist but by one of the most prominent ones. In fact, Randall was identified as the most referred to particle physicist - among both women and men, just to be sure - in a recent 5-year period. She remains extremely active and influential.
Knocking on Heaven's Door has two basic goals. One of them is to introduce the reader to the cutting-edge research in particle physics which is dominated by the LHC experiment. Collisions of protons inside the 27-kilometer ring on the Swiss-French border have interrupted decades of theoretical dominance and relative experimental impotence (even though the book describes some smaller colliders or LHC predecessors, too). Randall who constantly interacts with the experimenters offers us an exciting story of the LHC collider from its conception to the first femtobarn of collisions.
We learn how it was built, what it is composed of, how it accelerates the particles nearly to the speed of light, how it observes the products of every collision (in the detectors such as CMS and ATLAS) and identifies the particles that are born in the collisions, and how the resulting huge amounts of data are being processed by computers and statistical techniques to learn something new. However, we also learn many things about the human factor: who are the people who work there, how they interact with each other, how they assure their colleagues that they're right, what they like to cook, how the Americans differ from the Europeans, and so on. I am not aware of a competing book written in plain English that could give you the feeling of being an LHC insider. And the book covers not only the colliders but also experiments trying to detect dark matter on Earth and many others.
But the book has another, grander goal which is nothing less than to clarify how scientists actually think. Philosophers would call these issues "gnoseology" or "epistemology" but the content of their thoughts would be less tangible. Instead, Randall talks about the actual strategies and issues that are important and misconceptions that the laymen often believe. One of the key methods to organize our knowledge is the concept of scale: different basic objects and "effective theories" describing their mutual interactions are being used for different sizes or, equivalently, different energies per particle. For a particle phenomenologist, and not only for her, the laws of physics resemble a giant onion. The laws relevant for longer scales may in principle be derived from those at shorter scales. But the former are independent of many details of the latter and it is often useful to think about them independently.
These initial chapters about scale are no random musings. They're the essential skeleton on which particle physics (phenomenology but not just phenomenology) organizes the insights from the experiments such as the LHC. A related question is what it means for our knowledge to expand. The book does a very good job in explaining that the theories we typically use are approximate and aware of their own limitations; on the other hand, it means that when new phenomena and better theories are found, the older theories are not completely eliminated.
Randall's book also talks about non-physicists (in many cases, famous people from all walks of life whom Randall has met or whom she knows very well), their way of looking at the physical phenomena, and what a physicist finds funny about this looking. One example is the relationship between science and religion: Randall, who is obviously an atheist, doesn't stay on the surface. She is not satisfied with claiming that "religious people are silly" which is what many other books do (with a great commercial success) but she also tries to find the core differences. One of the major lessons is that scientists are able to live and work with ignorance or uncertainty about a particular issue; in fact, they view it as a part of their knowledge (especially if they know rather accurately where their knowledge ends). This point is often misunderstood by other self-described atheists whose thinking is actually religious and dogmatic in character.
For another example, a chapter is dedicated to the LHC doomsday scenarios which assume (or attempt to "prove") that the collider will create a black hole or another lethal object that will devour our blue planet. The book explains several different levels of evidence we have to be sure that such a catastrophe won't happen.
I forgot to say that the book also covers theoretical models (which are the focus of her first book, Warped Passages) that are being tested by the LHC, including the models with supersymmetry and especially extra dimensions for which Randall (and Sundrum) became particularly famous. The Higgs boson gets its well-deserved chapter as well. Randall compares the phenomenological, bottom-up approach to physics with the top-down approach favored by string theorists.
To summarize, it is a book about some very exciting and specific experimental developments that are underway combined with all the infrastructure one needs to place these experiments into their proper place and to interpret them correctly. Highly recommended to everyone who doesn't want to lose touch with particle physics and any cutting-edge science as of 2011. Randall is a multi-dimensional personality and so is her book: but I am confident that most readers may find a lower-dimensional projection of the book that will enrich the way how they look at the world.
And we, the readers, have been especially fortunate because the book about physics from the viewpoint of phenomenologists wasn't written by a random phenomenologist but by one of the most prominent ones. In fact, Randall was identified as the most referred to particle physicist - among both women and men, just to be sure - in a recent 5-year period. She remains extremely active and influential.
Knocking on Heaven's Door has two basic goals. One of them is to introduce the reader to the cutting-edge research in particle physics which is dominated by the LHC experiment. Collisions of protons inside the 27-kilometer ring on the Swiss-French border have interrupted decades of theoretical dominance and relative experimental impotence (even though the book describes some smaller colliders or LHC predecessors, too). Randall who constantly interacts with the experimenters offers us an exciting story of the LHC collider from its conception to the first femtobarn of collisions.
We learn how it was built, what it is composed of, how it accelerates the particles nearly to the speed of light, how it observes the products of every collision (in the detectors such as CMS and ATLAS) and identifies the particles that are born in the collisions, and how the resulting huge amounts of data are being processed by computers and statistical techniques to learn something new. However, we also learn many things about the human factor: who are the people who work there, how they interact with each other, how they assure their colleagues that they're right, what they like to cook, how the Americans differ from the Europeans, and so on. I am not aware of a competing book written in plain English that could give you the feeling of being an LHC insider. And the book covers not only the colliders but also experiments trying to detect dark matter on Earth and many others.
But the book has another, grander goal which is nothing less than to clarify how scientists actually think. Philosophers would call these issues "gnoseology" or "epistemology" but the content of their thoughts would be less tangible. Instead, Randall talks about the actual strategies and issues that are important and misconceptions that the laymen often believe. One of the key methods to organize our knowledge is the concept of scale: different basic objects and "effective theories" describing their mutual interactions are being used for different sizes or, equivalently, different energies per particle. For a particle phenomenologist, and not only for her, the laws of physics resemble a giant onion. The laws relevant for longer scales may in principle be derived from those at shorter scales. But the former are independent of many details of the latter and it is often useful to think about them independently.
These initial chapters about scale are no random musings. They're the essential skeleton on which particle physics (phenomenology but not just phenomenology) organizes the insights from the experiments such as the LHC. A related question is what it means for our knowledge to expand. The book does a very good job in explaining that the theories we typically use are approximate and aware of their own limitations; on the other hand, it means that when new phenomena and better theories are found, the older theories are not completely eliminated.
Randall's book also talks about non-physicists (in many cases, famous people from all walks of life whom Randall has met or whom she knows very well), their way of looking at the physical phenomena, and what a physicist finds funny about this looking. One example is the relationship between science and religion: Randall, who is obviously an atheist, doesn't stay on the surface. She is not satisfied with claiming that "religious people are silly" which is what many other books do (with a great commercial success) but she also tries to find the core differences. One of the major lessons is that scientists are able to live and work with ignorance or uncertainty about a particular issue; in fact, they view it as a part of their knowledge (especially if they know rather accurately where their knowledge ends). This point is often misunderstood by other self-described atheists whose thinking is actually religious and dogmatic in character.
For another example, a chapter is dedicated to the LHC doomsday scenarios which assume (or attempt to "prove") that the collider will create a black hole or another lethal object that will devour our blue planet. The book explains several different levels of evidence we have to be sure that such a catastrophe won't happen.
I forgot to say that the book also covers theoretical models (which are the focus of her first book, Warped Passages) that are being tested by the LHC, including the models with supersymmetry and especially extra dimensions for which Randall (and Sundrum) became particularly famous. The Higgs boson gets its well-deserved chapter as well. Randall compares the phenomenological, bottom-up approach to physics with the top-down approach favored by string theorists.
To summarize, it is a book about some very exciting and specific experimental developments that are underway combined with all the infrastructure one needs to place these experiments into their proper place and to interpret them correctly. Highly recommended to everyone who doesn't want to lose touch with particle physics and any cutting-edge science as of 2011. Randall is a multi-dimensional personality and so is her book: but I am confident that most readers may find a lower-dimensional projection of the book that will enrich the way how they look at the world.
59 人中、47人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Randall's lucid explanations of the frontiers of physics including her own dazzling ideas reveal the effort and wonder at hand
2011/9/20
形式:ハードカバー
*****
"Science has a battle for hearts and minds on its hands...against superstition and ignorance on one flank, and against pseudo-intellectual obscurantism on the other. How good it feels to have Lisa Randall's unusual blend of top flight science, clarity, and charm on our side." -- Richard Dawkins
On inauguration day, President Obama announced the goal of "restoring science to its rightful place," but science has a lot of interesting and abstract concepts that scientists like Randall are trying to make conceivable, when dealing with its complicated topics. She thinks, "You can have a complexity in having different thought strands, and ideas come in simultaneously." Lisa Randall emerged as 'a public face' for the complex fields of cosmology and particle physics; as she explores how we make up our mind, about which questions to address, and how we expect science answering them. She wrote 'Warped Passages' for pastime audience, a best selling book introducing science readers to the possibility of additional dimensions beyond the three we experience, and make clear how their existence could account for many of the physical world's most perplexing phenomena. Recently, Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe," introduced his view of the ill-concealed 'skeleton in the closet of physics' as eleven dimensions, parallel universes, and a world made of strings!
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Review:
Randall attempts to answer the question of how the universe got its mass. Her undertaking is to delineate the work on several of the string theory models, in the quest to reveal the fabric of the universe. The engaging book conveys her ideas about, "How physics and scientific thinking illuminate the universe and the modern world," is entitled: Knocking on Heaven's Door! The famed "Gates of Paradise," was dubbed by Michelangelo for the east pair of bronze doors of the 'Florence Baptistery', Ghiberti's artistic marvel. But the Gates of Heaven that Dr Randall intends to knock on are not in Florence, they stand at the Large Hadron Collider, that stretches 16.6 miles across the French-Swiss border. In her fascinating book, Lisa Randall, explains the experimental research around the enormous circular tunnel of the nine billion-dollar LHC, anticipating what theories the teams of scientists are fitting together with data and information from the most complex machine ever built.
Recent experiments using the LHC hold out the hope that the Higgs boson's "God Particle," a hypothetical massive elementary particle, predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics, may soon be discovered. It was 1964 when Peter Higgs conceived of an invisible field that filled the cosmos shortly after the Big Bang; and as the newborn universe expanded and cooled, the field switched on. Randall does a good job of discussing the search for the God Particle, that can provide real insight into the innermost functions of the universe. Randall's book alternates between "details of science being done today and reflections on the underlying themes and concepts that are integral to science but that are useful for understanding the broader world as well," hints Randall in the introduction. She suggests that, "In some respects, it is two books in one, but books that are best read together."
While Hawking hoped to develop a "grand unified theory" (GUT), Randall quotes Keats' "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," readily admitting that the truth will always be aesthetically gratifying. The danger of "truth through beauty" in physics, as Randall describes it, is that it makes a virtue of necessity. Wherever experimental evidence can be coaxed out of nature, it suffices to corroborate or refute a theory and serves as the sole arbiter of validity. She masterfully articulates the various theories and models of fundamental particles, in spite of the complex Standard Model. Her display is informative in a lucid way, and her account of the building and running of the LHC is impressive; full of passion and jaw-dropping facts. But, is it true that "Scientists knocking on heaven's door" is an attempt to cross the boundary of the known into the unknown?
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The OPERA1 experiment; September 23, 2011.
To physicists and mathematicians, there is nothing wrong with speculation; it is a necessary and vital part of scientific exploration, and they have a big puzzle presently at hand!
"Geneva, 23 September 2011. The OPERA1 experiment, which observes a neutrino beam from CERN2 730 km away at Italy's INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory, will present new results in a seminar at CERN this afternoon at 16:00 CEST. The result is based on observation of over 15,000 neutrino events measured at Gran Sasso, and appears to indicate that the neutrinos travel at a velocity 20 parts per million above the speed of light, nature's cosmic speed limit." Given the potential far-reaching consequences of such a result, independent measurements are needed before the effect can either be refuted or firmly established." CERN Online Official Site
"Science has a battle for hearts and minds on its hands...against superstition and ignorance on one flank, and against pseudo-intellectual obscurantism on the other. How good it feels to have Lisa Randall's unusual blend of top flight science, clarity, and charm on our side." -- Richard Dawkins
On inauguration day, President Obama announced the goal of "restoring science to its rightful place," but science has a lot of interesting and abstract concepts that scientists like Randall are trying to make conceivable, when dealing with its complicated topics. She thinks, "You can have a complexity in having different thought strands, and ideas come in simultaneously." Lisa Randall emerged as 'a public face' for the complex fields of cosmology and particle physics; as she explores how we make up our mind, about which questions to address, and how we expect science answering them. She wrote 'Warped Passages' for pastime audience, a best selling book introducing science readers to the possibility of additional dimensions beyond the three we experience, and make clear how their existence could account for many of the physical world's most perplexing phenomena. Recently, Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe," introduced his view of the ill-concealed 'skeleton in the closet of physics' as eleven dimensions, parallel universes, and a world made of strings!
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Review:
Randall attempts to answer the question of how the universe got its mass. Her undertaking is to delineate the work on several of the string theory models, in the quest to reveal the fabric of the universe. The engaging book conveys her ideas about, "How physics and scientific thinking illuminate the universe and the modern world," is entitled: Knocking on Heaven's Door! The famed "Gates of Paradise," was dubbed by Michelangelo for the east pair of bronze doors of the 'Florence Baptistery', Ghiberti's artistic marvel. But the Gates of Heaven that Dr Randall intends to knock on are not in Florence, they stand at the Large Hadron Collider, that stretches 16.6 miles across the French-Swiss border. In her fascinating book, Lisa Randall, explains the experimental research around the enormous circular tunnel of the nine billion-dollar LHC, anticipating what theories the teams of scientists are fitting together with data and information from the most complex machine ever built.
Recent experiments using the LHC hold out the hope that the Higgs boson's "God Particle," a hypothetical massive elementary particle, predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics, may soon be discovered. It was 1964 when Peter Higgs conceived of an invisible field that filled the cosmos shortly after the Big Bang; and as the newborn universe expanded and cooled, the field switched on. Randall does a good job of discussing the search for the God Particle, that can provide real insight into the innermost functions of the universe. Randall's book alternates between "details of science being done today and reflections on the underlying themes and concepts that are integral to science but that are useful for understanding the broader world as well," hints Randall in the introduction. She suggests that, "In some respects, it is two books in one, but books that are best read together."
While Hawking hoped to develop a "grand unified theory" (GUT), Randall quotes Keats' "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," readily admitting that the truth will always be aesthetically gratifying. The danger of "truth through beauty" in physics, as Randall describes it, is that it makes a virtue of necessity. Wherever experimental evidence can be coaxed out of nature, it suffices to corroborate or refute a theory and serves as the sole arbiter of validity. She masterfully articulates the various theories and models of fundamental particles, in spite of the complex Standard Model. Her display is informative in a lucid way, and her account of the building and running of the LHC is impressive; full of passion and jaw-dropping facts. But, is it true that "Scientists knocking on heaven's door" is an attempt to cross the boundary of the known into the unknown?
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The OPERA1 experiment; September 23, 2011.
To physicists and mathematicians, there is nothing wrong with speculation; it is a necessary and vital part of scientific exploration, and they have a big puzzle presently at hand!
"Geneva, 23 September 2011. The OPERA1 experiment, which observes a neutrino beam from CERN2 730 km away at Italy's INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory, will present new results in a seminar at CERN this afternoon at 16:00 CEST. The result is based on observation of over 15,000 neutrino events measured at Gran Sasso, and appears to indicate that the neutrinos travel at a velocity 20 parts per million above the speed of light, nature's cosmic speed limit." Given the potential far-reaching consequences of such a result, independent measurements are needed before the effect can either be refuted or firmly established." CERN Online Official Site
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