Atom Land

January 1, 2018
Butterworth (Most Wanted Particle), a CERN alum and professor of physics at University College London, explains everything particle physics from antimatter to Z bosons in this charming trek through a landscape of “the otherwise invisible.” His accessible narrative cleverly relates difficult concepts, such as wave-particle duality or electron spin, in bite-size bits. Readers become explorers on Butterworth’s metaphoric map, where landmasses are particle types, energy increases west to east, and the route followed mirrors that of scientific discovery. The electromagnetic, strong, and weak forces transport readers by car, train, and plane to Atom Land, with its “orderly array of elements”; Isle of Leptons, where electrons berth; Hadron Island, home to protons and neutrons; the Isle of Quarks and its six “flavors”; and Bosonia, a strange land “where the W, the Z, the gluon and the photon are all based.” Butterworth shares tales of “a menagerie of fantastical beasts” from his map’s far east: dark matter, supersymmetry, and sphalerons. Readers will find no equations here, just conversation in plain English about the universe’s fundamental building blocks, the standard model, and what remains unknown. Butterworth expertly handles even the thorniest theories and will satisfy world-weary scientists and amateur physics aficionados alike. Agent: Martin Redfern, Diane Banks Associates.

February 1, 2018
Exploring the world of particle physics, "a new territory on the edge of physical knowledge."Every educated person should have a passing knowledge of the microworld, but since atoms and other pieces of the puzzle obey the laws of quantum mechanics, which many physicists say make no sense, this requires formidable pedagogy. Thankfully, in recent years, a steady stream of writers has accepted the job. The latest is Butterworth (Physics and Astronomy/Univ. College, London; Most Wanted Particle: The Inside Story of the Hunt for the Higgs, the Heart of the Future of Physics, 2015, etc.), a leading physicist working on the Large Hadron Collider. Of four approaches to explaining the inexplicable, the author makes modest use of the first three--straightforward, historical, comical, but he emphasizes the last: allegorical. Readers with a tolerance for whimsy will be entertained and learn the quantum basics, if not the subtleties. Eschewing the usual metaphor, Butterworth creates a literal quantum world. Readers board his symbolic boat at the western, human-scale edge of the map. Sailing eastward over the sea--i.e., the quantum field--the world shrinks as the vessel reaches an archipelago named for quantum features, from the westernmost Atom Land to less familiar isles of leptons, hadrons, and quarks to distant Bosonia. Although parts remain impenetrable jungle and roadless wilderness, readers explore the cities (representing the particles), transportation infrastructure (the forces), and laws, which are obeyed only on average. Further east lie unexplored, dangerous, and possibly mythical lands of dark energy, supersymmetry, extra dimensions, and quantum gravity. Inevitably, in an allegory, the easy analogies (protons, electrons, gravity, electromagnetism) come across. Confronted with areas that trouble even graduate students--e.g., the weak force, chirality, the Higgs field--readers may give up, relax, and enjoy the fable.A noble and sometimes successful effort to demystify quantum physics.

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Starred review from February 15, 2018

Butterworth, head of physics and astronomy at University College London and author of Most Wanted Particle, has written a charming, informative overview of particle physics. Old-fashioned maps and an engaging narrative help comprise the extended metaphor of a sea voyage upon which the narrative is created. Just when the metaphor verges on too precious (e.g., ."..another traveler staggers into the bar, shaking the sea-spray from her shoulder-length, straw-coloured hair, and orders a large gin"), Butterworth embeds one of many crystalline definitions (e.g., "A vector is a mathematical concept that can describe objects which have both a size and an orientation, like an arrow"), offering some of the clearest to be found in the lay literature of physics. Other highlights include amusing and well-documented anecdotes, such as Lord Kelvin's delay in peer-reviewing James Clerk Maxwell's the key quantum electrodynamics paper, and inclusion of recent physics results, such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory's validation of gravitational waves. VERDICT The extended metaphor of a sea voyage into the unknown may not appeal to all readers, but the author's descriptions of particle physics are so appealing that they make learning about this field almost effortless. Highly recommended.--Sara R. Tompson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lib., Archives & Records Section, Pasadena, CA

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