Jim Baggott

Origins: The Scientific Story of Creation by Jim Baggott is a wonderfully readable account of 13.8 billion years worth of science. The story shifts about halfway through from mostly physics and chemistry to biology and chemistry (lets face it, chemistry is every where!).

There can not be a truly comprehensive account of this science, at least not within a reasonable size. Even a three volume attempt would leave some things out, some explained less rigorously and even then only mention a show more fraction of the questions that still remain. Rather than display my areas of scientific strength and weakness and nitpick specific sections I prefer to commend Baggott on making an account that, while challenging for those only somewhat well-versed in these topics, is still accessible to the general reader.

Yes, there are competing theories about many areas covered here and Baggott acknowledges those, though he doesn't take the time and space, not to mention disrupt the books flow, to itemize every possible variation. To expect such is to judge this book for what it isn't trying to be. Of the perhaps seven or so similar books I can think of I believe this ranks right there with the best of them. Different strengths and weaknesses without question, but a very strong and comprehensive volume. That this is probably only my third favorite of Baggott's books speaks more to how good the others are rather than to any negative aspect with this one.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

Se l'autore è bravo, un buon libro di divulgazione scientifica è spesso più intrigante più un romanzo. La trama è la realtà, la narrazione di quella realtà che è la scienza, che, volenti o nolenti, ci permettere di comprendere il mondo, Sono anche convinta che una buona divulgazione, mettendo alla portata anche dei non addetti ai lavori determinati argomenti, sia indispensabile per impedire la diffusione delle tante mode antiscientifiche a cui si assiste al giorno d'oggi. Mass è uno show more di questi libri. Brillante, ben scritto, preciso e profondo, accompagna il lettore nel viaggio dalla massa dei greci al bosone di Higgs in maniera semplice ma non semplicistica, in una divertente cavalcata alla scoperta della materia di cui siamo fatti.
Ringrazio Oxford University Press e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.

If the author is smart, a good book of scientific dissemination is often more intriguing as a novel. The plot is the reality, the narration of the reality that is the science, which, like it or not, allows us to understand the world, I also believe that a good dissemination, putting within reach of non-experts certain topics, is essential to prevent the spread of the many anti-scientific mode that can be observed nowadays. Mass is one of these books. Bright, well-written, accurate and deep, takes the reader on the journey from Greeks' mass to the Higgs' boson in a simple but not simplistic way, in a fun ride to the discovery of the matter we are made of.
Thank Oxford University Press and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review. show less

Here's how much I loved this book. Within a week of finishing the copy I'd borrowed from the library (indeed, even before I'd returned said copy), I went out and bought a copy of my own. Because I need this on my shelves. Why? Well, as someone with an M.S. in physics, and whose research appointment as in relativistic heavy ion collions, I'm more frequently called upon than most to explain things like the Higgs boson. But before a month ago, any such request would be met with a deer in the show more headlights stare and a lot of handwaving. My research was more interested in the quark-gluon plasma. So, the strong force. And it has been a very long time since I read The God Particle, okay?

So it's no surprise at all that when I saw this book in the New Books section of the library on my way to the poetry aisle, it stopped me in my tracks. And while it took me a while to get into it, once I did I really geeked out on it, telling friends about cool things I'd learned, asking my professional physics friends questions and doing additional reading on concepts I wanted to understand better. I did work for this book. I'm invested in it. Of course I want to own it now.

Like most books about an emerging concept in science, this one is presented as a history of the idea. Baggott introduces a whole host of key players, many of whom I was previously unaware of. The major players get brief histories and character descriptions as well, and as a result even some of the names I knew I now feel I know much more about. (And now feel I have a better idea which of the books on quantum mechanics on my shelves will be more interesting.)

If all you're looking for is a brief description of what the Higgs boson and Higgs field are thought to be, let me recommend the minutephysics channel on youtube. But if you want a wider survey on how did we get to this moment, and why is it important, I heartily recommend this book. show less

In The Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy, in the very first chapter, the Earth is destroyed (to make way for a hypergalactic bypass). On the one hand this is frightening, as we lose all basis for relating to anything. On the other hand, it frees us to experience and explore new concepts without being prejudiced by our experience.

In Farewell to Reality, Jim Baggott destroys the concept of reality by page seven: “Reality is a metaphysical concept,” he says. This allows him to explore the show more submicroscopic with the same detail and passion as the massive contents of the universe. Unfortunately, we are at such an early state of knowledge, we can’t make reasonable, let alone unified sense of it all. Baggott acknowledges this, but still tries. Hard. He describes the essence of numerous theories, without resorting to Greek-symboled mathematical formulas. He compares and contrasts. He makes it understandable. But problems crop up all along the way.

The essence of the main problem is defined succinctly by Heisenberg very early in the book. The gist of it is we frame everything in terms of what we already know (“…nature, exposed to our method of questioning”), and that makes it impossible to understand the universe. Particles that can also be waves are very hard to digest. We have no idea what gravity is. (The Standard Model, that kludge of patches, holes and exceptions, doesn’t even incorporate it.) Baggott points out there are now at least 61 “fundamental” particles that compose the universe. Imagining them is all but impossible for the earthbound. What we detect and know is only 5% of the true content of the universe. We rejoice when we discover and confirm another fundamental particle, like the Higgs boson, but the jigsaw puzzle still doesn’t even have the edges completed. And that’s the easy part.

By the end of chapter nine, the gloves come off at last. Baggott has had enough. He blasts the dreamy “theories” as mere speculation. They are without substance, evidence, or the slightest suggestion of how to test (let alone prove) their accuracy, foundation or fallacy. He (and some of his peers) calls them damaging to the very notion of science. They are castles in the sky, built on circular logic foundations where string theory depends on the foundation of super symmetry, which depends on the foundation of M-theory, which depends on the foundation of string theory. Meanwhile, none of them has any basis in science at all. But like a good internet “fact”, if millions have read about them, they become part of the canon. In the immortal words of Oliver Norville Hardy, this is another “fine mess.”

Baggott ends up calling it fairy-tale physics, and wonders if we’ll look back on this era with acute embarrassment. The tangents, side trips, philosophical excesses and just plain bad science seem to be the state of the physics art to him. He makes his case well. show less