Nature's Blueprint: Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force

by Dan Hooper

Book Overview

The first accessible book on a theory of physics that explains the relationship between the particles and forces that make up our universe.

For decades, physicists have been fascinated with the possibility that two seemingly independent aspects of our world--matter and force--may in fact be intimately connected and inseparable facets of nature. This idea, known as supersymmetry, is considered by many physicists to be one of the most beautiful and elegant theories ever conceived. According to this theory, however, there is much more to our universe than we have witnessed thus far. In particular, supersymmetry predicts that for each type of particle there must also exist others, called superpartners. To the frustration of many particle physicists, no such superpartner particles have ever been observed. As the world's most powerful particle accelerator--the Large Hadron Collider--begins operating in 2008, this may be about to change. By discovering the forms of matter predicted by supersymmetry, this incredible machine is set to transform our current understanding of the universe's laws and structure, and overturn the way that we think about matter, force, space, and time.

Nature's Blueprint explores the reasons why supersymmetry is so integral to how we understand our world and describes the incredible machines used in the search for it. In an engaging and accessible style, it gives readers a glimpse into the symmetries, patterns, and very structure behind the universe and its laws.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061558362
• ISBN13: 9780061558368
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

VERY well written!

This book is written very well. You don't have to be a physicist to understand it, and I actually found answers to questions that have been bothering me since my college chemistry and physics classes. In particular, the way Dan Hooper tells the story of mathematician Paul Dirac really stands out. He writes in a way that relays the magnitude of Dirac's work and predictions without confusing the reader with verbose theories or equations (Mr. Hooper probably took the advice given to Stephen Hawking, that every equation in A Brief History of Time would halve the readership.) I can't recommend this book enough, it's basically required reading for anyone interested in Fermilab and CERN's work.

Very Well Presented and Enjoyable

I grabbed Dan Cooper's new book partly because I had read and enjoyed his last book, Dark Cosmos, and partly because I am interested in supersymmetry and the particles it predicts as possible dark matter candidates. I believe this book is better than Dan Cooper's first - and I enjoyed that book quite a bit. This book very nicely deals with supersymmetry in a logical way and at a level that the average person interested in science will easily comprehend. It also goes into some greater detail that more advanced readers will enjoy. The book also conveyed the sense of excitement and expectancy that particle physicists and astrophysicists surely share over the "just-now-operating" LHC. Hopefully, the results of experiments at the LHC will - as Dan Cooper hopes - soon provide some credible evidence for supersymmetry and potential super-symmetric particles, and hopefully the resulting science can crack open the mystery of dark matter from the cosmic perspective. I read this book along side Evalyn Gates' new book, Einstein's Telescope. That book comes at dark matter from the cosmic frontier and serves as a nice juxtaposition to Dan Cooper's particle physics' perspective. Both books (together) will provide the readers of both with a full perspective of dark matter and supersymmetry. In sum, I recommend Mr. Cooper's new book.

Right balance of detail and clarity

This book reviews supersymmetry within the context of the LHC. It is extremely clear and you will understand a lot when you're done. It has insights that will teach both the interested lay reader and even a non-supersymmetric-expert physicist. The theory is emphasized and the LHC is played down. This is not surprising, given that Dr. Hooper is a theoretical physicist at Fermilab. I liked this book better than his earlier Dark Cosmos, which I found to be a bit too basic. I think he struck a better, indeed excellent, balance between depth and clarity in Nature's Blueprint.