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Rating: 
Summary: The God Particle Review Of Adam (jason)
Review: "The God Particle" was a truely intriging experience. The author Leon Lederman goes through an exilerating history of particle physics starting with the first theorists imagining the indivisible a-tom. In the begining it goes through a historical preview of the particle theorists and experimenters from 600 BC to the present. Including Aristole, Plato, Democritus and many others. It includes arguments on what,how and were the God Particle lies. The comprehensive theories, crazy as they may be, of today. There is also discusion about a new machine being built that may uncover the infamous God Particle, the Superconducting SuperCollider. Unfortunatly there was no rock hard evidence was found to prove the great mass giving particle, but there is hope. One of the books major strengths was its ability to really inform you everything about the people the author talks about. It grabs you with the interesting facts and unbelievable details. "The God Particle" challenges the greatest minds of the world. Will it be found? Will it give us a unified field theory that will end human suffering? Not one person on this earth knows, yet is explained well in this book. I give it ***** stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Ride along on a 2500 year quest
Review: Dr. Lederman takes the reader through the history of the search for the smallest building block(s) of the universe, from the thought experiments of Greek philosopher Democritus through today's superconducting supercolliders. Along the way he never fails to entertain with his wit.When I wasn't laughing out loud or bugging my wife by reading her funny snippets, I was wishing I had read this book BEFORE college (where I took four freshman/sophomore level physics classes to satisfy the science requirements for my engineering degree.) After reading this book I understand much more about subjects I allegedly "learned" in college, including the model of the chemical atom, what a quark is, etc. I also feel better about not liking the "hand-waving" involved in quantum physics. (If nothing else, at least I'm in good company with Einstein.) In addition, the insight into how science was and is actually practiced is fascinating. I am giving this as a present to my college-bound nephew!
Rating:
Summary: Ignores any addition to the science by Eastern nations
Review: I have read that book twice, a "should read book" for people who likes physics. But historical citation lacks for Chinese and Arabic contributions. Algebra is very important for the science, but not even mentioned in this book. To make this book complete, I guess, there should be at least few pages about developments in math and medicine by spain/endulis government.
Around 1200 BC in Egypt, people was using math to measure the length of walls, trees (and so on) by artimetics. And they had used the shadow of the sun to measure the radius of earth, and they used that in 2piR to see what happens by few percent error! That means they knew the world was round. Almost 2000 years before somepeople at north of them! But such things were ignored in this book.
Also, chinese additions are almost ignored too.
General belief of those era of 3000 years are gathered and made belong to Greeks. Ignoring other races like Egyptians and Hittities.
Maybe it would be better not to be "so" exact on things happened 3000 years ago.
Its name is God particle but God was also ignored :) You will not find any philosophy on the topic, but plain explaination for high school children.
But, this book is still an "a must to read" for high school students and especially for politicans.
Rating:
Summary: A very good book
Review: It is indeed a very good book. It's too bad that the super collider was not built in Texas, but progress continues nonetheless. This book gives a history of the exploration into particle physics, with much wit and humor. For anyone interested in science, this is a good book to read.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece!
Review: Leon Lederman is an experimental physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics (1988). If there will be Nobel Prize for the humor, he will be double winner. I read more than 100 books about popular physics, quantum theory and cosmology and this book is certainly in my Top 5 of all time! From the first hand you can read all newest information about what experimental physicists do, where are the problems, what is the next discovery they expect, and how look the atmosphere between scientists in the lab. In this book you can also read a much about history of experimental physics. But the main subject of this book is search for mysterious particle, Higss boson (God particle). Why all material things have a mass? Nobody knows. God particle is propose to be an answer. Problem is that this particle is never been seen to interact with other particles or even to exist. It is pure imagination. But, if Higgs boson does not exist there will be a lot of serious problems for todays physical theories. 'The God Particle' is written with such a great charm and humor that I can not imagine better style than his. Lederman is first-class mind and in this book there are no speculations and mysticism, but only a pure scientific facts. It seems to me that always a greatest minds (Gell-Mann, Feynman, Hawking, Weinberg,...) write a best book on the subject. This is the one. No doubt 'God Particle' deserve all 5 stars. Enjoy your self!
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece!
Review: Leon Lederman is an experimental physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics (1988). If there will be Nobel Prize for the humor, he will be double winner. I read more than 100 books about popular physics, quantum theory and cosmology and this book is certainly in my Top 5 of all time! From the first hand you can read all newest information about what experimental physicists do, where are the problems, what is the next discovery they expect, and how look the atmosphere between scientists in the lab. In this book you can also read a much about history of experimental physics. But the main subject of this book is search for mysterious particle, Higss boson (God particle). Why all material things have a mass? Nobody knows. God particle is propose to be an answer. Problem is that this particle is never been seen to interact with other particles or even to exist. It is pure imagination. But, if Higgs boson does not exist there will be a lot of serious problems for todays physical theories. 'The God Particle' is written with such a great charm and humor that I can not imagine better style than his. Lederman is first-class mind and in this book there are no speculations and mysticism, but only a pure scientific facts. It seems to me that always a greatest minds (Gell-Mann, Feynman, Hawking, Weinberg,...) write a best book on the subject. This is the one. No doubt 'God Particle' deserve all 5 stars. Enjoy your self!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your money.
Review: The study of cosmology is a hobby of mine. I freely admit that I am no physicist, only a free thinker who has read widely on the subject. I purchased this book because I thought it would provide me with some interesting insights into the current state of particle physics and cosmology. I could not be more disappointed with what I received. The lowest ranking I can give this book is one star. If I could, I would give it a black hole, where money and common sense disappear forever. I'm not going to go into a long discourse on the flawed logic in this book. Anyone who is even remotely familiar with the history of thought on the structure of the universe knows that the Enlightenment was the turning point. But many of the recent advances in chaos science and complexity theory have all but destroyed the premises of Enlightenment thought (reductionism, linearism, determinism, mechanism). Indeed, if we go by the most recent discoveries, Leibniz was much closer to contemporary thought than Newton ever was. Not that that would matter much to Lederman and Tresi, who are more interested in spewing out regurgitations of pagan, nature worship clap trap dressed as mathematics than they are in illuminating truth. A much better book on the current state of cosmology is Eric Lerner's The Big Bang Never Happened. Don't waste your money or time on this book.
Rating:
Summary: What a Book! You must read it!
Review: This is undoubtedly one of the best popular science
books ever written! Comparable in content and richness of presentation
with the 'Cosmos' by Carl Sagan, this book takes us
into a fascinating journey in pursuit of the a-tom!
The *truely* indivisible building block! The fact that Leon is an authority makes this book a
godsend for the layman who has no clue of what's going
on in the wonderful sub-atomic world! This is a very lucid account of the history of the search for the atom taking us one step at a time right from the very beginning of the atomic notion. The highlight of the book is the manner in which Leon describes clearly and slowly, "How,Why and What led each individual to ask the various questions and their efforts to arrive at plausible answers", and how this endless sequence of such individuals, their questions and their theories built the tower of science one brick at a time. A must read on *any* list.
Rating:
Summary: Ride along on a 2500 year quest
Review: Who thought one could laugh (out loud) while reading a book covering physics.
I did not want this book to end. Each night, I would saver a page/chapter or two, and look forward to the next nights reading. Leon Lederman is an exceptional writer! I would love to meet him someday. Mr. Lederman tells the "story" of physics. His writing depicts his personality, intelligent, humorous, straightforward. He was writing (talking) to me! His writing style made me believe I could understand the complicated science of physics. I highly recommend this book to everyone, regardless of his or her interest in physics or science.
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