Reviews

“Cahn and Quigg’s joy at being able to share, and further, understanding of the Universe is catching and their sense of purpose inspiring. Their celebration of the ‘elegance and economy’ of particle physics, of scientific uncertainty and openness, of scientists and the science they explore, leaves the reader in a fever of gratitude. Grace in All Simplicity is an uplifting tale of science and scientific lives well lived. The book is a fantastic encapsulation of the brazen way science advances.” —Tara Shears, Nature

“A vibrant history traces the triumphs and missteps of quantum, nuclear, and particle physics. What a joy, to pick up Grace in All Simplicity and encounter stunning true-life tales of passionate researchers grappling with the challenges of the natural world in all its rawness and danger. It is such human touches, along with colorful analogies and descriptions, that make Grace in All Simplicity shine. The authors paint vibrant portraits of so many of the principals involved in the histories of quantum, nuclear, and particle physics, along with related fields, and describe their contributions with exceptional clarity.” — Paul Halpern, Science

“A fascinating and accessible description of the incredible revolution physicists have made in understanding the world’s smallest pieces.” —Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, space and physics, Scientific American

“A pair of emeriti from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the Fermi Lab, respectively, invite lay readers into the world of contemporary physics as told by following ‘the path of extraordinary people who uncovered new laws of nature’ en route to the Higgs boson. The journey, from particle physics on the smallest scale to the grandest cosmological queries, has perhaps never been better told nor made more accessible. A gift to everyone who found ways to evade ‘hard’ science requirements in college and now regrets it.” — Harvard Magazine

According to Voltaire’s irrepressibly optimistic philosopher, Dr. Pangloss, ours is the best of all possible worlds. But why is our physical world—indeed, our known universe—the way it is? Veteran physicists Quigg and Cahn—“traveling light, with no equations, no diagrams, no tables, no pictures”—produce a fascinating and accessible tour of the fundamental principles, particles, and processes that govern heaven and earth, and the “extraordinary people” engaged in this “tantalizing work in progress.”— Yale Alumni Magazine

“A captivating book that reveals the interconnectedness of science’s most profound advances.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Cahn and Quigg highlight the connectedness of the underlying concepts and the ways experiment and theory interact over time.  The payoff is a wonderful and engaging dive into the last century of revolutionary physics.”—Booklist

“I’ve read quite a bit about the history of our field, so I wasn’t really expecting to learn much when I picked up your book.   How wrong I was.  There is so much in your book that you can’t really get anyplace else, at least not in the beautifully digested way you present it.  I especially enjoyed the chapters on technology (early chemistry, superconductivity, detectors, accelerators).  This book should be required reading for students interested in going into particle physics.” —Scott Willenbrock, University of Illinois

 “This will be THE book I will recommend to friends who ask what particle physics is about and where it is headed.” —Jonathan Rosner, University of Chicago

“Just finished reading Chris Quigg and Bob Cahn’s beautiful and truthful book on the wonders of the physical universe. Most elegant book on physics that I’ve seen in a while.”
—Frank Close, author of Elusive.

“This book is an ode to Physics as an experimental science. In particular to the historical origins and discoveries which led, in the course of centuries, to what is now called the “Standard Model” of Particle Physics. The authors are well-known experts in the field … and besides being Physicists, they have shown an exceptional historical and literary talent. … I feel the book is a must for all people interested in or involved in Physics!” — Giovanni Venturi, Università di Bologna, Il Nuovo Saggiatore

“The last great discoveries in physics? The confirmation of the Higgs Boson in 2012 and the detection of gravitational waves in 2015. Chris Quigg [a physicist whose career is closely tied to the Higgs Boson (an elementary particle whose existence was only mathematical in the 1960s, when it was named after the British physicist Peter Higgs—he is still alive; he was awarded a Nobel Prize a year after the Large Hadron Collider determined its reality)] and Robert N. Cahn’s new book, Grace in All Simplicity: Beauty, Truth, and Wonders on the Path to the Higgs Boson and New Laws of Nature, vividly and clearly describes the path taken to what is also known as the “god particle.” Grace in All Simplicity is built like an adventure novel, but instead of going outward, we go ever-inward, ever closer to the most basic parts of the whole picture show we see and feel every living day.” — Charles Mudede, The Stranger

“I received a copy of your latest book for Christmas. I picked it up about a week ago and have been reading it voraciously since. It is simply wonderful!  Reading through these stories has made me more enthusiastic for particle physics than I have been in months, if not longer (though I am jealous of all the amazing history of modern physics that your generation experienced). You tell a beautiful story, and I’ve been giving it rave reviews to anyone who will listen to me.” — Adam Martin, University of Notre Dame