Customer Reviews
Superb - By: redlorry, 31 Oct 2008 
This book is really well written by not just an expertin the field but someone who is able to make very complex ideas intelligable to non-specialists. I enjoyed this book immensely & recommend it to anyone who is either interestedin particle physics or like me who has to teach it!
Crystal Clear - By: Nigel Seel, 07 Oct 2008 Wilczek got his Nobel Prize for his partin developing Chromodynamics, the theory of quarks & gluons & their strong force interaction. In this book we get an awe-inspiring jaunt through the most modern views of the quantum vacuum (which W. calls "The Grid") & unification theories (including SUSY).
Lots of stuff I hadn't understood before - for example, the mass of protons & neutrons (actually hadronsin general) is not at all a primary attribute. Instead it's Nature's optimisation compromise between the energyin the colour field (decreases as quarks & antiquark, for example, get closer together) & the increasing energy of 'localisation' as the said quarks & antiquarks are constrained into the same place: (more precisionin location means higher momentum & energy). This energy (E/c2) is what turns out to be the proton or neutron mass: the quarks & gluons themselves are almost massless.
Wilczek writesin a humorous & crystal clear way, which makes his book that rarityin popularisations - a bit of a page turner! Warning: you need to be comfortable with the conceptual basis of 'undergraduate' quantum mechanics & special relativity to engage with this book.
