The Particle Zoo: The Search for the Fundamental Nature of Reality Paperback – December 18, 2018

Very thought provoking

Hawking said in "Brief History.." that Man no longer needs philosophy as physics has moved much further and much faster to answering the important questions of understanding the nature of existence. Probably true, but he lost me in the latter chapters.Hesketh presents the best model we have for how our universe is configured, in terms that all readers will understand to some extent. His use of real world analogies and metaphors reduces the most complex of current physics thinking to understandable basic concepts that we can all appreciate, without getting lost in the more technical jargon. Having said that, keep the classification of the zoo particles (that is presented at the beginning of the book) readily accessible, as you probably have to remind yourself what is what from time to time.This is a brilliant book, that empowers all of us to appreciate the benefits of multi-national investment in Centres of Learning Excellence, like CERN. Miss the chance to read it and you are the loser!

Great intro to the history of particle physics. Offers routes and information to deeper, further study.

I have a lay person interest in science and found this book to be easy to read without being over-simplified of overly technical. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about the nature of reality and the challenges scientist face reveling its secrets.

My understanding of particle physics is pretty limited -- whatever I retained from high school and a few random books and articles since then. The ones I've read (that were written for lay readers) were interesting but I always reached a point of no return in the book, where I lost what was going on and never found it again.The Particle Zoo is very different. I can't say I understood absolutely everything, but I feel like I got a lot of it and learned a ton. Most of that I attribute to Hesketh's writing style. He works on the ATLAS project at CERN, and if you've ever wanted to just pick the brain of a super smart person who does fascinating work, that's what his book feels like. It's very conversational but never feels dumbed-down or glossed-over. And in addition to learning about the Standard Model, I enjoyed the other areas of focus -- how the LHC works, what other theories are out there, and what's on the horizon.It's obvious that Hesketh loves his work and the topic, and that energy is fully conserved in his writing (haha). Highly recommended.

Excellent non mathematical intro to the standard model

But if you already have a notion of particle physics, and want to learn more (not being a scientist), this is the one!! I enjoyed it pretty much.