Elusive

Rich, compelling, and surprising. Fundamental physics can be equal parts awe-inspiring and head-spinning, and Close masterfully captures those qualities in this deeply satisfying tale of Peter Higgs's convoluted, and very human, journey through life and science.

author of The Ascent of Information, Caleb Scharf

Elusive is both a deep, exciting intellectual history and an elegantly told portrait of a quiet man whose 'one great idea' changed modern physics forever. Close marries the exotic details of contemporary particle physics theory with the very human aspects of how that theory came to be. An enlightening read from one of our very best writers and practitioners of physics.

author of The Last Man Who Knew Everything, David N. Schwartz

A perfect marriage of subject and writer. With verve, insight, and rigor, Frank Close beautifully illuminates the life and times of one of physics' great, unheralded giants. Elusive is a triumph of a book, and one worthy of its subject's extraordinary contributions.

bestselling author of The Founders, Jimmy Soni

A fascinating biography of an elusive particle and the equally elusive man who predicted its existence half a century before it was found. If the Higgs boson is the God particle then I feel I have glimpsed the mind of its creator.

Jim Al-Khalili

a clear, vivid and occasionally even beautiful portrait of a scientific breakthrough: the tale of how a relatively obscure Scotland-based physicist developed a stunning theory, one that would help illuminate the invisible, particulate web that holds our universe together

Deborah Blum, New York Times

Close is among today's best writers on the history of quantum mechanics

Economist

Close tells the intertwined stories of Higgs's life and the discovery of the Higgs boson with the aid of a deep understanding of the physics involved and the benefit of many meetings with Higgs himself. There have been other books on the same theme, but this is far and away the best. Where Close excels is in explaining the fundamental principles of particle physics in language anyone likely to pick up this book will understand. ... Elusive works as a biography of Peter Higgs, as an account of one of the greatest intellectual advances in human history and, best of all, as an answer to anyone who asks why we should bother to carry out experiments like those performed at CERN. Buy it.

John Gribbin, Literary Review

Particular brilliance ... This accessible account tells the story of the quest, and of the man who made it possible

BBC History Magazine

a five star book - it reaches parts other books on the Higgs have failed to reach and Frank Close does a brilliant job

Brian Clegg, Popular Science

An illuminating guide to the man and the science behind the Higgs boson ... the tale of the conception and discovery of the Higgs boson, a tiny tremor in an energy field that pervades the whole universe, is one of the most important in modern physics. Without the Higgs there would be no atoms or people or planets or stars or anything except restless particles zipping through space in splendid isolation. Close, a particle physicist who has served as head of communications and public education at Cern, is an excellent guide to the knotty science of that story, as well as what we do know about the mysterious man himself.

Ananyo Bhattacharya, Guardian

thorough and fascinating ... Close spoke at length to Higgs and the result is a highly detailed and rich narrative ... a piece of scientific history.

Jay Elwes, Spectator

reveals the sheer complexity, detail and dazzling precision that, for the scientist, constitutes 'beauty in nature'. Close maintains a strong narrative line - we are watching and waiting throughout for the Higgs boson to be identified.

Sue Roe, Mail on Sunday

beautifully, engagingly written ... I was reassured by the characteristic wisdom and honesty of Close's judgement that, while the discovery of the Higgs particle completes the Standard Model of the atom, "Internal completeness is a mathematical requirement, whereas describing the world around us is the demand of natural philosophy". That sentence alone makes Elusive my book of the year.

Raymond Tallis, Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year

Frank Close is probably the perfect person to tell the tale of Higgs and his boson. A serious physicist himself, he is also an exceptional author - and, unlike with most authors, his subject actually occasionally speaks to him.

Tom Whipple, Times Books of the Year

the first full biography of Higgs ... focuses just as much on Higgs the particle as he does on Higgs the scientist, and the physics concepts he explores can be daunting. But this excellent book is well worth the effort.

Mike Perricone, Symmetry Books of the Year

A compelling account of the long search for the Higgs boson

Books of the Year, Economist

Because there would be no atoms or molecules without the intervention of the Higgs field, our very existence is a consequence of its reality ... a compulsive read. Besides explaining the physics and exploring the many personalities involved, it also conveys the excitement of physics research, the missed opportunities, the happy coincidences, the false trails, the social networks, the collaborations and professional rivalries. Like an established scientific fact that will stand for all time, this book is a definitive account of an historic scientific achievement.

Rick Marshall, Physics Education