Paperback review: Higgs, By Jim Baggott

Baggott explains the significance of the Higgs boson: “it implies the existence of the Higgs field… without [it] nothing could be”, although “God Particle is a name heartily despised by practising scientists”.

When things turn hazy for the layman (“for every boson in the Standard Model, there is also a corresponding supersymetric boson, called a bosion, which is actually a fermion”), Baggott elucidates by quoting a metaphor involving Mrs Thatcher: “As she moves she attracts the people she has come close to… once moving she is harder to stop.” Can't really argue with that.