This book is a fascinating look at the career and achievements of Sheldon Glashow, and his colleagues in the world of high energy physics.
The main idea is how, from several disparate theories about atomic energy, quantum theory, radiation, chemistry, and astronomy at the beginning of the 20th century, physicists and mathematicians were able to develop the Standard Model by the 1960s. Also discussed is the merger of theories about two forces, the Electromagnetic and the Weak, and the resulting "Electroweak" theory, for which Glashow and his associates won a Nobel Prize. In addition to the science, the author has delightful memoirs about the people he met and worked with here, and in Europe (p. 134-143, 150-153, 162-166, 240-243).
As he summarizes, "In 1956, when I began doing theoretical physics, the study of the elementary particles was like a patchwork quilt. Electrodynamics, weak interactions, and strong interactions were clearly separate disciplines, separately taught and separately studied …. Things have changed. Today we have what has been called a 'standard model' of elementary particles in which strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions all arise from a local symmetry principle. It is, in a sense, a complete and apparently correct theory, offering a quantitative description of all particle phenomena and precise quantitative predictions in many instances. There is no experimental data that contradicts the theory. In principle, if not yet in practice, all experimental data can be expressed in terms of a small number of 'fundamental' masses and coupling constants. The theory we now have is an integral work of art; the patchwork quilt has become a tapestry.
Tapestries are made by many artisans working together. The contributions of separate workers cannot be discerned in the complete work, and the loose and false threads have been covered over. So it is with our picture of particle physics. Part of the picture is the unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions …. Yet another is the development of quantum chromodynamics [discovered largely by Murray Gell-Mann] into a plausible, powerful, and predictive theory of strong interactions. All is woven into a tapestry: one part makes little sense without the other." (p. 277-278, from the Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1979).
Excellent book! Can also be understood further by watching a Great Courses video like "Science in the 20th Century" by Prof. Steven Goldman.
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