Leon Lederman (a 1982 Nobel laureate): the scientists who writes well

I began to read “God particle” when I discovered Leon Lederman as a scientist who writes well.  In his The God Particle, Lederman had an imaginary conversation with Democritus who said everything is composed of atoms nearly 2,500 years ago.

No sooner was The God Particle published in 1993 than the Superconducting Super Collider (proposed by President Reagan) was canceled by the Congress after spending $1 billion to dig up the hole (and another $1 billion to fill up the hole.)  One can only imagine what a devastating disappointment for scientists like Leon Lederman.

After reading the library book of The God Particle, I bought the Beyond the God Particle, but never finished reading it. Lederman’s Quantum Physics for Poets is the best book for a non-physicist who wants to understand quantum physics.

During the following imaginary conversation Lederman said his ancestor built the Pyramids; it reveals that he is Jewish.

Lederman: The field is represented by a particle we call the Higgs boson.
Democritus: A particle! I like this idea already.  And you have found this particle in your accelerator?

Lederman: Well, No.

Democritus: So you found it where?

Lederman: We haven't found it yet.  It exists only in the collective physicist mind.  Kind of like Pure Reason.

Democritus: Why did you believe in it?

Lederman:

Because it has to exist.  The quarks, the leptons, the four forces—none of these makes complete sense unless there is a massive field distorting what we see, skewing our experimental results.  By deduction, the Higgs is out there.

Leon Lederman

Democritus:

Do you have any ideas about when & where I should go to see some greater progress in the search of my atom?

Lederman:

Two times, two difficult places.  First, I suggest you come back here to Batavia in 1995.  After that, try Waxahachie, Texas, around, say 2005.

Democritus: . . . And where is the Waxahachie?

Lederman:

In Texas, in the desert, where we're building the largest particle accelerator in history.  In fact, it will be the largest scientific tool of any kind built since the two great pyramids (I don't know who designed the Pyramids, but my ancestor did all the work! The Superconducting Super Collider, our new machine, should be in full swing by 2005—give or take a few years, depending on when Congress approves the funding.

Democritus: Higgs boson—not a very poetic name.

Lederman: I call it the God Particle.