Winner of the Canadian Science Writers Association Science in Society Book Award One of the Best Physics Books of 2013, Cocktail Party Physics Blog, Scientific American Detective thriller meets astrophysics in this adventure into neutrinos and the scientists who pursue them The incredibly small bits of matter we call neutrinos may hold the secret to why antimatter is so rare, how mighty stars explode as supernovae, what the universe was like just seconds after the big bang, and even the inner workings of our own planet. For more than eighty years, adventurous minds from around the world have been chasing these ghostly particles, trillions of which pass through our bodies every second. Extremely elusive and difficult to pin down, neutrinos are not unlike the brilliant and eccentric scientists who doggedly pursue them. In Neutrino Hunters, the renowned astrophysicist and award-winning writer Ray Jayawardhana takes us on a thrilling journey into the shadowy world of neutrinos and the colorful lives of those who seek them. Demystifying particle science along the way, Jayawardhana tells a detective story with cosmic implications—interweaving tales of the sharp-witted theorist Wolfgang Pauli; the troubled genius Ettore Majorana; the harbinger of the atomic age Enrico Fermi; the notorious Cold War defector Bruno Pontecorvo; and the dynamic dream team of Marie and Pierre Curie. Then there are the scientists of today who have caught the neutrino bug, and whose experimental investigations stretch from a working nickel mine in Ontario to a long tunnel through a mountain in central Italy, from a nuclear waste site in New Mexico to a bay on the South China Sea, and from Olympic-size pools deep underground to a gigantic cube of Antarctic ice—called, naturally, IceCube. As Jayawardhana recounts a captivating saga of scientific discovery and celebrates a glorious human quest, he reveals why the next decade of neutrino hunting will redefine how we think about physics, cosmology, and our lives on Earth.

The incredibly small bits of matter we call neutrinos may hold the secret to why antimatter is so rare, how mighty stars explode as supernovas and what the universe was like just seconds after the big bang. They even illuminate the inner workings of our own planet. For more than eighty years, adventurous minds from around the world have been chasing these ghostly particles, trillions of which pass through our bodies every second. Extremely elusive and difficult to pin down, neutrinos are not unlike the brilliant and eccentric scientists who doggedly pursue them. Ray Jayawardhana recounts in Neutrino Hunters a captivating saga of scientific discovery and celebrates a glorious human quest, revealing why the next decade of neutrino hunting could redefine how we think about physics, cosmology and our lives on Earth.

The incredibly small bits of matter we call neutrinos may hold the secret to why antimatter is so rare, how mighty stars explode as supernovas and what the universe was like just seconds after the big bang. They even illuminate the inner workings of our own planet. For more than eighty years, adventurous minds from around the world have been chasing these ghostly particles, trillions of which pass through our bodies every second. Extremely elusive and difficult to pin down, neutrinos are not unlike the brilliant and eccentric scientists who doggedly pursue them. Ray Jayawardhana recounts in Neutrino Hunters a captivating saga of scientific discovery and celebrates a glorious human quest, revealing why the next decade of neutrino hunting could redefine how we think about physics, cosmology and our lives on Earth.

Before the Higgs boson, there was a maddening search for another particle that holds the secrets of the universe - the neutrino. First detected in 1956, it teased the answers to still more mysteries. But the hunt for the neutrino and its meaning has also involved adventures, from Cold War defections and extra dimensions to mile-deep holes in the Antarctic ice and a troubled genius who disappeared without a trace. Here, renowned astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana delivers a thrilling detective story of revolutionary science from the dawn of the quantum age to today's most inventive labs.

The first edition of this popular book on particle physics received universal acclaim for its clear and readable style. In this second edition the authors have brought the subject right up to date, including the discovery of the 'top quark' and the search for the Higgs particle. The book is the result of a collaboration between a world-famous elementary particle physicist and a physicist specialising in popular science writing. Together they have produced a fascinating account of the search for the fundamental building blocks of matter. This lucid and entertaining accountwill fascinate anyone wishing to keep pace with this part of the progress of human knowledge, from scientifically educated general readers through to professional physicists.

In 1905, Albert Einstein declared speeds greater than light to be impossible. This book describes the author’s decades-long search for the hypothetical subatomic particles known as tachyons that violate this principle. This book is a scientific detective story. The crime is speeding—that is, the possible breaking of the cosmic speed limit, namely the speed of light, as stipulated by Einstein. This detective story is also a memoir written by a member of a band of "tachyon hunters." The author’s pursuit of tachyons has been met with skepticism from most physicists, who note correctly that no such superluminal particles have ever been surely observed and that there have been many false sightings. Nevertheless, considerable circumstantial evidence for tachyons has already been published and an ongoing experiment could decide the issue in the next few years. This book is written for the general reader, containing humor and eliminating jargon whenever possible, and will also be of interest to scientists. The hunt for the tachyon will fascinate all readers who approach the study of physics with curious and open minds.

A mixture of memoir and biography, Chasing the Ghost: Nobelist Fred Reines and the Neutrino tells a deeply human story that appeals both to scientists and non-scientists. Although the book relates to the important discovery of neutrinos, it is more intimately about Fred Reines than the technical details of neutrino physics. Narrated in a fashion to interest and excite the reader, the science presented here is accessible to a broad audience. Coursing through Reines' life, his various challenges and encounters, the book reveals constants of his persona. Reines displayed a sustained consistency as a respected leader, admired by students and colleagues as a fount of big ideas and ambition. A continuing source of inspiration and motivation to others, his most basic consistency was his passion for science. The quest for knowledge about the wondrous universe is a profoundly human endeavor. Fred Reines' life and his unremitting scientific curiosity are emblematic of that truth.'This book is a most welcome account about Frederick Reines and his great contributions to neutrino physics and astrophysics. The methods he designed in the 1950s to discover neutrinos in nuclear reactor experiments are still being used. His later work included the detection of atmospheric neutrinos which was a forerunner to the discovery of neutrino oscillations, the ability of neutrinos to change from one type to another. This finding was a significant step to other experiments that aim to answer profound questions about the nature of the universe including why it is composed of matter.'Takaaki KajitaNobel Laureate in PhysicsNeutrino Researcher, University of Tokyo 'Cole has provided a compelling personal and scientific account of a remarkable pioneer in Neutrino Physics.'Arthur B McDonaldNobel Laureate in PhysicsDirector of the Sudbury Neutrino ObservatoryProfessor, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada