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In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang
by Harry Cliff
Experimental physicist and acclaimed science presenter Harry Cliff takes you on an exhilarating search for the most basic building blocks of our universe, and the dramatic quest to unlock their cosmic origins.
Carl Sagan once quipped, "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." But finding the ultimate recipe for apple pie means answering some big questions: What is matter really made of? How did it escape annihilation in the fearsome heat of the Big Bang? And will we ever be able to understand the very first moments of our universe?
In How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch, Harry Cliff—a University of Cambridge particle physicist and researcher on the Large Hadron Collider—sets out in pursuit of answers. He ventures to the largest underground research facility in the world, deep beneath Italy's Gran Sasso mountains, where scientists gaze into the heart of the Sun using the most elusive of particles, the ghostly neutrino. He visits CERN in Switzerland to explore the "Antimatter Factory," where the stuff of science fiction is manufactured daily (and we're close to knowing whether it falls up). And he reveals what the latest data from the Large Hadron Collider may be telling us about the fundamental nature of matter.
Along the way, Cliff illuminates the history of physics, chemistry, and astronomy that brought us to our present understanding—and misunderstandings—of the world, while offering readers a front-row seat to one of the most dramatic intellectual journeys human beings have ever embarked on.
A transfixing deep dive into the origins of our world, How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch examines not just the makeup of our universe, but the awe-inspiring, improbable fact that it exists at all.
"In addition to the ins and outs of the Standard Model, this outstanding book, sometimes as funny as The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, will also teach readers why experimental subjects are often called 'guinea pigs.' The book for anyone who wants to understand some of the world's most important scientific questions." - Kirkus Reviews (starred reviews)
"Physicist Cliff takes readers on an enthusiastic tour of the universe and modern physics in this enlightening survey...Cliff describes complex ideas vividly and accessibly, and he's got a knack for making theory exciting. This enlightening and entertaining outing is worth savoring." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Cliff's rich use of metaphor and analogy provides readers with fascinating and easily digestible summaries of major discoveries by legendary scientific minds past and present as he masterfully reassembles the history of human understanding into an astounding confection." - Booklist
"A delightfully fresh and accessible account of one of the great quests of science—to identify and understand the ultimate building blocks of the Universe. Physicist Harry Cliff has found a recipe for an easily digestible approach, and the results go down a treat." - Graham Farmelo, author of The Strangest Man and The Universe Speaks in Numbers
"I love this book. It's fun, fast-paced and beautifully written. It covers a vast amount of ground while remaining easy to read: from the birth of modern chemistry through to the very latest ideas in particle physics. All done with a light-hearted rigor. It's the best book of its type I have read. Brilliant." - Jeff Forshaw, internationally bestselling co-author of The Quantum Universe and Why Does E=mc2?
"Cliff expertly constructs an up-to-date picture of our modern understanding of the cosmos…[This book] lays out not just what we know, but how we found out (and what is left to be discovered), and gives us intriguing glimpses into the lives of the thinkers and tinkerers who put all the pieces together for us." - Katie Mack, author of The End of Everything
This information about How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Harry Cliff is a particle physicist based at the University of Cambridge and carries out research with the LHCb experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. He was a curator at the Science Museum, London for seven years and regularly gives public lectures and makes TV and radio appearances. His 2015 TED talk "Have We Reached the End of Physics?" has been viewed more than 3 million times.
Pony Confidential
by Christina Lynch
In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.
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Not doing more than the average is what keeps the average down.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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