Bonus Content
Antimatter
It’s no wonder that antimatter is a staple of science fiction as well as an actual entity. Created in quantities virtually equal to “normal” matter in the Big Bang, most antimatter was subsequently annihilated, forging a puzzling asymmetry. In Antimatter, Frank Close reviews early theorizing about this form of matter, shows how its existence and properties were confirmed, and highlights attempts to explain its rarity and confine it in the laboratory.
As Close explains, it was British physicist Paul Dirac who in 1928 first predicted a mirror image of matter. An antiatom of antihydrogen, for example, would look the same as normal hydrogen, but would consist of a negative “antiproton” encircled by a positively charged “positron.” What sounded like fantasy became fact when Carl Anderson detected a positron four years later. Close characterizes the energy generated by matter-antimatter collisions (100 times that of nuclear fusion), profiles antimatter’s practical uses (e.g., PET scanning) and explores its role in detectors such as the LEP collider at CERN.
Antimatter offers an engaging look at a form of matter whose very existence stretches the bounds of physics.
HC. 176pp. 2009.
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press ( February 15, 2009 )
Item #: 55-7331
ISBN: 9780199550166
Product Dimensions: 5.125 x 7.75 x 0.0 inches
Product Weight: 8.0 ounces
Easy read. Good introduction.
August 22, 2009
Easy read. Good introduction. Does a good job of making the point (an important point) that antimatter is not some strange, weird mystical form of matter, its just a collection of certain particles that happen to have 2 distinct features: 1) they mirror other particles in every respect except one (charge) and 2) when they meet their counterpart type of particle, the two self destruct with the greatest release of energy of all known reactions.
Reviewer: Dave M
Very informative in a variety of fields
August 17, 2009
This is a pleasant read for any science orientated reader. The book focuses on anti-matter but tangents off to several other topics mostly relating to the quantum level. You do not need to have much background in the field to understand the topics covered so i would feel confident recommending it to an introductory science reader.
Reviewer: Jake
An extremely helpful read
May 28, 2009
I got past the first chapter, which seemed a little hyped, and found the rest of the book to be extremely fascinating and helpful.
I have read many books on particle physics, the Big Bang, star formation, etc. Each one seemed to give a piece of the big picture. But this book brought a whole new view which explained a lot that I had read before, and unified all the parts.
Highly recommended.
Reviewer: Herb W
great book
March 17, 2009
The book was so clear I went and bought most his old books. The Scientific American Book Club should consider making old books of best selling authors available
Reviewer: F.rector M
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