cover image Interactions: A Journey Through the Mind of a Particle Physicist and the Matter of This World

Interactions: A Journey Through the Mind of a Particle Physicist and the Matter of This World

Sheldon L. Glashow. Warner Books, $0 (347pp) ISBN 978-0-446-51315-9

Glashow won the Nobel Prize in 1979 along with Abdus Salam and Steve Weinberg for his seminal work in unifying the electro-magnetic and the weak nuclear forces, a major step toward today's more ambitious Grand Unified Theories. In this engaging scientific autobiography, he takes readers on a tour of the realms of subnuclear physics introducing us to the important concepts in particle physics and to most of the major figures in the esoteric world of theoretical physics, including Niels Bohr and Murray Gell-Mann. Occasionally, Glashow is too anxious to let readers know that he is a regular guy with a one-time fondness for speedy cars, fast women and copious quantities of good food. On the whole, however, the memoir is a fine example of science writing and will reward readers with a clearer grasp of modern physics. Illustrations not seen by PW. (May)