»

[Chris]

Anyone else read this guy's books?

Reading Big Bang at the moment and really starting to get into. Also read Fermat's Last Theorem and the Codebook and thought they were fantastic.

He has a real knack for explaining the most complex scientific ideas ever comprehended by brilliant minds in a way that a relative scientific fuckwit like me can follow. Not just talking about the ideas and the intricacies of the concepts, but also the backgrounds and lives of the scientists involved.

[french_disko]

I've got "Fermat's Last Theorem" sitting in a huge pile of books at the side of the bed that I intend to read somewhere between now and retirement. If you're recommending it then I'll get stuck into it sooner rather than later.

[Chris]

I highly recommend it. Not so much for the baffling mathematics, but more the awesome feat of (collective) intellect required to reach the conclusion. It's a great story, told really well.

My reading about the big bang has nicely coincided with the Large Hadron Collider being turned on at CERN next week. Although if that all goes wrong it won't be so nice as the ensuing black hole/earth turning into a load of strangelets/vacuum bubble would prevent me from finishing the book.

[french_disko]

Originally Posted by Chris

I highly recommend it. Not so much for the baffling mathematics, but more the awesome feat of (collective) intellect required to reach the conclusion. It's a great story, told really well.

My reading about the big bang has nicely coincided with the Large Hadron Collider being turned on at CERN next week. Although if that all goes wrong it won't be so nice as the ensuing black hole/earth turning into a load of strangelets/vacuum bubble would prevent me from finishing the book.

In the Evening Express a scientist is "urging people in the North East not to panic" over the switch of the machine next wednesday.

Here's hoping armageddon doesn't interfere with the Scotland game that night.

Will this machine destroy the world? - Evening Express

[daveofficer]

Originally Posted by french_disko

In the Evening Express a scientist is "urging people in the North East not to panic" over the switch of the machine next wednesday.

Here's hoping armageddon doesn't interfere with the Scotland game that night.

Will this machine destroy the world? - Evening Express

ha, i noticed that too. now that the evening have said it's ok i'll breath a sigh of relief!

[Chris]

El Reg's take on it was funnier:
Hadron boffins: Our meddling will not destroy universe | The Register

There were 2 great documentaries on the Big Bang and the LHC last night on BBC4. Nerd tastic.

[daveofficer]

Originally Posted by Chris

El Reg's take on it was funnier:
Hadron boffins: Our meddling will not destroy universe | The Register

There were 2 great documentaries on the Big Bang and the LHC last night on BBC4. Nerd tastic.

this paragraph in particular was ace:

"Quite apart from this being beezer fun in itself, the exploding hadrons should scatter outrageously bizarre sub-subatomic debris in all directions. It's planned that teams of top-bracket boffins, operating extremely complicated machines situated as it were at the pockets of the relativistic proton billiard table, will be able to snare - or at least snap a few pics of - the hurtling hadro-chunk weirdness."