Thank you for contributing JulianTheApostate, I hope you will be interested enough to get the book and remark on it given your Ph.D in physics. I was referring to path integrals in the Quantum Field Theory ( second quantization ) sense, not the simple formalizations of Quantum Mechanics of wave-part...

Which is why the research being done at the LHC ("Big Bang Machine") at CERN is so important to particle physicists. By ramping up the energy we hope to either discover the Higgs Boson which the Standard Model of Particle Physics strongly predicts, or discover something(s) different like q...

I'll try to consolidate relevant text and video information contained in the book in this thread. 'The God Particle': The Higgs Boson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_HrQVhgbeo Higgs boson The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive scalar elementary particle predicted to exist by the Standard Model o...

Actually, I completely got out of reading fiction 10 or so years ago, concentrating on math, physics, and computers instead.

I heard that his last novel before he died was very good. I think it was about exposing the global warming scam or something.

It does sound like a book I would like to read. The only fiction I read is the type based on actual science gone wrong, usually resulting in the possible collapse of humanity. Like Michael Crichton's "The Andromeda Strain". But, I'm currently unemployed. Chris bought a copy of Stephen Hawk...

I never watched Bruce Almighty, but I'm fairly certain the term "monkeys fly out of my butt" has been around since I was young. Not as long as "when pigs fly" however.

Oh, and the second half of the second podcast is an interview with a physicist book writer about particle physics, the LHC at CERN, and the Higgs Boson!

You have never seen the Wayne's World movie before apparently.

That is what my Mom used to tell me, that as a child she was very scared of the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz.

Now I have to wonder where the phrase "When monkeys fly out of my butt" originated.

My favorite podcast, The John Batchelor Show, interviewed Leonard Mlodinow last night about the book.

It's on the second half of this podcast hour.

And continues on the first half of this podcast hour.