Smash!: Exploring the Mysteries of the Universe with the Large Hadron Collider Paperback – Illustrated, January 1, 2017

Made the science behind the LHC easier to understand for my 9 year old!

Smash, written by Sara Latta and illustrated by Jeff Weigel, is a clear and concise explanation for young people of the standard model of physics (including the newly discovered Higgs Boson) and in particular of how the giant CERN supercollider contributes to furthering the model’s accuracy/completeness. Saying the book is aimed at the young, however, does it a bit of a disservice, as it works just as well for adults looking for that same clarity and concision.In tried and true format, Latta has much of the explanation take the form of a dialogue between one knowledgeable person (Sophie, whose parents work at CERN) explaining a difficult concept to one struggling to understand it (her cousin Nick, visiting CERN in hope of finding inspiration for a superhero comic he’s drawing for a contest). As Sophie gives Nick a tour of CERN’s more public facilities, she teaches him the basics of the standard model, describing various particles such as protons, neutrons, and electrons; the various quarks that make up those larger particles, and the several known force carriers such as the photon (electromagnetic force) and gluon (strong force). Thanks to some imagination and Weigel’s drawings, her lecture is supplemented by the appearance of some of the well-known physicists whose discoveries added to the Standard Model. These include J.J. Thomson, discoverer of the electron; George Zweig and Murray Gell-Mann, who proposed and named the quark, and Peter Higgs, who with several colleagues came up with the idea of the Higgs field and the Higgs Boson. Einstein pops in with his famous E = MC squared equation, and then, in a series of cosmic panels the two kids swirl through space as Sophie explains the creation of the universe, starting with the Big Bang, moving through the creation of matter/energy, the formation of galaxies, and eventually ending roughly ten billion years later with “our very own blue marble in space.”At that point, Sophie’s parents enter the picture (literally), and we get a detailed tour and explanation of the inner workings of the CERN system, including how it gets the particles up to speed, what happens to the particles when they collide, and then the long and eventually successful search for the Higgs Boson. Scientists, though, are never satisfied, and so rather than end there, we learn about several of the largest unanswered questions still facing physicists, such as finding out what dark matter and dark energy are, which together make up perhaps 96% of the universe.As mentioned at the start, Latta does an excellent job keeping the explanations clear and simple, greatly aided by Weigel’s equally clean illustrations. Latta makes use of several especially clarifying analogies/metaphors, as when she explains how the Higgs Field/Higgs Boson create mass by comparing it to Nick’s grandmother (representing a low-mass particle like an electron) walking through a crowded comics convention: “Everyone just kind of ignores her, and she passes through the crowd easily.” But when, Sophie continues, a “superstar artist” (representing a high-mass particle) walks into the same crowded room, “he’s mobbed. Everybody in the room tries to interact with him and so he moves very slowly across the room . . . because of his interaction with the field.”Smash is a highly effective meshing of text and illustration to teach a difficult-to-grasp concept, making the story of physics and in particular of the CERN collider and the Higgs Boson compelling both visually and conceptually. Adding a bit of superhero into the mix is a nice pop culture touch (Nick comes up with a superhero team of three: Higgsmann, BottomQuark, and TopQuark) and props as well for not making a big deal of having women scientists but simply presenting the concept as a given. I wouldn’t mind seeing more science-based books from this author-illustrator team.(originally appeared on fantasyliterature.com)

Even an older grandpa like me can relate to the format of this book.

I thought this book did a great job explaining hard concepts. I would recommend it.

Nick picked up his suitcase at the carousel in Geneva and waved to Sophie. “Hey, cuz,” he quipped, “thanks for coming to meet me.” Sophie was anxious to take him to CERN to show him the place where her “parents helped discover this super-important thing called the Higginbotoom” according to his parents. Make that Higgs Boson, but no problem! Nick was an art student and not all that into physics like cousin Sophie and her parents. Not to worry, by the time he went home he’d be well-versed in this Higgs Boson stuff ... maybe!One cool thing that both Nick and Sophie agreed upon that was the sculpture outside CERN, the “European Organization for Nuclear Research,” was some cool! It was a blend of both science and art. “Basically,” Sophie explained, “Physicists today are still trying to answer the questions that they were asking thousands of years ago.” Nick could read some of the Greek characters on the sculpture, characters that spelled out some of the Greek’s names and like Democritus and terms such as atomos. Sophie found J.J. Thomson’s name on the ribbon-like sculpture.Thompson had his own theories, including one about about negatively charged particles. He “imagined that the atom was a ball of positively charged matter with negatively charged ions scattered throughout ... rather like raisins in a plum pudding.” Thompson was only one scientist who was pondering the mysteries of the universe, but since his day advances were made. No plum pudding raisins, but rather those particles are known as quarks. George Zweig and Murray Gell-mann, particle physicists, developed the theory of the quark model.According to Sophie, quarks were a “part of the Standard Model,” a model that was rather like a cookbook. It tells us “how to make a universe with just a few ingredients.” She began to tutor Nick about quarks: “Two up quarks and one down quark make a proton” and “one quark up and two down quarks make a neutron.” Easy peasey! Sorta. There was more to the Standard model than a mere six quarks so Sophie had a lot more to explain about particle physics. Could she get him up to snuff, enough so he’d be able to understand what was going on at CERN and the super-important Higgs boson discovery?This is a fabulously fun tour of “the mysteries of the universe” with particle physics readers will love. Of course this graphic novel doesn’t really get into the nitty gritty of particle physics, but is a great introduction to the history, especially the discovery of the Higgs boson and the Standard Model. Wt travel to Geneva with the cousins where they head to CERN to check out the Large Hadron Collider. Nick is not exactly into science, but Sophie lives for it. This amazing graphic novel will satisfy all sorts of students, from the not-so-much into science to those who live for it. Jess Weigel’s illustrations definitely make “Smash” into a smash hit of a particle physics tale!Reading Grade Level: 5Interest Grade Level: 8 to 12Ages 13 to 18This book courtesy of the publisher.

Two teen-aged cousins visit the Large Hadron Collider (or LHR as it is often referred to) in Cern, Switzerland. Nick likes to draw comics, Sophie knows a lot of physics. They team up to find out more about the science of subatomic particles and the four fundamental forces. She explains a bunch of things to him; they also find out some history of the LHR and some of the work and discoveries accomplished there.The book is a thinly-veiled overview of basic concepts of the Standard Model of particle physics. The story of the kids is not at all interesting. Nick has an idea to make a comic about their adventure--maybe the creators thought that was clever? Sophie is little more than a conduit for explanations. The jokes are infrequent and not particularly funny.This is great as a high-level overview of physics but not particularly engaging as a story. I did learn things but I was not very entertained.

Great book about particle physics!