Massive

In Massive, prize-winning science journalist Ian Sample tells the story of the race to locate the Higgs Boson, the elusive particle whose existence remains to be proven. Since 1964, when Peter Higgs described an over-arching theory of mass that depended on the Higgs boson, the scientific community has been possessed by the increasingly competitive race to prove its existence. The ensuing four-decade quest has cost billions of dollars and consumed the attention of scientific luminaries and of politicians eager to ensure that their home country would be the one to get credit for discovering the long-sought-after particle. Now, with the Large Hadron Collider up and running, the discovery of the Higgs boson seems finally to be within our grasp. Sample’s Massive provides the juicy backstory to what will possibly be the defining discovery of modern physics, complete with intense rivalries, clashing egos, and grand ambition.

Ian Sample is an award-winning science correspondent at the Guardian. His writing appears regularly across the news, features, comment and weekend magazine sections of the newspaper and associated websites. He holds a PhD in biomedical science from Queen Mary, University of London and has won several journalism prizes, including two from the Association of British Science Writers, which named him investigative journalist of the year in 2005. He joined the Guardian in 2003 after four years as a reporter, feature writer and news editor at New Scientist magazine. He lives in London.