Enjoy Our Universe : You Have No Other Choice

Enjoy Our Universe is a guide for an enjoyable visit to the Universe. The "Universe" refers to all "observable things," ranging in size from the entire cosmos to elementary particles. This small tome on fundamental physics, cosmology, Higgs bosons, time travel and all that, is unlike any other analogous book. Its scientific statements are correct or, at least, they coincide with the opinions held by the vast majority of experts. It establishes clear distinctions between things we know for sure -- in the sense of having strong observational support for them -- and things that we know that we do not know, or we do not understand. In this sense, it is scientifically honest.

In descriptions of our Universe and of the way it functions, beauty is a recurring word. In an attempt to portray its beauty from the eyes of the beholder, the book is profusely illustrated. Its offbeat, tongue-in-cheek illustrations greatly enhance its readability, particularly in those chapters whose understanding, admittedly, requires a little extra effort. This book's idiosyncracies remind us of our own smallness and eccentricities even as we read about the logic, function and magnificence of the Universe.

Alvaro De Rujula, CERN, Geneva

Alvaro De Rujula was born in Madrid, where he studied physics and obtained his PhD. He has worked in Italy (International Institute of Theoretical Physics, Trieste), France (Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques), the USA (Harvard and Boston Universities) and CERN (in various positions, from Summer Student to leader of the Theory Division). He also is currently at the Instituto de Fisica Teorica of the Autonomous University of Madrid (IFT/UAM/CSIC). In the 1970's he contributed to the consolidation of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, mainly QCD and its charmed quarks. He has also worked on neutrinos (mass measurements and Earth tomography), the absence of antimatter in the Universe, how to discover the Higgs...