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|summary=A lucid explanation concerning the symmetry breaking force that makes the world an interesting placeaccompanied by excellent notes and a useful bibliography.

The first third of '''Higgs Force''' is an introduction to basic atomic theory, symmetry, and the creation of elements during the evolution of stars. Our bodies, containing carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, amongst other elements, were formed in nuclear reactions in the high temperatures in stellar interiors. We are all literally composed of this star dust.

Our knowledge of the conditions in stars is largely derived from the study of spectra from the light emitted from them. This 'barcode' is explained in terms of the theory of quantum mechanics. This theory was developed by Bohr, Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger. Heisenberg's discovery of the Uncertainty Principle, and his putative work for the Nazis on the Bomb, and indeed his intense arguments with Bohr are featured in Michael Frayn's remarkable play, ''Copenhagen''. Nicholas Mee, however, remarks how Heisenberg's matrix mechanics in the early 1930s could be proved equivalent to Schrödinger's wave mechanics and explains the 'barcode' spectra of the hydrogen atom and much else besides. In the next chapter on quantum electrodynamics (QED), Dr Mee shows how the weak interactions between electrons and virtual photons were independently explained by the complex mathematics of Julian Schwinger, on the tiny magnetic field of spinning electrons, and the more intuitive diagrams of his fellow New York scientist, the brilliant Richard Feynman. Two Englishmen also feature in this story, in a manner that retains human interest, the strange Paul Dirac from Bristol-his father was actually French- and the talented mathematician and eloquent expositor, Freeman Dyson. Thus the essential underlying concepts of this type of physics; symmetry, equivalence and symmetry breaking are all explained in an accessible manner.