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The first major biography of Peter Higgs, revealing how a short burst of work changed modern physics On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have mass, had finally been discovered. On the rostrum, surrounded by jostling physicists and media, was the particle’s retiring namesake—the only person in history to have an existing single particle named for them. Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs and others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world’s most famous scientists. Close finds that scientific competition between people, institutions, and states played as much of a role in making Higgs famous as Higgs’s work did. A revelatory study of both a scientist and his era, Elusive will remake our understanding of modern physics. Prelude: The Case of the Disappearing Professor PART 1 A Name on the Board The Single Helix The Particle Explosion The Super Conductor Higgs’ Epiphany Now We Are Six Birth of a Boson “Peter—You’re Famous!” PART 2 The First Disappearance—1976 Every Journey Begins with a Single Step A Machine for 1 TeV Father of the God Particle The “Doomsday Machine” “We Should Go to CERN” The Fourth of July PART 3 “Time to Plan My Escape” The Glittering Prizes Zigzag Epilogue: The View Across the Plains