In Search of the Ultimate Building Blocks

Abstract

When I was a graduate student in the early 1970s Gerard 't Hooft was very popular. He was among the leading scientists who made a vital contribution to the standard theory (during his PhD studies). The renormalization of the theories consisting of Yang - Mills-type gauge fields owe much to 't Hooft and his PhD supervisor Veltman. In this book 't Hooft summarizes, as a scientist directly involved in the activity and in a very concise and comprehensible way, the status of high-energy physics in three periods: the period prior to him (before 1965), the active period (1965 - 1990) and the present period (after 1990). This book is not like Weinberg's The First Three Minutes or Hawking's A Brief History of Time or some other popular books in the field; the author also gives a detailed account of his scientific experiences during the last quarter of the 20th Century. 't Hooft's book In Search of the Ultimate Building Blocks is mainly addressed at educated general (Dutch) readers and to physics students. Given this audience he tries to avoid using mathematical formulae and expresses everything in plain words, using pictures and tables. In spite of such a handicap he manages to elucidate many important concepts like renormalization, asymptotic freedom, quark confinement, etc. The first part of the book, consisting of four chapters, discusses mainly introductory concepts such as quantum phenomena and electromagnetic and gravitational interactions in an elementary way. The second part, describing the active period (1965 - 1990), consists of 16 chapters (chapters 5 - 20). In this part the author explains the progress in elementary particle physics. Here readers will witness the competition among scientists (both in experimental and theoretical physics) and will observe how experiment and theory complement each other. This book will also help them to understand why physicists use different theories in different distant scales and try to unify them at very short (Planck's length) distances. 't Hooft describes his contributions, experiences and the activities going on around him during this period. The last part of the book (chapters 21 - 28) covers the present period. In these chapters he gives a view of the recent status of high-energy physics and also discusses whether an ultimate theory, unifying all existing forces in nature, really does exist. In the last few chapters he gives his personal point of view on future activities in high-energy physics. I think Gerard 't Hooft's book summarizes well the position of high-energy physics at the end of the 20th Century, the successes of this century and unfinished work for the coming century. It is, in general, more difficult to write a popular article or a book than writing a technical paper. With this book Gerard 't Hooft also proves his ability in this direction; his book In Search of the Ultimate Building Blocks is a nice, readable and comprehensible book. It is a valuable contribution to the popular physics literature and I would recommend all physics students and also all physicists in different fields to read 't Hooft's book.