Become a Particle Physicist in Eight Simple Moves, by Simone Ragoni, Acrobat Edizioni Di Marchetti Nicola
Simone Ragoni is passionate about outreach. His Instagram page, quarktastic, has more than 10 thousand followers, and is one of the very few that successfully makes particle physics and academia relatable. He wrote Become a Particle Physicist in Eight Simple Moves while completing his PhD on the ALICE experiment. The first move is to sip his favourite beverage: coffee.
As a social-media manager and communicator, I’ve been following Ragoni for years. His main tool is humour. And I’m proof it works. I will always remember the basic structure of a proton, because life is indeed full of “ups” and “downs”.
Did I say gentle humour? Nah. Ragoni goes all the way. But he confesses that his humour can only be understood by a handful of people. Particle physics is esoteric – and readers will want to join the club. His book invites you into the world of a young particle physicist. Being a nerd is the new cool.
A highlight is when Ragoni describes how to keep those distributions fit. If you know, you know. There is a pun here and the author explains it very well. He next turns to the tedious work that goes into publishing a paper. “Monte Carlo simulations are our real playground,” he writes, “where we unleash all our fantasy, the perfect world where everything is nice.” But particle physicists are cautious. Five sigma is needed to claim a discovery – a one in 3.5 million chance of being wrong. The author concludes with encouragement to make your own measurements using CERN’s open data.
Ragoni’s book is a delightful gift for anyone whom you want to inspire to become a particle physicist of tomorrow or simply to convey the excitement of what you do, with a quirky bonus of being presented bilingually in English and Italian, should you be keen on improving your physics vocab in one of those languages. It is a gateway to the captivating world of particle physics, skilfully blending humour with profound insights, and inspiring readers to explore further and consider joining the ranks of future particle physicists.
