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- Lederman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 for discovering a second type of neutrino.
- He invented the nickname "particle of God" for the Higgs boson in his best-seller of 1993 The particle of God: if the universe is the answer, what is the question?
- In 2015, Lederman and his family sold his Nobel Prize for paying medical bills resulting from dementia.
Leon Lederman, Nobel Prize and particle physicist known for his sense of humor and his ability to explain physics to the general public, died at the age of 96.
During his long and distinguished career, Lederman led the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, calling the term "divine particle" the Higgs boson, and conducted groundbreaking research that laid the groundwork for the standard model. particle physics to explain almost every force in the universe apart from gravity.
In 1988, Lederman and two of his colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize for physics for discovering a second type of neutrino, the muon. (Scientists later discovered a third called tau.) The Nobel Foundation wrote:
"In the decays of some elementary particles, neutrinos are produced, particles that occasionally interact with matter produce electrons, Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger have managed to create a neutrino beam using a high-energy accelerator. In 1962, they discovered that, in some cases, instead of producing an electron, a muon (200 times heavier than an electron) was produced, thus proving the existence of a new type of neutrino, the neutrino of These particles, collectively called "leptons", could then be systematically classified into families.
In addition to discovering and experimenting with subatomic particles, Lederman also emphasized the importance of particle physics to the general public, particularly in his best-selling book of 1993 The particle of God: if the universe is the answer, what is the question?
He described his choice to nickname the Higgs boson as follows:
"This boson is so central in the state of physics today, so crucial to our ultimate understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I gave it the nickname" Particle of God. Why God Particle? Two reasons. One, the editor did not let us call the fucking particle, although this may be a more appropriate title, given its perverse nature and the expense it entails. And two, there is a link, somehow, with another book, a a lot an older one … "
To say that physicists, including Peter Higgs himself, did not like the nickname, would be a euphemism. In a 2009 article for The Guardian, The science journalist Ian Sample asks a physicist at the University of Manchester what he thinks of the name:
"He paused, he sighed, and then he said," I really really do not like it. He sends all the wrong messages. This overestimates the case. This makes us look arrogant. He then added, "If you walked down the hall here, put your head in people's offices and ask, you could be hit by flying books."
Image: Fermilab
Leon Lederman.
Although he was an atheist, Lederman did not propose that physics provide an exhaustive explanation of our universe.
"There is always a place at the limit of our knowledge, where what is beyond is unimaginable, and this advantage, of course, evolves," Lederman said. The New York Times in 1998, adding that we may know the laws of physics but we did not know where they came from, which left us "stuck".
"I usually say:" Go across the street to the theology school and ask these guys, because I do not know. "
In 2015, Lederman's Nobel Prize gold medal was auctioned for $ 765,002 in order to pay his medical bills resulting from a dementia.
"I am shocked that it has sold out," said Lederman's wife, Ellen, to the Associated Press. "It's really hard, I'd like it to be different, but he's happy, he likes where he lives with cats, dogs and horses." no problem with anxiety and that makes me happy that he is so happy. "
Lederman has already described the state of mind in which he has often found himself doing his best. "The best discoveries always seem to be made in the wee hours of the morning, when most people sleep, where there are no troubles and where the mind becomes more contemplative," he said. to Malcolm W. Browne, science writer. Discover magazine in 1981.
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