Prof Jon Butterworth, head of UCL Physics & Astronomy, has been shortlisted for this year’s Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.
His book, Smashing Physics: Inside the World’s Biggest Experiment, gives an insider’s view of the scientific discovery of the decade. As a key member of the ATLAS collaboration, Butterworth was part of the team that discovered the Higgs boson at CERN.
The judges said: “With his unique insider perspective, Butterworth has humanized a classic science story that we all thought we knew. His writing is so engaging that he makes some of the most advanced science around seem within our grasp.”
The other shortlisted books are:
- The Man who Couldn’t Stop by David Adam
- Alex Through the Looking Glass by Alex Bellos
- Life’s Greatest Secret by Matthew Cobb
- Life on the Edge by Johnjoe McFadden and Jim al-Khalili
- Adventures in the Anthropocene by Gaia Vince
Jon says: “I feel very honoured to be short-listed in such varied and distinguished company! I tried to make Smashing Physics fun to read without trivialising the physics. Maybe it actually worked!”
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