book reviews very existence of the observable Universe to understand if it were not universally depends upon the spontaneous manifesta- chiral. tion of asymmetry, the phenomenon physi- I personally think it a great pity that Close cists call ‘broken symmetry’. Close focuses, at did not tell the story of broken symmetry as it first, on two discrete broken symmetries: the really happened, because it is a heartening universal ‘handedness’ of life — its left–right story of one of those rare periods when the asymmetry — and the cosmic preference for fragmentation of theoretical physics into matter over antimatter. In the final chapters, condensed-matter, nuclear and particle he goes on to expound the broken continu- branches was temporarily healed and we ous symmetry that is behind the unification were all consciously working together in of weak and electromagnetic interactions. exploring the many quantum consequences It is hard to judge how accessible the lay- of the idea of broken symmetry. man will find tutorial explication of the sort These consequences are as far-reaching contained in this book. For instance, it’s not and as intellectually stimulating in con- clear to me why Stephen Hawking’s writing densed matter as in particle physics, and in seems to be comprehensible, or at least not discussing them Close reveals a definite acceptable, to the layman; I would judge bias in favour of the ‘clean machines’ of par- Close to be much more accessible. So, to my ticle physics as opposed to the mundane limited sense of these things, this should be a complications of condensed matter. Not sur- book that the interested layman will enjoy. prisingly, the book ends with a paean in But here’s the rub. As I read on, I became praise of the magnificent (and magnificently increasingly uncomfortable, and particular- expensive) particle physics machinery at ly so in the final chapters. The first rule of CERN, in happy anticipation of a continued popular writing about science should paral- A double-take on flow of exciting results. One must, of course, lel the well-known law of medicine: ‘First, do share his hope, if not necessarily his opti- no harm’, which in this context translates nature’s helix mism. But I regret very deeply the missed into, ‘First, get the story straight’. The striking symmetry of the X-ray opportunity to demonstrate to laymen the There are three noteworthy failures to do crystallograph of DNA prepared by Rosalind unity of the physics enterprise, and Close’s this. Two major ones may derive from the Franklin was one of the last clues that led treatment of the rest of physics as a poor praiseworthy motivation of making the pre- Watson and Crick to deduce the left-handed relation of particle physics, of simply histori- sentation easier or more dramatic, but as the double-helical structure of DNA. From cal value. I ‘first rule’ points out, the baby should not go Nature’s Connections: An Exploration of P. W. Anderson is in the Department of Physics, out with the bath water. Natural History by Nicola McGirr (Natural Princeton University, PO Box 708, Princeton, In a book focusing, as this does, on sym- History Museum, £12.95). New Jersey 08544-0708, USA. metry, it seems misleading not to explain the fundamental principle that all interaction and applied to particle physics in 1963, a year follows from symmetry: the gauge principle before Higgs’ “great inspiration”. The major of London and Weyl, modelled on and fore- portion of the credit has correctly gone to shadowed by Einstein’s derivation of gravity Steve Weinberg, Abdus Salam, Sheldon Portrait of an from general relativity (Einstein seems to be Glashow and John Ward (recently deceased), at the root of everything). The beautiful idea who, around 1967, put all these ideas togeth- élite world that every continuous symmetry implies a er in the right way. (A revelatory hint that Cavendish: The Experimental Life conservation law, and an accompanying Close has not understood the mechanics of by Christa Jungnickel and interaction between the conserved charges, the Goldstone–Higgs process is the use of Russell McCormmach determines the structure of all of the inter- the false analogy to ferromagnetism; unlike Bucknell University Press: 1999. 814 pp. actions of physics. It is not appropriate to try the ferromagnetic moment, the Higgs field £28, $34.50 to approach advanced topics such as electro- is not a constant of the motion!) Higgs, John Gascoigne weak unification and supersymmetry with- whom Close measures up for a Nobel, was a out this foundation block. rather minor player, whose contribution The name ‘Cavendish’ immediately calls to Second, there is little resemblance was parallel to that of Robert Brout and mind the Cambridge laboratory that has between the real story of how broken sym- François Englert. produced more Nobel prizewinners than metry entered particle physics — and of the A precedent for Close’s emphasis on the any other scientific institution. There is a ‘Higgs phenomenon’ as the generator of Higgs particle, if not on Peter Higgs himself, link between the laboratory and the late- mass — and the rather dramatic little myth is the older attempt to cover some of the same eighteenth-century Henry Cavendish who is created by Close around these events. One material, Leon Lederman’s The God Particle the subject of this definitive biography, but it supposes that the classic stories of discovery, (1990), in which the eponymous particle is is an indirect one. When, in 1874, the Duke some of which Close retells elsewhere in the indeed the Higgson. Close will leave the of Devonshire displayed his aristocratic book, may traditionally be somewhat re- reader much less confused than will Leder- munificence in founding the laboratory, touched to spice up the exposition; but that is man, and is wonderfully frugal with irrele- he chose to commemorate the scientific no excuse for making up a new myth out of vant detail; but the account of the physics has achievements of his distant relative. whole cloth. similar weaknesses. It was an appropriate memorial, as The idea of broken symmetry as a way of Finally, while the attention of a few family tradition played an important part generating mass is universally credited to biologists has been caught by the physicists’ in shaping Henry Cavendish’s scientific Yoichiro Nambu, who was inspired in natural conjecture that the handedness of life endeavours. The biography brings this 1959–60 by the then new BCS theory of is somehow affected by that of the weak aspect out well by taking as its subject not superconductivity. The Higgs phenomenon interactions, I sense that most thinkers on only Henry but also his little-known father, was, in fact, discovered in that theory by me evolution feel that life would be much harder Charles. As the grandson of two dukes © 2000 Macmillan Magazines Ltd NATURE | VOL 405 | 15 JUNE 2000 | www.nature.com 737 book reviews (Devonshire and Kent), young Henry had no Antoine Lavoisier to develop a totally new need to trouble himself with earning a living, understanding of the concept of an element. and as he grew older he grew richer, thanks to In this lengthy work, the authors clearly family legacies, a frugal lifestyle and secure and systematically describe Cavendish’s sci- investments. He became, as the French entific achievements as well as providing a physicist Jean Biot put it, “ the wisest of the portrait of the élite world in which he and his rich and the richest of the wise”. father developed their scientific interests. But he came from an aristocratic élite This new edition also publishes Cavendish’s whose long survival owed much to the fact surviving scientific correspondence. that they generally understood that privilege After such Herculean labours, it is natur- had to be balanced by some form of service. al enough for the authors to place their sub- The most common form taken by such civic ject on a very high pedestal. Their view that duty was to enter politics, as Henry’s father Cavendish “was the preeminent mathemati- had done. But such a course was closed to cal and experimental scientist in Britain in Henry by a chronic shyness that led to him the century and a half between Newton and THE SCIENCE MUSEUM/SCIENCE & SOCIETY LIBRARY PICTURE literally fleeing if he was button-holed at a Thompson and Maxwell” may be defended, social gathering and by a morbid fear of although others might yield such laurels to female company. Thomas Young or Michael Faraday. More So, with paternal blessing, Henry turned contentious is their claim that “Cavendish is to science and, in particular, to experimental one of the greatest scientists ever, as he is one science of the kind cultivated by his father. of the most unusual personalities of sci- He also continued his father’s tradition of Tools of his trade: lenses used by Cavendish, who ence”. That claim is perhaps based on an service to the Royal Society and other viewed science as a form of escape. assessment of the whole corpus of his work, learned institutions such as the British with insufficient allowance for the fact that Museum. Indeed, it is one of the paradoxes enabled Cavendish to calculate the Earth’s scientific eminence can generally accrue of Cavendish’s career that such an extremely density and weight. only from published work. For the aristo- introverted character should have been a Cavendish’s work was also informed by cratic Henry Cavendish, spared the financial good committee man. Not only did he serve the view that, to some degree, all natural phe- pressures to turn knowledge into the Royal Society in various capacities, but nomena could be explained in terms of the career capital, publication he was also a manager of the Royal Institu- behaviour of fluids.