Episode · People I (Mostly) Admire · 2025-11-08
Books mentioned on 170. Finding the God Particle
Physicist and former pop star Brian Cox tells Steve about discovering the Higgs boson, having a number-one hit, and why particle physics research will almost certainly not create a black hole that destroys all life on earth. SOURCES:Brian Cox, physicist at the University of Manchester.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce is a famously dense and experimental modernist novel known for its idiosyncratic language and dreamlike structure.
Discussed“And the very famous quote from Finnegan's Wake called three quarks for muster mark or something like that. It was because he thought there were three of them at the time and that explained the pattern we saw in the particles we were producing at particle accelerators.”
Where to get it
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Black Holes
Black Holes by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw is an accessible science book that explores the mysteries of astrophysics and the nature of the universe.
Recommended“Brian Cox's most recent book is titled Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe.”
Where to get it
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A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is a popular science book exploring cosmology, black holes, and the origin of the universe.
Discussed“I think like many people my first real introduction to black holes was Stephen Hawkings book a brief history of time and I think that book must have come out in the 1980s and it sold millions and millions of copies probably one of the bestselling science books of all time.”
Where to get it
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Out of the Mist
Discussed“So we made the album, an album called Out of the Silence, which I still like by the way. I think it's a really good late 80s kind of soft rock album.”
Where to get it
