Ever since the Large Hadron Collider went operational in September 2008, anticipation built around the sighting of the Higgs boson, regrettably labeled as the “God particle” because of the erroneous belief that its discovery would be the key that unlocks the final mysteries of the universe. Given the publicity, eager anticipation, and long gestation period surrounding this particular birth, it should not be surprising that there have been many books documenting its ancestry lurking in the wings, waiting for the final announcement to start the presses rolling.

Beginning in the first half of 2011, rumors began circulating that signs of the Higgs had been detected, only to be damped and then re-emerge once again, creating a cycle of buzz that built up until the momentous seminar held at CERN on July 4, 2012 announcing the discovery of a new particle with a mass of 125 GeV that was hailed in...

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