Foreword: I hope you enjoy this little book, which I designed on the last day of my paternity leave in 2021, to attempt to explain what I do to my newborn daughter. I hope it helps to inspire the next generation of budding scientists! You can find the printable version of the book here, along with captions.
What is Particle Physics for Babies?
Particle physics is a field full of striking visuals: from Feynman diagrams to event displays, there is no shortage of colourful high-contrast shapes and designs to capture the imagination. Can these visuals be used to reach out to budding scientists from their very earliest days? That’s what I tried to achieve with this book.
“Particle Physics for Babies” children’s book which I imagined after the birth of my daughter, as a first-time dad who wanted to find a way to communicate his physics passion to his child. On the last day of my parental leave, I set to work and created a prototype, which I got printed online. The book was intended for personal use, but as I told my friends and family about it, the requests started to poor in.
Eventually, I got in touch with the ATLAS outreach team and the International Particle Physics Outreach Group, who helped me to take this idea to the next level. A major addition was a link to the downloadable captions which allow parents to explain the images in the book to their children or grandchildren with confidence, allowing science to be part of a new child’s universe from day 0.
Captions and print-at-home materials
Don’t know a neutron from a neutrino? No problem! These downloadable captions mean that you explain the images in your book with your child, grandchild, niece or nephew in confidence !
🇬🇧 Original captions | Printer-friendly captions 🇬🇧 (English)
Written by: Dr. Louie Corpe, CERN, Geneva
🇫🇷 Explications | Explications imprimables 🇫🇷 (French/Français)
Translated by: Dr. Nicolas Arnaud, communication and outreach team, Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (CNRS/IN2P3)
🇩🇪 Erklärungen | Druckbare Erklärungen 🇩🇪 (German/Deutsch)
Translated by: Prof. Dr. Christian Klein-Bösing, Institut für Kernphysik, Münster, Germany
🇳🇱 Uitleg | Afdrukbare uitleg🇳🇱 (Dutch/Nederlands)
Translated by: Dr. Adinda de Wit, University of Zürich, Switzerland
🇪🇸 Explicaciones | Explicaciones para imprimir 🇪🇸 (Spanish/Español)
Translated by: Dr. Tamara Vázquez Schröder, CERN, Geneva
🇮🇷 تفسيرات | شروحات غير متوقعة 🇮🇷 (Farsi/الفارسية)
Translated by: Dr. Soleiman Rasouli, Mahabad, Iran
Please get in touch if you can help translate the captions into other languages, in return for a free book!)
You can find out more about the book here.
Where can I get it?
Particle Physics for Babies is now available from the CERN gift shop, the ATLAS secretariat and from this page. Each book costs 10 GBP / 12 EUR / 12 CHF.
Postage costs for up to 4 books are approximately 2 EUR for France, 4 EUR for Europe and 6 EUR for the rest of the world. Tracked options are also available.
To order, just fill out this form stating how many books you’d be interested in ordering, and where you’d like them sent. Once everything is agreed I will send you a PayPal link.
If you have anything you’d like to discuss with me, or if you’d like a quote for buying a larger number of books, please get in touch!
Louie D. Corpe 