The God Particle

Two books that are fun to read together if interested in "pop" physics:

• The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edget of a New World, Sean Carroll, c. 2012
• Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World, Lisa Randall, c. 2011

If I had time to read only one, I think I would recommend Sean Carroll's. Lisa Randall's is just a bit too wordy. Sean has some nice glossy photos and a great graphic of the Standard Model.

There are four forces: electromagnetic, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and gravity.

There is a fifth force field: the Higgs field.

Our universe would not need the Higgs field or Higgs boson to exist but it would be a very, very different world. The four "legacy" forces are the forces that mediate relationships among the particles of the universe.

• the electromagnetic: charged particles
• strong nuclear: hold hadrons together inside the nuclear; 100x stronger than the e-m force
• weak nuclear: radioactivity; neutron decay
• gravity: very, very, very weak; 

The Higgs field gives mass to all particles: without the Higgs boson, all particles would be massless. The Higgs field is also a force field -- just as the four "legacy" fields are force fields, but the Higgs field is much different. It is likely physicists and students will be referring to "four" forces of the universe for a long, long time, despite knowing there is a fifth force, the Higgs field.

As least that's how I understand it.