Reddit reviews The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality

Talk about low and over the plate! Well, as it happens, I included an excerpted version of my intro at io9 yesterday that deals with a lot of that:

http://io9.com/an-excerpt-from-dave-goldbergs-universe-in-the-rearvi-670374746

But the upshot is that virtually all of the laws of nature seem to be built around symmetry principles. Assuming the laws are unchanging in time yields conservation of energy. That they are unchanging in space leads to conservation of momentum (Newton's 1st law). We owe this insight to the Mathematician Emmy Noether, the hero of my book.

There are lots of other symmetries as well, but in many cases, the asymmetries are even more interesting. Why are you made of matter and not antimatter? If the two were exact reflections of one another (and they very nearly are) they should exactly balance, completely annihilate, and leave us with an empty universe.

Or take the arrow of time. At the microscopic level, almost every particle interaction looks equally valid seen forward or reversed, and yet the universe has a very definite future and past; you remember one and not the other.

Our standard model of physics is BUILT on symmetries (e.g. http://io9.com/where-does-the-standard-model-of-physics-come-from-599641558 ), up to and including the Higgs Boson.

I hope you folks do consider checking it out:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Universe-Rearview-Mirror-Symmetries/dp/0525953663

I haven't learned particle physics, but I read A Universe in the Rearview mirror and the author gives a pretty good idea of symmetries, anti-symmetries, and talks about several other topics in particle physics that a layman can understand.

Although it's not a textbook, I'd recommend reading it.