In Lucifer's Legacy, physicist and broadcaster Frank Close explores the origins of asymmetry from life to the Universe at large. He asks whether this multitude of examples can be traced back to a single act that took place at the origin of our Universe. Inspired by a chance meeting with Lucifer in the Tuilerie gardens in Paris, Close takes the reader on a sweeping tour of asymmetry in the world around us, from the development of human embryos to the mysterious Higgs boson. His tour culminates in the research now underway in Switzerland, where scientists are preparing an experiment to recreate the Big Bang and hope to resolve the mystery of original asymmetry. Lucifer's Legacy describes the possible outcomes of this experiment, and assesses their implications for our understanding of the Universe.
