<p>Dont worry, you're fine. And its not local strings but rather lol-strings, which you might agree with if youve gone over string theory. And I think the reason I chose HIGGS for a Ford Pickup is because we have invested a lot of time money and energy into finding it, and there is not guarantee that it will even work. </p>
<p>Though if you want to read some physics stuff, I would recommend:</p>
<p>The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene
Cosmos, Carl Sagan
QED, Richard Feynman - I would especially recommend this since its associated with some class you have to take here (either EM or special relativity and quantum mech, I took both at the same time so I cant remember which it is)</p>
<p>I've heard of The Elegant Universe, but I thought it was just a video series.</p>
<p>So I'm going to pick three books up from the library over the next few days and start reading them. I've actually begun to get bored with nothing to do, which feels like the sky is falling after two years of IB :O</p>
<p>Thanks for the book reccommendations - they look like interesting reads.</p>
<p>Another good intro to the Standard Model is The Theory of Almost Everything by Robert Oerter. It gives a great overview of modern physics, and excellent explanations of things like virtual particles and mexican hat potentials. Also, if you are going to read Brian Greene's books, I would recommend reading The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin to get a balanced perspective. Dr. Greene has a tendency to make string theory sound like a flawless model, when in fact there are a number of problems and unproved postulates that string theorists have yet to deal with. I will put in my two cents for QED though. I loved reading that book.</p>
<p>I read the first few pages of Lee Smolin's book and I'd say he goes a <em>bit</em> farther than show the flaws of String Theory. From the introduction, it looks like he trashes the whole model.</p>
<p>I stopped reading that one once Feynman's book QED came in from interlibrary loan... and all I can say is "wow." It all makes sense now! Feynman is officially the best guy ever now :)</p>