A Hole In Texas by Herman Wouk

 

This is a work of fiction and physics plays an essential role in it.  But it's not "science fiction" as one might most often expect it.  The background of the story is the cancellation of the Superconducting Super-Collider (SSC) in 1993.  According to this book, some years later, Chinese physicists announce they've discovered the Higgs boson, using a very different kind of detector.  (The Higgs boson is a postulated sub-atomic particle responsible for imparting mass to matter.  The search for the Higgs had been an important goal of the SSC.)  In this way the book refers to major questions in the future of physics.

 

As far as the story goes, it doesn't focus on scientists in the laboratory or on what the scientists produce in the labs.  It's not set in a time much different from today.  It takes place in the US on Earth.  Neither the society nor the technology is much different than what we have.  I found the book entertaining, but it may not be what you anticipate for SF.

 

It's about the politics that killed the SSC, the media frenzy around China making a major breakthrough the US did not, about scientifically challenged media and government figures getting hysterical about imagined military threats resulting from the discovery, and Hollywood's idea of "science fiction" films...  And how this turns the life of one American physicist upside down - because many years ago he was romantically involved with the leader of the Chinese research group.

 

As the world reacts to the announcement, we visit the site where the remains of the uncompleted SSC sit.  We learn about the politics behind the SSC.  We see how the big question in the halls of power is who discovers the Higgs; who gains national prestige and who ends up looking foolish.  Not what this means for humanity.  The politicians get busy trying to see that somebody else takes the blame.  Scientists try to figure out what science projects will be cut and which will be supported when all the hoopla is done.  And our protagonist has to deal with potentially dangerous politicians, a journalist hounding him, a Hollywood producer, a jealous wife, etc.

 

I generally choose books that are not so close to describing here and now.  A Hole In Texas is a relatively short book.  I may not have found a longer “here and now” book to be entertaining throughout.  Its length and pace let me appreciate it.