Lederman was an atheist. He had three children with his first wife, Florence Gordon, and toward the end of his life lived with his second wife, Ellen (Carr), in Driggs, Idaho. Lederman began to suffer from memory loss in 2011 and, after struggling with medical bills, he had to sell his Nobel medal for $765,000 to cover the costs in 2015.

The reason is that Leon Lederman considered himself an atheist. Fellow atheists might have preferred that he coined the phrase differently – like the atheist particle. [3] Leon Lederman reportedly regretted the term he gave the Higgs Boson because of its popular implications, which he didn’t intend.

Despite his Jewish background, Lederman was an atheist. He had three children with his first wife, Florence Gordon, and toward the end of his life …

Leon M. Lederman was born on July 15, 1922. He is an American experimental physicist. He is famous for his research into the understanding of the particles nature and its basic forces. He is one of the main proponents of Physics First. He is an atheist, and he is known for authoring the book ‘The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?’.

He received the prize along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, for their research on neutrinos . Lederman was of Jewish descent. He was an atheist. Lederman died on October 3, 2018 at a care-facility in Rexburg, Idaho from complications of dementia at the age of 96.

Although he was an atheist, Lederman didn’t propose that physics could provide an all-encompassing explanation for our universe.

Now that the Higgs Boson has been discovered, Lederman is back with a new book that continues where his previous one left off. Beyond the God Particle (Prometheus Books, 2013), written with Dr. Christopher Hill, talks about “the future of particle physics and the mysteries of the universe yet to be unraveled.”. Below is an exclusive excerpt from the book — keep reading for your …

Leon Lederman had issues with his publisher, because he wanted to name this elemental particle, a freaking 'Goddamn Particle' but was told to change it by his publisher (not going to sell a books with the title of "The Goddamn Particle"). To make things easier, he came out with: 'God Particle' to make the book more marketable. 1

Leon Lederman is himself an atheist and he regrets the term, and Peter Higgs who is an atheist too, has expressed his displeasure, but the damage has been done! The God particle is today the most popular name for the Higgs boson.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Leon Lederman, an experimental physicist who won a Nobel Prize in physics for his work on subatomic particles and coined the phrase “God particle,” died Wednesday at 96. Lederman directed the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago from 1978 to 1989.