Robert N. Cahn

The physicist authors explicitly state that their popular-level book contains "no equations, no diagrams, no tables, no pictures". I'll add that it has no endnotes, no table of contents (at least in my ebook version), and no page headers or footers. Most of these absences are favorable for having the book read aloud by software, and that is exactly what I did, from start to finish. For me, already advantaged by a familiarity with most of the subject matter, the experience was very enjoyable; perhaps readers not so knowledge-primed would have a harder time. Practically the whole history of fundamental physics and cosmology is flowingly and authoritatively told, as well as relevant aspects of engineering such as cryogenics and the construction of subatomic particle accelerators and detectors, with various personal experiences of the authors serving up ordinary-life analogies and human interest.… (mais)