Atom

Front Cover
Icon Books, 2017 - Science - 224 pages

Riddled with jealousy, rivalry, missed opportunities and moments of genius, the history of the atom's discovery is as bizarre, as capricious, and as weird as the atom itself.

John Dalton gave us the first picture of the atom in the early 1800s. Almost 100 years later the young misfit New Zealander, Ernest Rutherford, showed the atom consisted mostly of space, and in doing so overturned centuries of classical science. It was a brilliant Dane, Neils Bohr, who made the next great leap - into the incredible world of quantum theory. Yet, he and a handful of other revolutionary young scientists weren't prepared for the shocks Nature had up her sleeve.

This 'insightful, compelling' book (New Scientist) reveals the mind-bending discoveries that were destined to upset everything we thought we knew about reality and unleash a dangerous new force upon the world. Even today, as we peer deeper and deeper into the atom, it throws back as many questions at us as answers.

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About the author (2017)

Piers Bizony is a science journalist and space historian who writes for magazines such as Focus and Wired, as well as the Independent. His award-winning book on Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was described as 'full of sparkling enthusiasm' by the New Scientist and 'excellent, in every way worthy of Kubrick's original precision-crafted vision' by the Evening Standard. His many works include The Man Who Ran the Moon (Icon, 2006). Jameel Sadik "Jim" Al-Khalili was born on September 21 1962 in Iraq. He is a theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. After completing his A-levels in 1982, he studied physics at the University of Surrey and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1986. Despite having a job lined up at the National Physical Laboratory, he stayed on at Surrey to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy degree in nuclear reaction theory, which he obtained in 1989. He was also awarded a Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) postdoctoral fellowship at University College London, In 1994, Al-Khalili was awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Advanced Research Fellowship for five years, during which time he established himself as a leading expert on mathematical models of exotic atomic nuclei. Al-Khalili is now a professor of physics at the University of Surrey, where he also holds a chair in the Public Engagement in Science. Al-Khalili was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for science communication for 2007. As a broadcaster, Al-Khalili is frequently on television and radio and also writes articles for the British press.

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