Preface

Acknowledgments

1. ANCIENT ATOMISM

Defining Atomism

Leucippus and Democritus

Atoms and Gods

Atoms and the Senses

Late Night with Lederman

Atomism in Ancient India

Epicurus

Differences with Democritus

Post-Epicurean Atomism

Lucretius

The Antiatomists

2. ATOMS LOST AND FOUND

Atomism in Early Christianity

Atomism in the Middle Ages

Poggio and Lucretius

Gassendi

3. ATOMISM AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

The New World of Science

Galilean Relativity

The Principia

Particle Mechanics

Mechanical Philosophy

Primary and Secondary Qualities

Other Atomists

More Antiatomists

4. THE CHEMICAL ATOM

From Alchemy to Chemistry

The Elements

The Chemical Atoms

The Chemical Opposition

The Philosophical Opposition

5. ATOMS REVEALED

Heat and Motion

The Heat Engine

Conservation of Energy and the First Law

The Mechanical Nature of Heat

Absolute Zero

The Second Law of Thermodynamics

Kinetic Theory

How Big Are Atoms?

Statistical Mechanics

The Arrow of Time

The Energetic Opposition

The Positivist Opposition

Evidence

6. LIGHT AND THE AETHER

The Nature of Light

The Aether

Fields

Electromagnetic Waves

The Demise of the Aether

Time and Space in Special Relativity

Defining Time and Space

Matter and Energy in Special Relativity

Invariance

Symmetry

The Source of Conservation Principles

7. INSIDE THE ATOM

Anomalies

Light Is Particles

The Rutherford Atom

The Bohr Atom and the Rise of Quantum Mechanics

Are Electrons Waves?

The New Quantum Mechanics

Spin

Dirac's Theory of the Electron

What Is the Wave Function?

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Building the Elements

8. INSIDE THE NUCLEUS

Nuclei

The Nuclear Forces

“Atomic” Energy

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fission

Poisoning the Atmosphere

Nuclear Power

Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors

9. QUANTUM FIELDS

Physics in 1945

More Hydrogen Surprises

QED

Fields and Particles

10. THE RISE OF PARTICLE PHYSICS

Pion Exchange and the Strong Force

The Fermi Theory of the Weak Force

The Particle Explosion

New Conservation Principles

Broken Symmetries

“Nuclear Democracy” and The Tao of Physics

11. THE DREAMS THAT STUFF IS MADE OF

The Quarks

Particles of the Standard Model

Gauge Symmetry

Forces in the Standard Model

The Higgs Boson

Making and Detecting the Higgs

Hunting the Higgs

Higgs Confirmed!

Mass

Grand Unification

Supersymmetry

12. ATOMS AND THE COSMOS

After the Bang

Inflation

The Stuff of the Universe

What Is the Dark Matter?

Dark Energy

The Cosmological Constant Problem

Before the Bang

The Matter-Antimatter Puzzle

The Eternal Multiverse

Something about Nothing

13. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

They Had It (Mostly) Right

Matter

Materialism Deconstructed?

Field-Particle Unity

Wave-Particle Duality

Reduction and Emergence

The Role of Chance

The Cosmos

The Mind

No Higher Power

Notes

Bibliography

About the Author

Other Books by Victor J. Stenger

Index