Includes index.

Beneath the surface of things --
How small is small? How fast is fast? --
Meet the Leptons --
The rest of the extended family --
Quantum lumps --
Quantum jumps --
Social and antisocial particles --
Clinging to constancy --
Waves and particles --
Pushing the limits --
Appendixes: Measurements and magnitudes; The particles; Going for the gold.

Drawing on a deep familiarity with the discoveries of the twentieth century, [the author] gives an ... account of quantum physics that will help the serious reader make sense of a science that, for all its successes, remains mysterious. He tells a good story while depicting both the subatomic world and the world of physics research as lively places populated by highly interesting characters. At the core of this book are the "big ideas" of quantum physics, including granularity (matter and some of its properties, like energy, are "lumpy"), wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, the nature of bosons and fermions, and superposition and entanglement (an atom can be in two or more states of motion at once). [This book] imparts ... a knowledge of the strange laws governing the atoms, nuclei, and fundamental particles that inhabit the quantum world.-Dust jacket.