The Invisible World: The Stories of Physics in the Twentieth Century

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No one has ever seen an electron, quark or neutrino. Yet, no physicist has any doubt as to the existence of these particles. Through mathematics, physicists have opened up the world of the invisible, they have, quite literally, taught us another way to ‘see’ the world. The Invisible World illuminates the social and cultural history of particle physics in the twentieth century, describing the invisible objects and forces that have shaped our world and chronicling the lives of the people who first revealed them; physicists whose discoveries changed the courses of nations. From the coincident revelations of x-rays and the cinema to the rise of string theory and exotic financial instruments, The Invisible World is a sweeping history of the twentieth century and the physics that shaped the world we know today. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first particle had only just been observed and physicists were still not sure of the existence of atoms or molecules. Since then, physics has unleashed profound changes on our world. From X-rays to transistors to TVs to atomic weapons, we have learned to live with these new realities and have forged our culture and politics around them. Never before has there been a single record, one narrative history, of what physicists have accomplished in the twentieth century in their quest to understand the fundamental laws and fabric of the universe – and no cultural history that illuminates what that tumultuous century, in all its beauty and terror, had in turn done to them. The Invisible World brilliantly examines the larger role of history and culture in the lives and work of physicists and reveals the stories of how physics left a profound mark on culture and society. The history of the twentieth century, the political shifts between Europe and the United States, the changes in art and popular culture, can all be understood through the lens of physics.

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