Only the Longest Threads

This book presents dramatic and lucid accounts of the great breakthroughs in the history of physics -- classical mechanics, electromagnetism, relativity, quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, and string theory -- each from the viewpoint of a (fictional) witness to the events. Tasneem Zehra Husain re-imagines the pivotal moments in the history of physics when radical new theories shifted our perception of the universe, and our place in it. Husain immerses the reader in the immediacy and excitement of the discoveries -- and she guides us as we begin to understand the underlying science and to grasp the revolutionary step forward each of these milestones represents.