Contents -- Dedication -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Science in the Comfort Zone -- Planck's Adventure -- Einstein, Bohr and Born Come on Board -- The Future is a Lottery? -- The Adventure Continues -- Chapter 1: Prehistory - Isaac Newton -- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) -- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) -- Isaac Newton (1642-1727) -- New concepts - momentum and force -- A new idea - action and reaction -- Newton's laws -- Work and energy -- Changing the direction of motion -- Newton applies his laws of motion to celestial objects -- Newton's law of gravitation -- A new era -- Determinism -- Chapter 2: Preparing for Quantum Mechanics -- Leading into the Quantum Adventure -- Fermat's theorems -- Refraction -- Fermat's principle of least time -- Least time and lenses -- Least time and the lifeguard -- A deeper insight into the laws of motion -- The principle of least action -- Generalized mechanics -- The principle of least action at work -- Least action on the track - Eddie and Fred -- Least action when there is a force at work -- What is so different about least action? -- Hamilton's method -- Hamilton's equations of motion -- Conservation of energy -- William Rowan Hamilton -- Chapter 3: The Pre-Quantum Atom - A Temporary Solution -- Going Outside the 'Household World' -- The Scientific Age -- Messages from the Atoms -- Conspicuous by Their Absence -- A Formula Without a Reason -- Glowing Gases -- Mysterious Rays -- Something Smaller Than an Atom - The Discovery of the Electron -- Where Do These Electrons Come From? -- Thomson's 'Plum Pudding' Model of the Atom -- Rutherford Investigates -- An Unexpected Observation -- Rutherford Interprets the Results -- How Small is Small? -- The Planetary Model -- Relative Sizes -- A Question of Stability -- A Historical Note -- Chapter 4: Max Planck - The Birth of the Quantum Adventure.

Thermodynamics -- Electromagnetism -- Heads in the Sand? -- An Incomplete Jigsaw -- Two Missing Pieces -- The ether -- 'The greatest failed experiment in history' -- The world inside the atom -- Light from Hot Coal -- Blackbody Radiation - A Window to the Atom -- What We See Through the Window -- Measuring Temperature from a Distance -- Making a Theoretical Model - 'Cavity' Radiation -- Wien's Spectral Distribution Law - One Step Further by Thermodynamics -- An Experimental Cavity Radiator -- Measuring the Radiation -- Experiments Confirm There is a Magic Function -- Where to Go from Here? -- The Rayleigh-Jeans Law -- Two Theories Each 'Half Right' and 'Half Wrong' -- Planck's 'Inspired Guess' -- Planck Looks for Something Deeper -- The Moment of Truth - Planck's Quantum Hypothesis -- An Inspired Guess Becomes a Physical Theory -- Planck's Constant -- How Do the Oscillators Lose Their Energy? -- The Quantum Condition in the Everyday World -- Chapter 5: Light - Wave or Projectile? -- Waves Interfere with One Another -- Interference Can Create 'Stationary' Waves -- Stationary Waves of Light -- Another Aspect of the Wave Nature of Light -- An Accidental Observation - The Photoelectric Effect -- Light and Electricity - The Investigation Continues -- Chapter 6: Einstein Enters the Scene -- 'Annus Mirabilis' 1905 -- On the existence of molecules -- Brownian motion -- A revolution in our notions of space and time - special relativity -- Mass-energy equivalence -- Radical new ideas about light -- Einstein's Theory of the Photoelectric Effect -- Einstein's Equation -- Consequences of Einstein's Equation -- Einstein is Proved Right -- The Compton Effect -- The Ultimate Evidence - Real Projectiles Have Momentum -- Chapter 7: Niels Bohr Introduces the Quantum into Atomic Physics -- Bohr Moves to Manchester -- Bohr Takes up the Challenge.

A New Element and a New Idea -- Bohr Takes up the Challenge -- Bohr Changes His Mind -- The Significance of Balmer's Formula -- Bohr Invokes Quantum Theory -- The Key to our Existence -- Energy Levels - A Simple Picture of the Atom -- Visualizing the Bohr Atom -- Seamless Transition From the Atomic to the Household World -- Stationary States Exist! -- The Niels Bohr Institute -- Chapter 8: Werner Heisenberg - An Equation for Uncertainty -- Heisenberg -- Heisenberg and Pauli have Serious Misgivings -- Signals from the Atoms -- Working Without a Model -- Starting with a Simpler System -- The Voice Prints of an Atom -- Heisenberg goes to Heligoland -- Heisenberg Watches the Sunrise -- The First Paper -- The Role of Matrices in Quantum Theory -- To Commute or Not to Commute -- Born Lays the Foundations for the Uncertainty Relation -- Copenhagen and Uncertainty -- An Equation for Uncertainty -- Uncertainty at Work - The Electron Forgets Where it was Going -- The Nobel Prize -- Chapter 9: Louis de Broglie - Matter Waves -- De Broglie, the Student Prince -- From Conjecture to Fact -- The Wavelength of Electron Waves is just as de Broglie had Predicted -- De Broglie's Waves and Bohr's Quantum Orbits -- Chapter 10: Erwin Schrödinger - Wave Mechanics -- Schrödinger Enters the Scene -- A Complete Theory -- The Wave Function -- The Wave Function of a Free Electron -- Superposing Momenta -- All Roads Lead to the Uncertainty Principle -- The Superposition of States and the Collapse of the Wave Function -- The Schrödinger Equations -- Potential Well -- The Hydrogen Atom -- Two Roads to the Same Goal -- Interpretation of the Wave Function -- Probability -- Schrödinger Tries to Avoid 'Probabilities' -- Bohr Invites Schrödinger to Copenhagen -- Chapter 11: Eigenstates - The Theory of the Seen and Unseen -- Eigenstates -- Schrödinger's Cat Paradox.

The cat, unseen and seen -- Polarization -- The Classical Model of Polarization -- Crossed Polarizers -- Inserting a Third Polarizer -- Can Photons be Polarized? -- Photons Travelling Through Multiple Polarizers -- The Mysterious Logic of the Quantum World -- Are We Making it all too Complicated? -- Chapter 12: Eigenstates in the Subnuclear World -- Cosmic Radiation -- Detection of Cosmic Rays -- Cloud Chamber -- An Unexpected Particle Makes its Appearance -- New Particles Made to Order -- Quantum Numbers -- Conservation Laws -- The Strange Nature of the Kaon -- The Neutral Kaon Demonstrates Mysteries of the Quantum World -- The Gell-Mann-Pais Scheme -- Regeneration of Short-Lived Kaons -- Experimental Proof -- Chapter 13: Paul Dirac - Tying Things Together -- Vector Algebra -- Transforming a Vector -- Dirac's Representation of a Physical System -- Uniting Quantum Mechanics with Einstein's Theory of Relativity -- An Equation with Something to Tell -- A New Particle from the New World -- Antimatter -- Antiprotons Made to Order -- Atoms of Antihydrogen -- Symmetry -- The Birth of the Universe -- Symmetry in Fundamental Interactions -- Radioactive Decays Distinguish Right from Left -- Chapter 14: Richard Feynman - The Strange Theory of Light and Matter -- Feynman's Thesis -- The 'Crazy Ideas' of Quantum Mechanics -- A 'Mind-Boggling' Problem with Shop Windows -- The Partial Reflection of Photons -- Reflection at a Single Surface -- Reflection at Two Surfaces -- What Our 'Theory' Predicts -- Photons with Different Properties? -- The Unlikely Result of a Real-Life Experiment -- The Answer to the Question of Partial Reflection -- A Chance Meeting -- Towards a Complete Theory -- Sum Over Histories -- A Photon Goes From Place to Place -- The Probability that the 'Event' Will Happen -- Going to Infinity -- Are We Trying to do Easy Things the Hard Way?.

The 'Mind-Boggling' Experiment -- Feynman is Right! -- Electrons and Photons -- Feynman Diagrams -- Putting the Three Actions Together -- The Most Accurate Prediction Ever -- Experimental Confirmation -- Richard Feynman -- Chapter 15: Quantum Reality - The World of the Absurd -- Immaterialism -- Reality and Perception -- The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Paradox -- Violating the Uncertainty Principle -- Another Thought Experiment -- 'Spooky Action at a Distance'? -- Entangled Photons -- Hidden Variables -- The Hidden Variables in the Lottery -- Hidden Variables in the Computer -- The Case for Hidden Variables in Quantum Theory -- The Case for a Quantum Theory Without Hidden Variables -- Von Neumann's Blind Spot -- When All Else Fails Can We Fall Back on Hidden Variables? -- Enter John Bell -- Bertlmann's Socks and the Nature of Reality -- Genetic Predisposition -- A Simple Thought Experiment -- From Twins to Photons -- From Thought to Action, Experimental Tests of Bell's Theorem -- An Idealized Experiment Using Entangled Photons 0 -- Parallel Settings -- Two Simultaneous Measurements -- An Actual Experiment Using Entangled Photons -- The Result of the Experiment -- Closing all Possible Loopholes -- How Much Time Do We Have? -- The Innsbruck Experiment -- Summary of the Facts -- Epilogue -- Milestones -- Some Key Events in the Story -- Index.