The Matter of Everything

Starred review from September 26, 2022
Physicist Sheehy debuts with a terrific history of experiments that have changed the course of science. In a fast-paced and accessible narrative, Sheehy keenly demonstrates how “our view of the smallest constituents in nature has changed rapidly throughout the last 120 years.” Though scientists at the end of the 19th century “agreed that the subject of physics was almost complete,” the discovery of X-rays showed that the universe still had more secrets to uncover. A long line of experiments followed: around 1900, Max Planck did important work with “energy quantisation,” Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden uncovered the structure of atoms a few years later, and the early 1910s saw the discovery of cosmic rays. Sheehy also examines inventions each discovery made possible, including semiconductors, the World Wide Web, archaeological dating methods, and CT scans. Along the way come fascinating profiles of scientists, including several women who have been omitted from history (Bibha Chowdhuri, for example, found evidence of “two new subatomic particles” in the 1930s). With punchy writing and vivid historical details, Sheehy brilliantly captures the curiosity that fuels science, the frustration of “false starts and failures,” and the thrill of finding answers that are bound to raise more questions. This is pop science at its best. Agent: Chris Wellbelove, Aitken Alexander Assoc.