"Cahn and Quigg's joy at being able to share, and further, understanding of the Universe is catching and their sense of purpose inspiring. Their celebration of the 'elegance and economy' of particle physics, of scientific uncertainty and openness, of scientists and the science they explore, leaves the reader in a fever of gratitude. Grace in All Simplicity is an uplifting tale of science and scientific lives well lived. The book is a fantastic encapsulation of the brazen way science advances."--Nature
"Cahn and Quigg highlight the connectedness of the underlying concepts and the ways experiment and theory interact over time. The payoff is a wonderful and engaging dive into the last century of revolutionary physics."--Booklist
"A vibrant history traces the triumphs and missteps of quantum, nuclear, and particle physics. What a joy, to pick up Grace in All Simplicity and encounter stunning true-life tales of passionate researchers grappling with the challenges of the natural world in all its rawness and danger. It is such human touches, along with colorful analogies and descriptions, that make Grace in All Simplicity shine. The authors paint vibrant portraits of so many of the principals involved in the histories of quantum, nuclear, and particle physics, along with related fields, and describe their contributions with exceptional clarity." --Science "Veteran physicists Quigg and Cahn produce a fascinating and accessible tour of the fundamental principles, particles, and processes that govern heaven and earth."--Yale Alumni Magazine
"The journey, from particle physics on the smallest scale to the grandest cosmological queries, has perhaps never been better told nor made more accessible."--Harvard Magazine
"A fascinating and accessible description of the incredible revolution physicists have made in understanding the world's smallest pieces." --Scientific American
"In Grace in All Simplicity, Cahn and Quigg share with us their ring-side view of the discoveries that led to our current picture of our most fundamental physical laws. Ironically, the path taken that led to our emerging view of the Universe is neither simple or graceful, but spell-binding and charming in all its human complexities." --Professor Steven Chu, Nobel laureate, Professor of Physics, Molecular and Cellular Physiology and Environmental Science and Engineering, Stanford University "In this insightful and accessible book, Quigg and Cahn celebrate the people behind these discoveries, following their paths around the globe to explore the extraordinary experiments that probe the fundamental properties of the universe. The vast collective of minds that collaborate in this building, across space and time, is an astonishing feat itself--one driven by the most essential curiosity: that of our existence. A captivating book that reveals the interconnectedness of science's most profound advances."--Kirkus Reviews
"Cahn and Quigg regale us with non-stop fascinating stories about the quirky characters and inventive experiments that have built our understanding of the physical world and how it works. And those physicists, their experiments--and the rules of our universe that they discovered--really are quirky! A rare insider view into the dramatic developments of particle physics and cosmology."--Saul Perlmutter, Nobel Laureate in Physics, Professor of Physics at University of California, Berkeley
"At heart, this book is a travelogue that takes readers on a journey through conceptual landscapes so exotic they challenge the imagination. It's a highly engaging account of how successive generations of scientists broke through to the strange reality that underpins the familiar world we inhabit, beautifully capturing the wonder and fun of it all."--J. Madeleine Nash,
former TIME senior science correspondent and author of El Niño: Unlocking the Secrets of the Master Weather-Maker