Inward Bound Of Matter and Forces in the Physical World

Purpose and plan; PART I: 1895-1945: A HISTORY; The new rays; From uranic rays to radioactivity; The first particle; Interlude: earliest physiological discoveries; Radioactivity's three early puzzles; Pitfalls of simplicity; ß-spectra 1907-1914; Atomic structure and spectral lines; `It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity'; Nuclear physics' tender age; Quantum mechanics, an essay; First encounters with symmetry and invariance; Nuclear physics: the age of paradox; Quantum fields, or how particles are made and how they disappear; Battling the infinite; In which the nucleus acquires a new constituent, loses an old one, reveals new forces with new symmetries, and is explored by new experimental methods - the 1930s; PART II: THE POSTWAR YEARS: A MEMOIR; Of quantum electrodynamics' triumphs and limitations and of a new particle sobering impact; In which particle physics enters the era of big machines and big detectors and pion physics goes through ups and downs; Onset of an era: new forms of matter appear, old symmetries crumble; Essay on modern times: 1960-83; Being a conclusion that starts as epilog and ends as prolog.