Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos

This book is an excellent summation of the progress made in discovering sub-atomic particles, It may not now be up to date (it was printed in 1991), but I would not forgo the learning within, or the Asimov method of presenting it. Isaac Asimov specialty was explaining difficult subjects to his readers. He did an admiral job keeping the subject matter interesting. Each short chapter is dedicated to a particle, ex. mesons, quarks, bosons. Each chapter also gives a little historical background of the search and discovery behind each particle and how it fits within the sub-atomic world. Nuclear physicists may have progressed far beyond this by now, but this is still a good book for piecing together the subatomic puzzle of particles.

This is an excellent book for students of almost all ages (14 up). I was 14 when I read it, with no education in atoms, and I understood it perfectly. Asimov writes in a way that is extremely provocative and very informative. I highly recommed this book.

i'm 15 this year and i am studying physics in school. after reading this book, i have understood more concepts much more easily. the diagrams included are great. Asimov is really a great writer ad i strongly recommend it to anyonee interested in physics.

'Atom' is very easy to read. I have not had any calculus and therefore could not take physics in college. But the author presents the information without using anything more than everyday math! Also, I was taking a 101-level Physical Science class and the class's textbook gave a bit of information about an atom here, and another bit there, and it was nearly impossible to pull the facts together into a single conceptual "model". However, this book does the job quite nicely (by the way, 'Atom' also presents some other physical science material, such as properties of light and electomagnetic radiation and the four fundamental forces, in easier-to-understand language than the college book). I now have a clear understanding of the components of an atom - the oribiting electrons that form a "cloud" and the nucleus (composed of neutrons and protons - and their buliding blocks: quarks), other subatomic particles (leptons, hadrons, baryons, mesons, neutrinos, etc), the 2 fundamental forces that hold atomic nuclei together (the weak and strong nuclear force), and the concept of exchange particles that transmit the fundamental forces. I would have never obtained this kind of clarity from the college text. The author not only informs the reader of the facts, but also explains how they were discovered - this helps to increase the retention of the facts.

Most people probably know Isaac Asimov because of his fiction books. However, he is also a great writer of nonfiction works. "Atom" is a great example of his nonfiction work. It is also the best book on Atoms and subatomic particles I have ever read, and I have read several. Asimov takes an 'easy to understand' approach to the study of subatomic particles; starting from the beginning of the Atomic theory, all the way to quarks and neutrinos. The two best points about this book: (1) It is easy to understand (2) It is comprehensive and very detailed