Fearful Symmetry: The Search for Beauty in Modern Physics

After buying Dr. Zee's book, I became worried that I would not be able to understand it and would thereby lose respect for my brain, one of my last bankable attributes. The book lay on the side table for a year. Finally, on a whim, I sat down to read it early in the evening-- about dinner-time. The next thing I knew, the windows were getting light and I couldn't feel my feet. I barely made it through algebra, have no science background, and a scientist would probably tell me that I have no real business reading a book like Dr. Zee's. But his explanations create a case for a greater aesthetics that is so compelling-- a beauty not tangential or decorative, but essential to the architecture of physical reality-- that I wholeheartedly recommend his book to every thinking person I know. And that includes designers. And blondes.

Anthony Zee is one of my favorite contemporary physics writers. His work 'Fearful Symmetry' shows how beautiful the framework of modern physics can be while allowing the reader to gain a greater understanding of the physical phenomenon surrounding them. This text is wonderful for a nonindoctrinated scientist to get his feet wet on some of the unanswered questions in physics. Personally this book found me after graduating my Bachelors and helped form the questions that led to my doctoral career.

I have spent most of my career studying simple groups --finite and algebraic simple groups -- and the geometricspaces on which they act and I have found it impossible not to becarried away by the sheer beauty of these structuresand by the sense that they must have some reality in naturebeyond a mathematician's thoughts. This book allowed meto have a little sense of how true this might be (farbeyond what I knew just from newspapers). As a group theoristwho has thought a lot about the same 'philosophical' issues,I couldn't put this book down. It is full of charming storiesand good humor. In my opinion, this book is a model of good scientific writing.

This a wonderfully well-written book that explains in clear and often witty prose -- with little if any math -- what particle physicists do. If you've ever wondered what goes on inside the atom, then this book's for you. I loved reading it.