Traveling with the Atom: A Scientific Guide to Europe and Beyond

Traveling with the Atom is a historical travel guide to the development of one of the most significant and enduring ideas in the history of humankind: the atomic concept. This history covers the notable places and landmarks commemorating this achievement, visiting homesteads, graveyards, laboratories, apartments, abbeys and castles, through picturesque rural villages and working class municipalities. From Montreal to Manchester, via some of the most elegant and romantic cities in Europe, Traveling with the Atom guides the reader on a trip through the lives and minds of the great thinkers who collectively unveiled the mystery of the atom. Fully illustrated and interspersed with intriguing and insightful notes throughout, this book is an ideal companion for the wandering scientist, their students, friends and companions or quintessential fireside reading for lovers of science and travel.

Table of Contents:
Traveling with the History of the Atomic Concept; Bookending the Atom; Pneumatists Set the Atomic Stage; Hard Spheres and Pictograms, The First Concrete Atomic Theory; Electricity and the Atom; The Brits, Led by the "Crocodile" and His Boys, Take the Atom Apart; Scientists at the Heart of Westminster Abbey; The New French Chemistry and Atomism; Atoms Go South; Questioning the Reality of Atoms on the Ground; Lighting the Dark Path to Atomism; The Danes Jump in; Röntgen Rays Revolutionize Physics and Lead to the Inner Atom; The Discovery That Atoms "Fly to Bits"; Quantum Mechanics Reluctantly Proposed; Quantum Mechanics Brings Uncertainty to the Atom; Nuclear Physics with "the Pope"; Mendeleev's and Our Path to the Periodic Table; Stockholm, the Atom, and the Nobel Prizes; Appendix; Place Index

Review :
Traveling with the Atom provides a panoramic view of atomic scientists, their lives and times, and the places connected with them. The geographical space covered extends from North America to New Zealand with obvious emphasis on Europe. Only someone who loves traveling and science could produce such a book. It may be a guide for visits , but it is also a captivating read. It informs and entertains, and urges the reader to embark on adventures to find the venues described in the book and to make further discoveries. I predict that anyone with the slightest interest in chemistry will enjoy this book. The armchair traveller can simply see it as an attractive historical survey through the development of the atomic theory, while the intrepid explorer can use it alongside railway timetables and airline schedules to plot visits across Europe to the homesteads, graveyards, laboratories, apartments, abbeys and castles of their chemistry heroes. Warmly recommended! Traveling with the Atom is a fast-paced, whiz-bang adventure chock full of nerdy details, wry humor, little-known facts and anecdotes, plus solid history and science as the framework. This makes for a wonderful journey, from a traveler in a rocking chair to a spaceship traveling at the speed of light. As someone who has had the privilege and pleasure of living in James Clerk Maxwell’s home for over 60 years I can well appreciate the importance and magic of seeing such places first-hand. This book is a delight to read and a great encouragement to travel. In reading about the life and research of Rutherford the reader cannot avoid being impressed by the numerous great new results he obtained at all the places he worked from Montreal to Manchester to Cambridge! I liked this book and learned a lot from it. Highly recommended for the armchair or deckchair traveller.