Fundamental

TIM JAMES is a secondary-school science teacher, YouTuber, blogger and Instagrammer. Raised by missionaries in Nigeria, he fell in love with science at the age of fifteen and refuses to get over his infatuation. After graduating with a Master's degree in chemistry, specialising in computational quantum mechanics, he decided to get straight into the classroom. His first book, Elemental: How the Periodic Table Now Explains (Nearly) Everything was published in July 2018.

Fundamental does for physics what Tim's first book, Elemental, does for chemistry: it demystifies the topic in his trademark humorous, engaging style, including the most recent developments in the field.

At the start of the twentieth century, science appeared complete and the laws of nature were almost all discovered, but then we woke a sleeping giant - we discovered quantum mechanics.
In the quantum realm, objects can be in two places at once. It's a place where time travel is not only possible, but necessary. It's a place where cause and effect can happen in reverse and observing something changes its state. From parallel universes to antimatter, quantum mechanics has revealed that when you get right down to it, the laws of nature are insane. The scientist J. B. S. Haldane once said, 'Reality is not only stranger than we imagine . . . it's stranger than we can imagine.' Never is this more true than with quantum mechanics; our best, most recent attempt to make sense of the fundamental laws of nature.

Fundamental is a comprehensive beginner's guide to quantum mechanics, explaining not only the weirdness of the subject but the experiments that proved it to be true. Using a humorous and light-hearted approach, Fundamental tells the story of how the most brilliant minds in science grappled with seemingly impossible ideas and gave us everything from microchips to particle accelerators. Fundamental gives clear explanations of all the quantum phenomena known to modern science, without requiring an understanding of complex mathematics; tells the eccentric stories of the scientists who made these shattering discoveries and what they used them for; explains how quantum field theory (a topic not covered in detail by any other popular-science book) gave rise to particle physics and why the Higgs boson isn't the end of the story.

Understand every quantum phenomenon without the need for complex maths

Tim James dispels the myth that quantum and particle physics are too difficult for most of us to grasp and reveals why they are fascinating and relevant to all of us.

In the quantum realm, objects can be in two places at once; time travel is not only possible, but necessary; cause and effect can happen in reverse; and observing something changes its state. From parallel universes to antimatter, quantum mechanics has revealed that when you get right down to it the laws of nature appear to make no sense.

Quantum mechanics is our best attempt to understand these fundamental laws and Tim James brings the subject to life with humour, a few quirky sketches and the stories of brilliant scientists and their incredible experiments that led to major advances, from microchips to particle accelerators. He also explains how quantum field theory - a topic not covered in detail by any other popular science book - gave rise to particle physics and why the Higgs boson isn't the end of the story.

Tim James is a popular science speaker, commentator, teacher and YouTuber.

Praise for Tim's first book, Elemental:

'A hugely entertaining tour of the periodic table and the 118 elements that are the basic building blocks of everything' Daily Mail, which selected it as one of the best books of 2018

Website: timjamesscience.com YouTube: timjamesScience Instagram: @timjamesScience

In the same way that Tim's first book Elemental, a Daily Mail Book of the Year in 2018, serves as a beginner's guide to Chemistry, Fundamental provides a very entertaining beginner's guide to quantum and particle physics.