As well as outlining and explaining such historic breakthroughs in human understanding of the physical world as Keplers law of planetary motion and Newtons law of gravitation, Joanne Baker unravels the sometimes baffling complexities of modern scientific theory ? from Plancks law to Paulis exclusion principle and from Schrondingers cat to string theory. The essays are accompanied by a range of useful editorial features, including biographies of iconic physicists, timelines of related ideas, explanatory diagrams and display quotations