This is a book that made me love physic even this topic is not amongst my favorite.
It's fascinating, well researched, informative, and well written.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I found this so interesting. Physics was the only subject I failed in school, if Dr Suzie Sheehy had been my teacher I'd have passed with flying colours. Such a fascinating subject, told in such an interesting an enjoyable way.

A fascinating journey detailing ground breaking physics that has shaped the world as we know it. You are able to appreciate the work and breakthroughs of the scientists. Eye opening.

I am in absolute awe at how amazingly complex our universe is, but also at how extraordinary we are as a species.

The Matter of Everything is a tour de force of some of the most important physics discoveries we have ever made. Suzie Sheehy has a way with words, making extremely complex theories and experiments seem not only accessible to truly fascinating. From the historical context, to the actual experiments, to the implications and the far and wide applications of this discoveries, nothing has been left out. Sheehy did a brilliant job at making us understand and see how amazing science is, and how physics is so interconnect with everything else. How important it is to cooperate, to pull together resources and mental capacity and human energies to help humanity become richer in knowledge. Knowledge that ultimately will translate in a better life for more and more people.

A comprehensive and informative guide that is well written. It explores the advances and applications of physics in everyday life, tracking historical advancements and how they have been built on.

This book is a pleasure to read whether you are interested in science or not. Twelve great stories that just happen to be about physics. The authors enthusiasm and passion shine through in her telling of each groundbreaking development in this subject.

Interesting book to learn more about physics and in particular particle physics. The author is an accelerator physicist and brings us through a journey or physics discoveries from early 1900’s to date.
In general I struggled to understand the various theories outlined, often in huge detail in the book. I heard words such as muons and top and bottom quarks, that I’d never hear of before. And learnt about 27 mile long underground tunnels where experiments are undertaken.
What is fascinating, is the evolution of physics experiments from the early days of individuals building their own equipment to test ideas to todays mega laboratories with 100’s of countries and 1,000’s of scientists collaborating to try and better understand the world around us.
So if you are interested in this area of physics and are interested in the detail and the history of how it came about, this is a great read. It is a struggle if you are coming to this area fresh, although hard to see how author could have done a better job. I think it is great to have the development and history recorded in such and interesting way.

I am struggling to carry on reading this book. I did wonder whether it would be beyond my comprehension as I find science difficult but interesting. The book is written in a very accessible way and it is interesting, but it's just the experiments and fine detail of how someone got to a place they weren't expecting and then going on from there that I am finding hard to cope with. I hope to finish reading the book at some point, but for now I am taking a rest from boiling my brain. With thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a review copy of this book.

Who knew physics could be so much fun! I never realised that physics underpins so many important discoveries, from hot air balloon flights to the discovery of X rays and smart phone chips. What makes this book so readable is that you see it from the side of the innovative scientists who made these discoveries. The human aspect is well told and invites you to keep reading what could have been a dry and unappealing subject. Try it and learn about physics in an easy-to read way.

Dr Suzie Sheehy (as she never styles herself in the book), is a particle accelerator physicist and - here - as elsewhere a science communicator. Luckily in The Matter Of Everything she is communicating about her precise subject, particle physics, and attempting in a history of twelve experiments to justify its existence. There is much of the book where she pulls back a curtain on a world of consumer goods and a whole host of cancer treatments and just says look at what you have won by backing this horse. And then she pulls the curtain back, describes the development of yet another particle accelerator and wants to yell at you - "but isn't this amazing". She doesn't yell, the book manages to just about walk the tightrope of popular science of trying to keep the reader up with mind-blowing developments on the tiniest scale, but she also knows this stuff costs money.

It is not her fault that the book falls broadly into two distinct phases. The first half is a pretty breathless race through the discovery of the building blocks of the universe. The atom, then the electrons and then - well we keep going. And the jerry rigged experiments of the early stage, the scientists building cloud chambers on magners, naturally hits the second half where the scientific industrial complex builds bigger and bigger accelerators, colliders and cyclotrons (sadly by this point he word Jumbotron was already taken). She also almost paints herself into a corner by being trapped by the great man view of history 9No matter how many great women she tries to rescue). Her real conclusion, at the very end is all about co-operation. That if particle science can teach us anything its that none of these advances were made in a vacuum*, that they were made in the spirit of co-operation, massive teamwork and scientific excitement - which sometimes the tale of Rutherford in the Cavendish Lab doesn't always bring out.

You're stuck with the history you have, and by the time we get to the Large Hadron Collider and the Higgs-Boson, we are on the fifth iteration of the same story. And yet in her conclusion, she casually drops in the fact that we don't know what 95% of the mass of the universe is made up of (Dark Matter is still a near complete mystery). Its in many ways an odd conclusion to put together, she obviously wants to dazzle us with the beauty of science, but also lets us know that if we become scientists, we will also gain the skills to become successful entrepreneurs of or work in finance. That slight hint of desperation is understandable, those next leaps almost certainly come from an even bigger collider with the kind of price tag no individual country is picking up. Not even for a glimpse past that curtain at even better microwaves. Its fascinating stuff, brought to life, but its that wistful pause at the end that really got to me. The end of scence really is when we stop paying for it.


*Some were made in a vacuum tube.

I'm not particularly blessed with a scientific mind but was pleasantly surprised by how much of this I not only understood but enjoyed reading about. I had taken scientific advances at face value and not really though much about how they came about but this book has enlightened me a lot. Still reading ,as my brain can only process so much at a time, but really enjoying this book.

The Matter of Everything tells the tale of twelve experiments and inventions that shaped our world.

You can tell the author is extremely passionate about the subject matter; it feels like talking to a friend who is very knowledgable. It's hard not to be in awe of these people who discovered and created so much of what we use in our lives now.

At points I did find I got a bit too bogged down in the detail and I am not science-minded so some of it was difficult for me to picture. But overall I think this is well executed and makes physics a bit more accessible to the masses.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the opportunity to review this book!

Suzie Sheehy introduces us to people who, through a combination of genius, persistence and good luck, made experiments that changed the world of physics. The Matter of Everything is a celebration of human ingenuity, creativity and curiosity.

Firstly, I am a long way from being a physicist or scientist but found this book remarkably interesting and easy to read. It contains lots of ‘Wow’ moments and wonderment. But I did also find that some parts of the book were too dry for me as a layman. There is a lot about the history of physics, which I found fascinating. The book isn’t funny but there is a degree of humour in it, which adds to its readability. It’s not an easy subject to relay but the author makes it interesting.

My thanks to #Netgalley, #SuzieSheehy and #BoomsburyPublishing for this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.