Particularly in the last decade, it has become clearer that quantum particles shaped the evolution of our universe into the way it exists today. The more we understand the quantum realm, the more we understand ourselves. Particles that make up our bodies, Peter Skands explains, formed elements that “all started their life inside a massive exploding star… we are children of stardust.”

Each chapter of The Matter of Everything develops a foundation and a deepening picture of nature. We learn for example that our visible range is only a small part of the entire spectrum of light – there is much more that we don’t see with the eye than what we do. Everything, including us, is made up of atoms, which are made up of quarks. We think of space as being empty, but if we had quantum eyes, we would see what Edward Kolb describes as “ a foaming, seething froth” with particles coming into and out of existence. Ultimately, things that appear ‘solid’ are in reality, Professor Scott Menary adds, “only interactions of energy fields”.

Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 revealed that matter and energy in fact are one. As demonstrated by the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a tiny bit of mass (matter) creates a huge amount of energy. Serious questions remain about the ethical use of such powerful forces now and in the future.

The Director of Astrophysics at Fermilab, Dr. Edward Kolb explains, “We need to have reason conquer sense…we’re not driven there by everyday experience.” Today, the Standard Model of particle physics describes everything we have ever observed in nature except gravity, in one equation. And physicists believe there is one missing particle in the Standard Model that gives all particles their mass. The excitement at CERN’s LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is the possibility of finding the Higgs Boson, the missing particle, if Fermilab doesn’t discover it first. Peter Skands, a theoretical physicist at Fermilab and CERN emphasizes, “When you meet (quantum mechanics) as a student, it bends your mind and you can’t believe that it could be so. And you will think it’s ridiculous. Except, you can go and do experiments that show this is really what happens, this is how nature is. So regardless of whether you think it makes sense or not, you better try to understand it.”

The understanding of the connection between quantum physics and the universe is a global achievement and represents “a triumph of the human mind” to go beyond ourselves toward the deepest reflection of nature, The Matter of Everything.