An examination of those laws that underpin the functioning of the physical world, and the scientists who formulated them. It provides the user not only with coherent descriptions and explanations of how the physical world works, but also with the stories behind the scientists who discovered and codified these processes. The entries deliver plenty of hard scientific explanation and exposition, eloquently and accessibly presented, but also fascinating tales of hard experimental and cerebral slog, scientific red herrings and dead ends, as well as of triumphant discovery and damascene enlightenment.