Collisions

“Clear-eyed and resistant to hyperbole even when his subject would seem to warrant it, Nevala-Lee is the right man to take the measure of Alvarez… With “Collisions,” his gift for making complex scientific ideas digestible and complex personalities vivid and present finds its most potent expression yet.” – Chris Klimek - Washington Post”‘Collisions’ is a wonderfully rich, exciting and informative work… his book is a remarkable achievement and a fitting monument to one of the most intricate and ingenious minds of the American century.” – John Banville - Wall Street Journal“A tantalizing characterization.” – Jennifer Szalai - The New York Times Book Review“Collisions is a penetrating examination of how scientific discoveries derive not simply from complex theories but from hard work, ambition, narcissism, and luck. Anyone intrigued by the history of science and the atomic age will love this book.” – Caroline Fraser, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder“Nevala-Lee expertly conveys [Alvarez’s] path through an extraordinary era of US particle physics…Unforgettable…A strong and convincing portrait of Alvarez’s character, and of the world in which he worked.” – Robert P. Crease - Nature“Mr Nevala-Lee calls Alvarez ‘the world’s foremost scientific detective’… The list of mysteries on which Alvarez consulted would have raised even Sherlock Holmes’s eyebrows.” – The Economist

Alec Nevala-Lee is the author of Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller and the Hugo Award finalist Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction. His nonfiction has appeared in print and online in such publications as the New York Times, the Atlantic, Slate, Salon, and the Daily Beast. He lives with his wife, the NPR host Wailin Wong, and their daughter in Oak Park, Illinois.