| The nature of things | p. 1 |
| Nature does not conform to our expectations | p. 3 |
| Explanation versus description | p. 5 |
| Physicists keep trying to explain the "unexplained" | p. 6 |
| Notes | p. 7 |
| Matter and motion in space and time | p. 11 |
| Bemhard Riemann speculates on the empirical nature of geometry | p. 11 |
| The work of physics | p. 13 |
| Newton's unvisualizable description of Nature's action | p. 17 |
| Maxwell adds fields to the list of things that are | p. 19 |
| Maxwell's impact (1): the invariant speed of light | p. 21 |
| Einstein exposes prejudices about space and time | p. 23 |
| A digression on E = mc2 | p. 25 |
| Minkowski stretches a new canvas for the depiction of Nature | p. 27 |
| The evolving universe as a tapestry of world-lines in space-time | p. 29 |
| Einstein says the laws of motion must not depend upon ourselves | p. 31 |
| A new way of thinking about the laws of motion | p. 33 |
| An "explanation" for gravity | p. 34 |
| Weyl's attempt to explain electromagnetism | p. 37 |
| Reflections on Riemann's idea of geometry as physics | p. 40 |
| Notes | p. 41 |
| Reality large and small | p. 52 |
| Digression on the quality of knowledge in a universe of atoms | p. 52 |
| Maxwell's impact (2): the mismatch between particles and fields | p. 56 |
| Planck postulates a relation between energy and frequency | p. 57 |
| The matter wave of de Broglie and Schrodinger | p. 62 |
| Meanwhile, back in Copenhagen | p. 63 |
| Max Born's statistical interpretation | p. 64 |
| The quantum microscopic world view: Step 1 | p. 67 |
| Schrodinger's cat | p. 70 |
| Waves versus particles | p. 74 |
| About waves | p. 75 |
| The "uncertainty principle" | p. 79 |
| Amplitudes and phases | p. 82 |
| Quantum phase as a new "dimension" of Nature, and Weyl's triumph | p. 85 |
| Electromagnetism "explained" | p. 89 |
| Notes | p. 91 |
| The language of Nature | p. 102 |
| Mathematical things | p. 102 |
| Schrodinger's wave as a set of vector components | p. 108 |
| The quantum state vector is not of this world | p. 112 |
| A new perspective on uncertainty and complementarity | p. 114 |
| More structure for Schrodinger's wave "Intrinsic spin" | p. 117 |
| Spin is not enough | p. 121 |
| The positron intrudes | p. 122 |
| Anti-matter | p. 124 |
| Notes | p. 126 |
| More is different | p. 132 |
| The quantum microscopic world view: Step 2 | p. 132 |
| Systems with multiple excitations | p. 133 |
| Quantum field theory | p. 135 |
| Guessing equations of motion | p. 137 |
| "Statistics" | p. 139 |
| About detectors | p. 143 |
| The disturbing argument of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) | p. 144 |
| Bell's inequality | p. 148 |
| The entangled universe | p. 151 |
| Notes | p. 152 |
| The machinery of particle discovery | p. 157 |
| Maxwell's impact (3): atomism undermined | p. 158 |
| Particle spectroscopy | p. 161 |
| The big machines | p. 163 |
| Neutrons and neutrinos | p. 165 |
| More internal "dimensions"?Isospin | p. 166 |
| Mesons and the range of forces | p. 169 |
| If isospin were "real" | p. 171 |
| Symmetries (1): conservation laws | p. 174 |
| Symmetries (2): groups | p. 177 |
| Symmetries (3): group representations | p. 181 |
| The game of particle discovery | p. 183 |
| Unitarity and renormalization | p. 184 |
| Spontaneous symmetry breaking | p. 187 |
| Notes | p. 190 |
| The Standard Model | p. 197 |
| Leptons | p. 200 |
| Quarks | p. 203 |
| Forces | |
| Electromagnetism and QED | p. 210 |
| The strong force and QCD | p. 214 |
| The weak force (but no QWD) | p. 221 |
| Electro-weak unification | p. 224 |
| Parity violation | p. 226 |
| CP violation | p. 227 |
| The problem of mass | p. 229 |
| A digression on superconductivity | p. 229 |
| The Higgs mechanism | p. 231 |
| The Higgs boson(s) | p. 234 |
| Notes | p. 236 |
| The proliferation of matter | p. 248 |
| An abbreviated history of creation | p. 248 |
| Nupleons and nuclei | p. 252 |
| The periodic table of elements | p. 255 |
| Notes | p. 259 |
| Epilogue: Beneath reality | p. 262 |
| Appendix: How quantum mechanics is used | p. 262 |
| Notes | p. 273 |
| References | p. 275 |
| Index | p. 282 |
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