Gaining notoriety as the science behind the controversial experiments of the Large Hadron Collider, particle physics explores our most fundamental and mind-blowing problems: How did the Universe start? What are we made of? How small is the smallest thing? Without presuming any prior scientific knowledge, Brian R. Martin takes readers on a wide-ranging tour of the field, from its beginnings in nuclear physics to the discovery of quarks to present-day research into string theory, the mystery of antimatter, and the search for the elusive God particle.