Leon M. Lederman (Ph.D., Columbia University) was Director of The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a position he held for ten years. He was the Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. He received the National Medal of Science in 1965 and shared the Wolf Prize in physics in 1982. Dr. Lederman shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of the muon neutrino.
Leon Lederman and David Schramm’s From Quarks to the Cosmos is a book that presents the process of scientific exploration in an engaging way. It starts from very small particles like quarks and moves toward the origins of the universe, which captures the reader’s attention. What makes this book special is that it does not just list facts but explains how we came to know them. Thanks to this, the reader can understand science not only as a collection of knowledge but also as a story, and it even brings us a step closer to astronomy.
Lederman’s humor and enthusiasm also make the book approachable for readers who once felt distant from science. He explains complex ideas in simple ways while still stimulating curiosity. This book is not just a popular science work but also a record that shows how powerful human curiosity can be. After finishing it, I felt that my understanding of the universe had grown deeper, and as someone interested in science, I was happy to have gained so much knowledge.