Uncuttable: The Ongoing Search for the Smallest Things

by Isaac McPhee

You are holding an apple and a razor-sharp knife. You cut the apple in half, then in half again, and again, and again, and again. Each time you cut the apple you are left, naturally, with a smaller and smaller piece. Soon you can't see the pieces at all, but still, you just keep cutting. But can you keep cutting forever? Where will all of this stop? These are questiosn that have been perplexing mankind since we first began thinking about things. Is there a smallest thing? If so, how big is it and what does it look like? What do we get if we just keep on cutting?"There's plenty of room at the bottom." So observed Richard Feynman. And indeed, we have only begun to scratch the surface in understanding the universe's smallest things.This is something of an autobiography. At least, one can think about it that way. It is a bunch of atoms who got together, as it were, to write their own story. And what a story it is! "Uncuttable" traces the story of the atom as it unfolded in human history; from the world of Ancient Greece and Rome, through the medieval alchemists and Renaissance chemists, and finally culminating (at least until the next great stage in the story) with the advent of modern physics. The story of the atom is the story of trying to decipher the world of the very smallest things in the universe - things so unbelievably minute that words hardly do them justice. So unbelievably small, in fact, that the very idea that we can know anything about them at all is something worth celebrating. But we DO know about them - far more, in fact, than most people even realize. It is a story that is endlessly fascinating, featuring larger-than-life figures and ideas that seem to be straight out of science fiction (but just so happen to be true).

512 pages, Paperback

Published September 24, 2020

About the author

Isaac was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and, but for a brief four-year stint navigating the streets of Manhattan (adventures which will, almost certainly, warrant a book of their own), has lived in western Washington his entire life. After majoring in English Literature, Isaac actively pursued his passions for both learning and writing.

Isaac experimented with numerous novels and short stories before making his way into non-fiction. In early 2007 Isaac made the decision to learn and write about physics, to paraphrase George Mallory, "Because it was there." Always eager for a new challenge, Isaac followed through and devoted himself to the study of math and science, writing hundreds of online articles on this and other subjects. After five years, Isaac finally published his first book: "The Bedside Book of Physics" (2012, Quid Publishing), which was released in five countries and translated into three languages.

In recent years Isaac has focused much of his writing on theology and philosophy, actively updating a blog on Christian Apologetics and religious philosophy, while still pursuing his love for interesting fiction, still working regularly on novels, experimenting in detective fiction, historical fiction, religious fiction, and middle grade fiction.