Collisions A Physicist's Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs

"Wonderfully rich, exciting and informative [...] 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

"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

"[A] masterful and unflinching portrait of Alvarez [...] Nevala-Lee excels at weaving Alvarez's personal quirks through his scientific story. The reader is never far from the lab but also never far from the physicist's inner life [...] Engaging [...] This is, without doubt, the definitive biography of Luis Alvarez."
– Ananyo Bhattacharya, Science

"Collisions is a wonderful book, a chance for readers to get to know one of the great physicists of the twentieth century, who was also a great inventor. Luis Alvarez was a friend of mine; I know he'd be delighted to see his adventurous life – flying the Hiroshima mission, X-raying the pyramids, discovering the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs – so well and warmly told. Outstanding!"
– Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb

"In his riveting biography of the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Luis Alvarez, Alec Nevala-Lee reminds us how weird scientists can be: brilliant, abrasive, calculating, and adept at seeing the world in ways most of us can never imagine. Nevala-Lee tracks the enigmatic Alvarez as he invents new capabilities for radar during World War II, flies as an observer behind the Enola Gay as it drops the bomb he helped build on Hiroshima, and later forges, with his son, the hypothesis that an asteroid caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. 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, a novelist and the author of a biography of Buckminster Fuller, is eminently qualified to get to know such a lively and complicated subject. [...] Diligent [...] A thorough, dutiful parsing of Alvarez's work in the laboratory.
– Jennifer Szalai, New York Times

"One wild experiment after the next, Nevala-Lee skillfully uses Alvarez's story to provide a sweeping look at 20th-century physics, with its complicated ties to politics and culture, from the Manhattan Project to the Kennedy assassination. [...] A thoroughly researched biography of an audacious scientist – and a new window into the history of high-energy physics."
– Kirkus Reviews

"[I]lluminating. [...] Nevala-Lee provides approachable breakdowns of Alvarez's pioneering physics and a stimulating overview of his more eclectic latter-day pursuits."
– Publishers Weekly

"Nevala-Lee follows his celebrated biography of Buckminster Fuller (Inventor of the Future) with a nuanced portrait of a driven, probing scientific soul. And if Alvarez had some blind spots, Nevala-Lee reminds us that there remains a place for unbridled scientific creativity in today's world."
– Brendan Driscoll, Booklist

"A perceptive account of the way politics and war transformed the world of physics in the twentieth century, Collisions is a must-read for anyone who loves big scientific experiments – and even bigger cosmic mysteries. Alec Nevala-Lee is one of our most talented chroniclers of scientific genius, and he leads us on a fascinating, informative tour through the restless mind of Luis Alvarez."
– Annalee Newitz, best-selling author of Four Lost Cities and The Terraformers

"Of all of the countless biographies that I have read and studied on the panjandrums of twentieth century physics, I never reacted quite so viscerally towards Alvarez as a result of Nevala-Lee's tale [...] Luis Alvarez really came alive for me in the pages of this book. [...] Collisions is a welcome addition to the history of science in the twentieth century, providing significant details and perspectives on events and personalities. Most of all, Collisions is engaging in its intelligible explanations of a rich array of scientific discoveries."
– Edward J. Valauskas, First Monday

"[Alvarez] was closely involved in some of the most significant, innovative – and deadly – scientific advances of the twentieth century."
– John Banville, Irish Times