When the destination sign on Scrooges train reads "HEAT DEATH" instead of "HEATHROW," when his dead partner Marleys face appears as a talking head in a department store TV, and when the street lights outside his flat begin acting strangely, it is a sign of a bad night to come. Like his famous ancestor, the modern Scrooge is about to be visited by ghosts. But its not his hard heart that needs opening; its his closed mind. Physicist Robert Gilmore, author of the popular Alice in Quantumland, presents here a delightful takeoff, where the three visitations represent Science Past, Present and Future. For everyone who wants a playful, painless yet surprisingly sophisticated introduction to the ideas of modern physics, this is a brilliant tour de force and a charming read.

Thousands of readers who were delighted by the adventures and science content of Alice in Quantumland are in for another treat. This time physicist Robert Gilmore takes us on a journey with Dorothy, following the yellow building block road through the land of the Wizard of Quarks. Using characters and situations based on the Wizard of Oz story, we learn along the way about the fascinating world of particle physics. Classes of particles, from quarks to leptons are shown in an atomic garden, where atoms and molecules are produced. See how Dorothy, The Tin Geek, and the Cowardly Lion experience the bizarre world of subatomic particles.

First Snow White encounters one of the Little People, then one of the Even Smaller People, and finally one of the Truly Infinitesimal People. And no matter how diligently she searches, the only dwarves she can find are collapsed stars! Clearly, she's not at home in her well-known Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but instead in a strange new landscape that features quantum behavior, the wavelike properties of particles, and the Uncertainty Principle. She (and we) must have entered, in short, one of the worlds created by Robert Gilmore, physicist and fabulist.

In this cleverly conceived book, physicist Robert Gilmore makes accessible some complex concepts in quantum mechanics by sending Alice to Quantumland-a whole new Wonderland, smaller than an atom, where each attraction demonstrates a different aspect of quantum theory. Alice unusual encounters, enhanced by illustrations by Gilmore himself, make the Uncertainty Principle, wave functions, the Pauli Principle, and other elusive concepts easier to grasp.

At last, after 178 years the clues and questions left unanswered in Dickens' immortal classic are explored and answered. Did Scrooge really change? And how did he become "as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew." Tiny Tim lived but how did he overcome his lameness and what of his future relationship with Scrooge? Did Scrooge form a new and lasting relationship with his nephew Fred? And, did Scrooge ever encounter the beautiful Belle, the young and only love of his life? Finally, the moral obligation that Scrooge owed to Jacob Marley for his intervention that saved Scrooge from his fate is finally explored.