Part memoire, part exploration of physical and chemical science, this book could be a great popular science book with some editing, pictures & diagrams. Instead, it is a mish-mash, equal parts interesting ideas and anecdotes.

Eberhart does do a good job leading you from the what to the how to the why. At the end of the book, he notes he was documenting the scientific thinking process as much as the actual results, and maybe there is a book or article there also. I just think this would have been a better work had it concentrated on one of those goals.

All that said, it was pretty interesting stuff, if devoid of illustrations. I added this to my reading list six years ago; I forget where I originally heard about it. No library had it, no nearby bookstore had it, and I refuse to go the Amazon route. Last year I found it at Powell's, and my quest was at an end. The book also contains a short bibliography, so perhaps a new quest awaits.