Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-318) and index.

The supreme task : reality, truth, and the scientific method -- Part I. The authorized version. White ambassadors of morning : light, quantum theory and the nature of reality -- The construction of mass : matter, force and the standard model of particle physics -- Beautiful beyond comparison : space, time and the special and general theories of relativity -- The (mostly) missing universe : the universe according to the standard model of Big Bang cosmology -- What's wrong with this picture? : why the authorized version of reality can't be right -- Part II. The grand delusion. Thy fearful symmetry : beyond the standard model : supersymmetry and grand unification -- In the cemetery of disappointed hopes : superstrings, M-theory and the search for the theory of everything -- Gardeners of the cosmic landscape : many worlds and the multiverse -- Source code of the cosmos : quantum information, black holes and the Holographic Principle -- Ego sum ergo est : I am therefore it is : the anthropic cosmological principle -- Just six questions : defining the destination at the end of a hopeful journey.

Presenting portraits of many central figures in modern physics, including Stephen Hawking and Leonard Susskind, this critique of modern theoretical physics provides the latest ideas about the nature of physical reality while clearly distinguishing between fact and fantasy.