"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."

I've been reading a great - profound - book, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", Richard Rhodes excellent work, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and other awards. It's a history buff's and technoweenie's dream, replete with meaty morsels of technology, mathematics, chemistry, and of course, physics.

But what has struck me as most powerful in this historical tome is not the science, not the steps of logic, the leaps of faith, but the stories - the backstories, the metastories. The technology that led to the synthetic splitting of the atom was based on science and the science, on discoveries, and the discoveries, on the character and interpersonal dynamics of the scientists.

Most things I want to say have been said before far better by others. In this case, by Muriel Rukeyser:

"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."