A three-dimensional quantum gas atomic clock. Science Photo Library
Piero Martin
Yale University Press
David Sumpter
Allen Lane
Blame the sundial. A dinner guest in a poem by the Roman writer Plautus, his stomach rumbling, complains that: 鈥淭he town鈥檚 so full of these confounded dials /聽The greatest part of the inhabitants, /聽Shrunk up with hunger, crawl along the streets鈥.
We have been slaves to number ever since. Not that we need complain, according to two recent books. Experimental physicist Piero Martin鈥檚 spirited and fascinating



