“Lucidly written. . . . Hiltzik’s tale is important for understanding how science and politics entwine in the United States, and he moves it along efficiently, with striking details and revealing quotations.”

– Robert P. Crease, The New York Times Book Review

"Entertaining, thoroughly researched . . . an unusual take on Lawrence’s life and work—partly a biography, partly an account of the influence of his great idea, partly a short history of nuclear physics and the Bomb.”

– Graham Farmelo, The Wall Street Journal

"This is an astonishing story: US physicist Ernest Lawrence is at its core, but its scope is broad and full of context and characters."

– Jon Butterworth, Nature

"Absorbing and expansive. . . . Beyond the sheer thrill of the story, Hiltzik's delightful book is invaluable as a basis for reckoning how Big Science can persevere and evolve."

– Jonathon Keats, The Los Angeles Times

“The author of several books on the interplay of society and technology, Hiltzik is best at making the science of Lawrence’s lab accessible to the reader.”

– Gregg Herken, The Washington Post

"A fascinating biography of a physicist who transformed how science is done."

– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Michael Hiltzik tells an epic story, one with arenas of tragedy as well as triumph, and he tells it well.”

– Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian

“Einstein famously formulated new theories of the universe while sitting alone in the patent office in Bern. Today, many endeavors in fundamental research require large budgets, elaborate facilities, and huge staffs. How did science become ‘Big Science’? In this fascinating book, Michael Hiltzik gives us the inside story of this remarkable metamorphosis. This is a gripping biography of Big Science and of the people who originated it.”

– Mario Livio, Astrophysicist, and author of Brilliant Blunders

"An informative and thought-provoking account of the role played by the cyclotron and Lawrence’s radiation laboratory in the emergence of the military-industrial complex."

– Glenn C. Altschuler, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“An exciting book. . . . A bright narrative that captures the wonder of nuclear physics without flying off into a physics Neverland. . . . Big Science is an excellent summary of how physics became nuclear and changed the world.”

– Jules Wagman, Cleveland Plain-Dealer

“20th-century science delivered a series of revolutions, none more instantaneous than the microseconds it took to explode the first atomic bomb. By framing this story—and the development of the cyclotron that made it possible—from the Lawrence/Livermore perspective rather than the Oppenheimer/Los Alamos perspective that has dominated most accounts, Michael Hiltzik sheds fresh light on the transition from small science to big science that we take for granted today. Especially timely is a fascinating account of Lawrence’s attempt to return to small science: how do you encourage a small group of scientists to produce big results, rather than the other way around?”

– George Dyson, author of Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe