John Chant was a bright and lonely boy whose darkly comic adventures--with dinosaurs, a robot, an alien astronaut, a particle accelerator, giant monsters, quantum superposition, and a malevolent experimental chimpanzee—leads to a life of science and, eventually, a faculty position at a spectacularly dysfunctional university. Along the way he encounters cosmic rays and an underground lair, a Marxist sister and a venomous pet, poets and atomic secrets, alcoholics and cancer victims, crackpots and Nobelists, and brilliant, beguiling women. Though it all John explores the fantastical mysteries of the universe, including the biggest mystery of all: love.