Here are fifteen pieces on the history and personalities of physics and related fields, from the well-known physicist and essayist Jeremy Bernstein. The pieces in this collection include profiles of Niels Bohr, Marie Curie, Linus Pauling, the linguist Hans Eberstark, and Julian Schwinger; essays on thought experiments, Einstein's scientific legacy, the early debate on black holes, and the cold fusion controversy; and some humorous short fiction. Most of this work has appeared in the New Yorker, Scientific American, or The Atlantic Monthly.