"Margaret Wertheim writes beautifully, passionately, and with great humanity about a most unusual mind. This book is ultimately about big things: What is science? What is the universe? And who says?"--Joshua Foer, author of "Moonwalking with Einstein"
"With a vivid storyteller's glee, Margaret Wertheim spins us one of those wide looping yarns that starts out all in good antic fun, only to become more and more confoundingly profound. Her sagas of outsider physicists open out onto some of the most intriguing of questions, not least of which are: Who and what gives anyone the right to decide on the legitimacy of anyone else's passions, on what gets to be deemed 'in bounds' and what not?"--Lawrence Weschler, author of "Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder"
"Margaret Wertheim's fascinating portrait of Jim Carter wonderfully captures both the pathos and the brilliance hidden in a venerable tradition of science: the quixotic amateur who thinks he might have figured out the answer to the mysteries of the universe." --Paul Collins, author of "The Murder of the Century"
""Physics on the Fringe" is a compelling, sympathetic study of the outsiders who challenge the gates of official science with impassioned theories of the universe, much the way outsider artists challenged the art establishment."--Lisa Stone, curator, Roger Brown Study Collection, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
"Maverick science writer Wertheim challenges the right of the scientific establishment to lay claim to the position of gatekeepers of truth... Wertheim raises an important question with broader ramifications." - Kirkus

"[An] informative, often witty overview of 'outsider physicists'...the crown jewel in her menagerie of eccentric visionaries is James Carter, a do-it-yourself mechanic whose theory of everything has been percolating for five decades....far from belittling Carter, Wertheim uses his inspiring example as a potent reminder that today's cranks may be deemed tomorrow's ge

Margaret Wertheim is a science writer who has written for the "New York Times," "Los Angeles Times," "Wired," and many other publications, and is the author of "Pythagoras' Trousers" and "The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace." She founded the nonprofit Institute For Figuring, through which she created the "Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef" project, which is now the largest participatory art/science project in the world. She lives in Los Angeles, California. Visit her website: www.theiff.com