Awarded the Rouge et Vert Prize, the highest award of the Brussels International Exhibition of Popular Science Books. This is a compact encyclopedic book on the structure of matter and atomic energy, treating these themes historically and from the standpoint both of the prsent day level of knowledge and the future prospects of atomic and thermonuclear engineering. The end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth were exceptionally rich in breath-taking discoveries and inventions. This tempestuous burgeoning of knowledge was accompanied with a flood of amazing stories that attempted to forecast the future development of science and technology, or at least to outline distant but ardently desired goals. In them we find everything that men have ever dreamed about: A gigantic, palatial submarine ploughing the seas and oceans of the world at unprecedented speed and capable of sailing to the Pole even below ice a thousand kilometers thick; flying machines of the most amazing design capable of carrying men non-stop from continent to continent and around the world; rockets carrying bold investigators to other worlds in the Universe; apparatus making it possible to converse over long distances without wires and to see your interlocutor. These and more are the amazing inventions and discoveries of scientists which enable us to enjoy the comforts and ease of everyday living, modern amenities, atomic-nuclear energy and more.