Populated by an extraordinary group of mentors and pioneers--from Duke Ellington to J. Robert Oppenheimer--this is Jeremy Bernstein's account of his scientific beginnings. Bernstein was not "born" a scientist; he turned into one, very much to his own surprise. Ham radios, swimming, a treasured friendship with the Ellington band--such were Bernstein's youthful passions. But once at Harvard, he decided to teach himself the theory of relativity. It was the first heady step into a whole new world, a step that ultimately led him to the heart of 20th-century physics: to a stint at the Institute for Advanced Study under Oppenheimer's electrifying influence, to summers working with Freeman Dyson on the Orion spaceship project; to a year in Paris with the brilliant Murray Gell-Mann.