Out of interest are you a physicist or chemist, or have a very good understanding of either of those subjects? Asking because I found the book extremely dry an

Out of interest are you a physicist or chemist, or have a very good understanding of either of those subjects? Asking because I found the book extremely dry and hard to get excited about (I only read the first half admittedly) due to it seeming to be aimed at people who do understand that stuff quite deeply. I'm amazed so many people can enjoy it. For example, was I supposed to know who all those early twentieth century physicists were? It seemed like I was. Apart from Einstein and Oppenheimer I hadn't really heard of most of them.