In simple terms, this book challenges the ambiguous accounts of matter and light offered by contemporary physics. A new model of the atom is presented, making possible a fresh understanding of the transmission of light, the nature of chemical bonding and the structure of the atomic table. The development of atomic physics in the past one hundred years has undermined the view that the universe is an ordered place, operating according to principles that can be grasped by the rational mind. The basic players in quantum systems are believed to be particles without positions, causal processes that evolve in fundamentally uncertain ways. In language accessible to the layperson, this book shows how the empirical data of modern physics can be reinterpreted so that the world makes sense. Without dismissing any of the experimental findings of the past century, we present a new concept of matter and a new model of the transmission of light. The emission spectra of the elements, the structure of the periodic table, and the patterns of chemical bonding all follow naturally from this new conception of matter and light. The end result is a way of looking at the world that is simple, ordered and comprehensible.