What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.
But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.
While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.
Chaos: Making a New Science is a fascinating journey into the world of chaos theory, a revolutionary field in scientific thought. In this groundbreaking bestseller, James Gleick introduces readers to the key figures and concepts that have shaped our understanding of chaos.
From Edward Lorenz's discovery of the Butterfly Effect to Mitchell Feigenbaum's calculation of a universal constant, and Benoit Mandelbrot's concept of fractals, Gleick masterfully explains how these ideas created a new geometry of nature. This book not only makes chaos theory accessible to beginners but also opens our eyes to a surprising new view of the universe.
Join Gleick as he explores the beauty and complexity of systems like weather, economics, and human behavior, revealing how small changes can lead to massive differences. This work is a celebration of the unpredictable and the intricate patterns that govern our world.
In A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson takes on the daunting task of understanding the universe and everything within it. From the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson embarks on a journey to uncover the secrets of our existence. He connects with a plethora of advanced scientists—from archaeologists and anthropologists to mathematicians—and delves into their studies, asking questions and attempting to comprehend the complex information that has puzzled humanity for centuries.
This book is both an adventure and a revelation, filled with profound insights and laced with Bryson's trademark wit. It is a clear, entertaining, and supremely engaging exploration of human knowledge that makes science both accessible and fascinating to a broad audience. A Short History of Nearly Everything is a testament to Bryson's ability to make the seemingly incomprehensible both understandable and enjoyable.
Have you ever wished your partner came with an instruction booklet? This international bestseller is the answer to all the things you've ever wondered about the opposite sex.
For their controversial new book on the differences between the way men and women think and communicate, Barbara and Allan Pease spent three years traveling around the world, collecting the dramatic findings of new research on the brain, investigating evolutionary biology, analyzing psychologists, studying social changes, and annoying the locals.
The result is a sometimes shocking, always illuminating, and frequently hilarious look at where the battle line is drawn between the sexes, why it was drawn, and how to cross it. Read this book and understand—at last!—why men never listen, why women can't read maps, and why learning each other's secrets means you'll never have to say sorry again.
Famous the world over for the creative brilliance of his insights into the physical world, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman also possessed an extraordinary talent for explaining difficult concepts to the nonscientist.
QED - the edited version of four lectures on quantum electrodynamics that Feynman gave to the general public at UCLA as part of the Alix G. Mautner Memorial Lecture series - is perhaps the best example of his ability to communicate both the substance and the spirit of science to the layperson.
The focus, as the title suggests, is quantum electrodynamics (QED), the part of the quantum theory of fields that describes the interactions of the quanta of the electromagnetic field - light, X rays, gamma rays - with matter and those of charged particles with one another. By extending the formalism developed by Dirac in 1933, which related quantum and classical descriptions of the motion of particles, Feynman revolutionized the quantum mechanical understanding of the nature of particles and waves.
And, by incorporating his own readily visualizable formulation of quantum mechanics, Feynman created a diagrammatic version of QED that made calculations much simpler and also provided visual insights into the mechanisms of quantum electrodynamic processes.
In this book, using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned "Feynman diagrams" instead of advanced mathematics, Feynman successfully provides a definitive introduction to QED for a lay readership without any distortion of the basic science.
Characterized by Feynman's famously original clarity and humor, this popular book on QED has not been equaled since its publication.