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Find out moreGet up to speed with the most popular developments in science, with everything from the tiniest atom to the farthest flung findings of the universe, and every scientific discovery in between. Our selection of books in this category will keep you up to date.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel returns with a captivating, little-known true story of women in science In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or human computers, to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the women turned to studying images of the stars captured on glass photographic plates, making extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim. They helped discern what the stars were made of, divided them into meaningful categories for further research, and even found a way to measure distances across space by starlight .
Written with the clarity and simplicity for which all Kitty Ferguson's books have been praised, it is a captivating account of an extraordinary life and mind.
A stimulating, detailed, yet remarkably clear book about physics and how to connect to and understand a little more about our world. If you find yourself wondering about the why, the how, the what and when… then this is the book for you. Helen Czerski is a physicist and her passion and enthusiasm is clear to see. I will admit, that even though I have a fascination and love for the world around us, my brain freezes at the very mention of physics, so a big round of applause to Helen Czerski, because my brain didn't shut me out! Instead I found myself reading out loud, passing facts on and wanting to find out more. Her discussion points include gravity, atoms, and equilibrium, and she hooked my interest, by relating them to an everyday something, and then used experiments, fun ‘tricks’ to try, findings from history, the animal kingdom and her thoughts, as a link, an explanation and connection to physics. You may well catch the physics bug after reading ‘Storm In A Teacup’, at the very least you will be able to look around you and essentially see the world with new eyes. ~ Liz Robinson
Following each stage of the development of the material Universe, from the first cataclysmic moments to the emergence of human and machine intelligence, the Infographic Guide to Science presents the unfolding science that lies behind and between then and now. Starting from the point of physical origin, the book moves through quarks, atoms, molecules and stars; to planet building, organic chemistry, the emergence of life, sentience; and finally on to the human mind and its quest to understand the Universe through exploration and science. Spectacular visuals reveal unexpected insights into how the world really works, covering all the major branches of scientific understanding.
The history of science is a fascinating and long one, covering thousands of years of history. The development of scientific experiments involves some of the most enlightened cultures in history, as well as some great scientists, philosophers and theologians. As the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman said, 'If it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong', the simplest summary of what science is all about. And science is nothing without experiments. Everything in the scientific world view is based on experiment, including observations of phenomena predicted by theories and hypotheses, such as the bending of light as it goes past the Sun.
Our seas are host to an extraordinary variety of plant and animal life, but much of it remains mysterious and great imagery is surprisingly hard to find. Alex Mustard is one of the world's leading underwater photographers and his images are so crisp and immediate that the animals seem to swim out of the water towards you. The text addresses the issue of change in the oceans along with tales of oceanography, marine life and human history in the seas and aims to help the reader to get to know the oceans, understand how marine animals live their lives and how they have, are and may well adapt to change.
Did you know, that if you were to get too close to a black hole it would suck you up like a noodle (it's called spaghettification), why your keyboard is laid out in QWERTY (it's not to make it easier to type) or whether the invention of the wheel was less important to civilization than the bag (think about it). New Scientist does. And now they and the New York Times' brilliant graphics editor Jennifer Daniel want to take you on a whistlestop journey from the start of our universe (through the history of stars, galaxies, meteorites, the Moon and dark energy) to our planet (through oceans and weather to oil) and life (through dinosaurs to emotions and sex) to civilization (from cities to alcohol and cooking), knowledge (from alphabets to alchemy) ending up with technology (computers to rocket science).
An awe-inspiring, unforgettable journey of scientific exploration from Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw, the top ten bestselling authors of The Quantum Universe. We dare to imagine a time before the Big Bang, when the entire Universe was compressed into a space smaller than an atom. And now, as Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw show, we can do more than imagine: we can understand. Over the centuries, the human urge to discover has unlocked an incredible amount of knowledge. What it reveals to us is breathtaking. Universal takes us on an epic journey of scientific exploration and, in doing so, reveals how we can all understand some of the most fundamental questions about our Earth, Sun, Solar System and the star-filled galaxies beyond. Some of these questions - How big is our solar system? How fast is space expanding? - can be answered from your back garden; the answers to others - How big is the Universe? What is it made of? - draw on the astonishing information now being gathered by teams of astronomers operating at the frontiers of the known universe. At the heart of all these questions - from the earliest attempts to quantify gravity, to our efforts to understand what dark matter is and what really happened at the birth of our universe - is the scientific process.
What would you do if someone bet you they could balance a coin on the edge of a banknote, walk through a postcard, or make you move your limbs through the power of suggestion? Would you take that bet? From Richard Wiseman, the creator of the 350-million-view YouTube phenomenon, Quirkology, comes a thrilling mix of lateral thinking, magic tricks and scintillating science stunts which is sure to appeal to curious minds everywhere.
Yuval. Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century - from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus. War is obsolete. You are more likely to commit suicide than be killed in conflict. Famine is disappearing. You are at more risk of obesity than starvation. Death is just a technical problem. Equality is out - but immortality is in. What does our future hold?
From the bestselling author of The Drunkard's Walk and Subliminal, this is the inspiring and illuminating story of how we have come to understand the world, from the invention of the very first tools to the mind-bending theories of quantum physics. Leonard Mlodinow guides us through the critical eras and events in the development of science, all of which, he demonstrates, were propelled forward by humankind's collective struggle to know. From the birth of reasoning and culture to the formation of the studies of physics, chemistry, biology, and modern-day quantum physics, we come to see that much of our progress can be attributed to simple questions - why? how? - bravely asked. Mlodinow profiles some of the great philosophers, scientists, and thinkers who explored these questions - Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein and Lavoisier among them - and makes clear that just as science has played a key role in shaping the patterns of human thought, human subjectivity has played a key role in the evolution of science.
Over the last few hundred years an avalanche of discoveries have changed our world dramatically, having a profound effect on what we think really matters. Now, in his most ambitious book yet, Sean Carroll breaks down how the universe works at the quantum, cosmic and human levels to reveal how our everyday lives connect to the underlying laws of nature.
Science has never been more popular. You don’t have to understand it to love it. We live in a golden age where we know more about the world and its origins than ever before. Here, some of the biggest questions ever asked find answers, as well as some of the smallest. This is a section bursting from its nucleus with protons of knowledge especially compiled for the lay enthusiast and the curious. Accessible science is no longer the domain of the scientist. We can all have a go at broadening our minds … and what’s more, we can do it from the relative comfort of our favourite chair. Relative comfort, because the chair is merely a mass of vibrating particles on a planet, hurtling through space and time, bending both as it goes in a Universe that may itself just be one of an infinite number of possible universes in an undefinable dimension of matter.
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