Book picks similar to
Nucleus: A Trip Into the Heart of Matter by Ray Mackintosh
physics
non-fiction
science
factual
Copernicus' Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began
Jack Repcheck - 2007
Repchecks riveting story tells of the enigmatic genius responsible for one of the most important scientific theories ever--and why it took several decades and a strangers intervention before his groundbreaking On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was published.
The Universe in Your Hand: A Journey Through Space, Time, and Beyond
Christophe Galfard - 2015
Frizzle were a physics student of Stephen Hawking, she might have written THE UNIVERSE IN YOUR HAND, a wild tour through the reaches of time and space, from the interior of a proton to the Big Bang to the rough suburbs of a black hole. It's friendly, excitable, erudite, and cosmic."—Jordan Ellenberg, New York Times besteselling author of How Not To Be WrongQuantum physics, black holes, string theory, the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, parallel universes: even if we are interested in these fundamental concepts of our world, their language is the language of math. Which means that despite our best intentions of finally grasping, say, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, most of us are quickly brought up short by a snarl of nasty equations or an incomprehensible graph.Christophe Galfard's mission in life is to spread modern scientific ideas to the general public in entertaining ways. Using his considerable skills as a brilliant theoretical physicist and successful young adult author, The Universe in Your Hand employs the immediacy of simple, direct language to show us, not explain to us, the theories that underpin everything we know about our universe. To understand what happens to a dying star, we are asked to picture ourselves floating in space in front of it. To get acquainted with the quantum world, we are shrunk to the size of an atom and then taken on a journey. Employing everyday similes and metaphors, addressing the reader directly, and writing stories rather than equations renders these astoundingly complex ideas in an immediate and visceral way.Utterly captivating and entirely unique, The Universe in Your Hand will find its place among other classics in the field.
Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss
Lora Shahine - 2017
Whether you are a patient struggling with miscarriages or a medical provider caring for patients with recurrent pregnancy loss, you will learn something from this resource. Dr. Shahine explains not only a typical Western medicine approach to evaluation and treatment for miscarriage but also includes Eastern approaches to care, lifestyle factors that will decrease your risk of miscarriage, and the emotional impact of recurrent pregnancy loss. You will finish this book feeling more empowered to be an advocate for your care and more hopeful than ever to continue towards your family goals. “I have one word to describe this fabulous book: FINALLY. Women with recurrent pregnancy loss have been needing this book for years.” – Dr. Alice Domar, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and author of Conquering Infertility and Finding Calm for the Expectant Mom
Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos
Seth Lloyd - 2006
This wonderfully accessible book illuminates the professional and personal paths that led him to this remarkable conclusion.All interactions between particles in the universe, Lloyd explains, convey not only energy but also information—in other words, particles not only collide, they compute. And what is the entire universe computing, ultimately? “Its own dynamical evolution,” he says. “As the computation proceeds, reality unfolds.”To elucidate his theory, Lloyd examines the history of the cosmos, posing questions that in other hands might seem unfathomably complex: How much information is there in the universe? What information existed at the moment of the Big Bang and what happened to it? How do quantum mechanics and chaos theory interact to create our world? Could we attempt to re-create it on a giant quantum computer? Programming the Universe presents an original and compelling vision of reality, revealing our world in an entirely new light.
The Unknown Universe: A New Exploration of Time, Space, and Modern Cosmology
Stuart Clark - 2015
Taking in 440 sextillion kilometres of space and 13.8 billion years of time, it is physically impossible to make a better map: we will never see the early universe in more detail. On the one hand, such a view is the apotheosis of modern cosmology, on the other, it threatens to undermine almost everything we hold cosmologically sacrosanct. The map contains anomalies that challenge our understanding of the universe. It will force us to revisit what is known and what is unknown, to construct a new model of our universe. This is the first book to address what will be an epoch-defining scientific paradigm shift. Stuart Clark will ask if Newton's famous laws of gravity need to be rewritten; if dark matter and dark energy are just celestial phantoms? Can we ever know what happened before the Big Bang? What’s at the bottom of a black hole? Are there universes beyond our own? Does time exist? Are the once immutable laws of physics changing?
Bad Astronomy
Philip Plait - 2002
Plait created his popular web site: http://www.badastronomy.com/index.html, to debunk bad astronomy in popular culture. This website proved popular, which led to this first book by Plait, that carries on from the website and in a detailed and clear fashion criticises and disproves popular myths and misconceptions relating to astronomy, and promotes science as a means of explaining the skies. The work describes 24 common astronomical fallacies, including the beliefs that the Coriolis effect determines the direction that water drains in a bathtub, and that planetary alignments can cause disaster on Earth. The author sharply and convincingly dismisses astrology, creationism, and UFO sightings, and explains the principles behind basic general concepts (the Big Bang, why the sky is blue, etc.).
Lost and Missing: True Stories of People Gone Missing and Never Found (Murder, Scandals and Mayhem Book 5)
Mike Riley - 2014
Imagine living the rest of your life never knowing what happened to them, where they are, if they are even alive!Lost and Missing: True Stories of People Gone Missing and Never Found contains true life stories of people who have disappeared from the face of the earth, including the circumstances surrounding their disappearances, the investigations, the results and the current status of the cases.In some instances, foul play is definitely involved. In other cases, bad luck, poor judgement or just wrong place, wrong time factors have affected the outcomes.Some of the stories within are:
The missing colonists of Roanoke Island
The heiress who went shopping and never returned
The English Lord who disappeared after a night of bloodshed
The tragic mystery of three missing Australian children
The man who vanished from a cruise ship
And many more.
Be prepared to be confounded, confused and left curious. These cases have never been solved and some continue to be investigated to this day. Click BUY above right now to get your copy of Lost and Missing: True Stories of People Gone Missing and Never Found
The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins
Alan Guth - 1997
Guth’s startling theory—widely regarded as one of the most important contributions to science during the twentieth century—states that the big bang was set into motion by a period of hyper-rapid “inflation,” lasting only a billion-trillion-billionth of a second. The Inflationary Universe is the passionate story of one leading scientist’s effort to look behind the cosmic veil and explain how the universe began.
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
Natalie Angier - 2007
She draws on conversations with hundreds of the world's top scientists and on her own work as a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the New York Times to create a thoroughly entertaining guide to scientific literacy. Angier's gifts are on full display in The Canon, an ebullient celebration of science that stands to become a classic. The Canon is vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the great issues of our time -- from stem cells and bird flu to evolution and global warming. And it's for every parent who has ever panicked when a child asked how the earth was formed or what electricity is. Angier's sparkling prose and memorable metaphors bring the science to life, reigniting our own childhood delight in discovering how the world works. "Of course you should know about science," writes Angier, "for the same reason Dr. Seuss counsels his readers to sing with a Ying or play Ring the Gack: These things are fun and fun is good." The Canon is a joyride through the major scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. Along the way, we learn what is actually happening when our ice cream melts or our coffee gets cold, what our liver cells do when we eat a caramel, why the horse is an example of evolution at work, and how we're all really made of stardust. It's Lewis Carroll meets Lewis Thomas -- a book that will enrapture, inspire, and enlighten.
Ask the Narcissist: The Answers to Your Questions
H.G. Tudor - 2016
The narcissist provides the direct and no-nonsense explanations and answers to the questions which matter most to you. The narcissist manages to keep a hook in you by leaving you with unanswered questions. These questions prevent you from gaining understanding, make you susceptible to the pull of the narcissist in the future and cause you untold anguish and anxiety. Not any more. A range of incisive questions covering the narcissistic spectrum of behaviours have been posed by those who have been on the receiving end of narcissistic behaviour. Real questions posed by those who know exactly what it is like to be held in the grasp of the narcissist. Real answers provided by the narcissist himself which will provide understanding, enlightenment and freedom.
Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality
Manjit Kumar - 2007
And yet for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly-written history of this fundamental scientific revolution, and the divisive debate at its heart.For 60 years most physicists believed that quantum theory denied the very existence of reality itself. Yet Kumar shows how the golden age of physics ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century.Quantum sets the science in the context of the great upheavals of the modern age. In 1925 the quantum pioneers nearly all hailed from upper-middle-class academic families; most were German; and their average age was 24. But it was their irrational, romantic spirit, formed in reaction to the mechanised slaughter of the First World War that inspired their will to test science to its limits.The essential read for anyone fascinated by this complex and thrilling story and by the band of young men at its heart.
From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time
Sean Carroll - 2009
In the hands of one of today’s hottest young physicists, that simple fact of breakfast becomes a doorway to understanding the Big Bang, the universe, and other universes, too. In From Eternity to Here, Sean Carroll argues that the arrow of time, pointing resolutely from the past to the future, owes its existence to conditions before the Big Bang itself, a period modern cosmology of which Einstein never dreamed. Increasingly, though, physicists are going out into realms that make the theory of relativity seem like child’s play. Carroll’s scenario is not only elegant, it’s laid out in the same easy-to- understand language that has made his group blog, Cosmic Variance, the most popular physics blog on the Net. From Eternity to Here uses ideas at the cutting edge of theoretical physics to explore how properties of spacetime before the Big Bang can explain the flow of time we experience in our everyday lives. Carroll suggests that we live in a baby universe, part of a large family of universes in which many of our siblings experience an arrow of time running in the opposite direction. It’s an ambitious, fascinating picture of the universe on an ultra-large scale, one that will captivate fans of popular physics blockbusters like Elegant Universe and A Brief History of Time.
OS X 10.10 Yosemite: The Ars Technica Review
John Siracusa - 2014
Siracusa's overview, wrap-up, and critique of everything new in OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
Life in the Universe: A Beginner's Guide
Lewis Dartnell - 2007
Lewis Dartnell considers some of the fascinating questions facing researchers today. Could life exist anywhere else in the universe? What might aliens really look like? Dartnell explains why Earth is uniquely suited for life and reveals our profound connection to the cosmos.
The Hartford Circus Fire: Tragedy Under the Big Top
Michael Skidgell - 2014
With a single careless act, an afternoon at the "Greatest Show on Earth" quickly became one of terror and tragedy as the paraffin-coated circus tent caught fire. Panicked crowds rushed for the few exits, but in minutes, the tent collapsed on those still struggling to escape below. A total of 168 lives were lost, many of them children, with many more injured and forever scarred by the events. Hartford and the surrounding communities reeled in the aftermath as investigators searched for the source of the fire and the responsible parties.