An exceptional book written by a true professional.

    From the very first attempts by the Greeks to grapple with the complexities of our known world to the latest application of infinity in physics, The Road to Reality carefully explores the movement of the smallest atomic particles and reaches into the vastness of intergalactic space. Here, Penrose examines the mathematical foundations of the physical universe, exposing the underlying beauty of physics and giving us one the most important works in modern science writing.

    The work is predicated on the idea that studying mathematics can generate the same enthusiasm as playing a team sport - without necessarily being competitive.

    But his perfect life comes apart at the seams when he begins to experience blinding headaches and strange bursts of physical ability. Suspicion and paranoia lead him down a rabbit hole of corporate conspiracy where he finds out he’s not losing him mind, it’s much worse than that. Genesis is a mind-bending thrill ride through a near future where Aiden must face the possibility that he is a bio-fabricated being created by a ruthless multinational corporation. The closer Aiden gets to the truth, the more he becomes something unprecedented, a being more powerful than anyone thought possible. If he can learn to harness his newfound abilities in time, Aiden might find a way to save the woman he loves, his species, and possibly... the future of the human race. Film and television writer Matt K. Turner comes storming out of the gates with his debut sci-fi action thriller. Blending a surprisingly smart mixture of heart pounding action, heady reflections on the nature of humanity, and witty comedic flare, Genesis is a new brand of sci-fi for enthusiasts and newcomers alike.

    The pair takes on corrupt politicians, rogue corporations, financiers and bankers in three novels ripped from tomorrow’s headlines. Join over 100,000 readers riveted by nearly 1,000 pages of murder, betrayal, rogues, and traitors. From the origin story of THE GENEVA DECISION, the horrors of corrupt politicians in BRING IT, to the madness unveiled in ELEMENT 42, you’ll love the irresistible characters, the chilling evil masterminds, and gripping situations. As one VineVoice reviewer said, “I could not put this book down.” Jacob Stearne was a killing machine for the Army until he started listening to Mercury, winged messenger of the Roman gods. Now he works for Sabel Security. This irresistible hero is definitely lethal—but is he divinely guided, completely insane, or the next rampage killer? Ever since Pia Sabel witnessed her parents’ murders, she’s been looking for ways to eliminate the corrupt and murderous. When her adopted father hands her the keys to a security company staffed with battle-scarred veterans, she discovers her calling as a chilling avenging angel. Be sure to look for Death and Dark Money, Sabel Security #4, and Death and the Damned, Sabel Security #5 to complete your collection! Book #1 - THE GENEVA DECISION: When criminals assassinate her first customer, retired soccer star and new CEO Pia Sabel must turn around her sinking security firm and hunt down oil pirates. Chapter 5: She plunged into shocking cold water. Something tugged at her torso, pulling her down. The current of the Rhone flowed out of Lake Léman and into a narrow penstock, or inlet tube, that once fed the power plant’s turbines. She was in that current, slipping into that penstock. She had to swim out immediately or get sucked into a kilometer-long tube. Clawing at the water, she struggled upward, sinking as much as she rose. Book #2 - BRING IT: When Pia Sabel is abducted after trying to bust a ring of deviant criminals, it’s up to veteran agent Jacob Stearne to navigate the dark web of deceit and lies to save her from her torturous captors. Chapter 3: She kicked hard and fast. Her foot moved between his knees so quickly he had no time for defense. The sole of her running shoe connected with the leg of his chair. The chair skittered backward until one of the legs found a crack in the sidewalk, caught it, and flipped end over end with a series of loud clanks. In the same instant, she grabbed his tie. His butt was behind him, halfway to the now-missing chair. His backbone was forty-five degrees from standing. Book #3 - ELEMENT 42: When a drug company tests a deadly disease only their patented drug can cure, overconfident heiress Pia Sabel and unstable veteran Jacob Stearne are all that stands between right and deadly wrong. Chapter 1: The voice in my head returned when I stopped taking my meds. My caseworker said the voice was part of my condition—PTSD-induced schizophrenia—but I call him Mercury, the winged messenger of the gods, and a damn good friend.

    Forget fiction: time travel is real. In How to Build a Time Machine, Brian Clegg provides an understanding of what time is and how it can be manipulated. He explores the fascinating world of physics and the remarkable possibilities of real time travel that emerge from quantum entanglement, superluminal speeds, neutron star cylinders and wormholes in space. With the fascinating paradoxes of time travel echoing in our minds will we realize that travel into the future might never be possible? Or will we realize there is no limit on what can be achieved, and take on this ultimate challenge? Only time will tell.

    The data world was revolutionized a few years ago when Hadoop and other tools made it possible to getthe results from queries in minutes. But the revolution continues. Analysts now demand sub-second, near real-time query results. Fortunately, we have the tools to deliver them. This report examines tools and technologies that are driving real-time big data analytics.

    DLC: Quantum theory.

    The postulates of quantum mechanics and the mathematical underpinnings are discussed in a clear, succinct manner." (American Scientist)"No matter how gently one introduces students to the concept of Dirac's bras and kets, many are turned off. Shankar attacks the problem head-on in the first chapter, and in a very informal style suggests that there is nothing to be frightened of." (Physics Bulletin)Reviews of the Second Edition:"This massive text of 700 and odd pages has indeed an excellent get-up, is very verbal and expressive, and has extensively worked out calculational details---all just right for a first course. The style is conversational, more like a corridor talk or lecture notes, though arranged as a text. ... It would be particularly useful to beginning students and those in allied areas like quantum chemistry." (Mathematical Reviews)R. Shankar has introduced major additions and updated key presentations in this second edition of Principles of Quantum Mechanics. New features of this innovative text include an entirely rewritten mathematical introduction, a discussion of Time-reversal invariance, and extensive coverage of a variety of path integrals and their applications. Additional highlights include:- Clear, accessible treatment of underlying mathematics- A review of Newtonian, Lagrangian, and Hamiltonian mechanics- Student understanding of quantum theory is enhanced by separate treatment of mathematical theorems and physical postulates- Unsurpassed coverage of path integrals and their relevance in contemporary physicsThe requisite text for advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level students, Principles of Quantum Mechanics, Second Edition is fully referenced and is supported by many exercises and solutions. The book's self-contained chapters also make it suitable for independent study as well as for courses in applied disciplines.

    But Planck's story is not well known, especially in the United States. A German physicist working during the firsthalf of the twentieth century, his library, personal journals, notebooks, and letters were all destroyed with his home in World War II. What remains, other than his contributions to science, are handwritten letters in German shorthand, and tributes from other scientists of the time.In Planck: Driven by Vision, Broken by War, Brandon R. Brown interweaves the voices and writings of Planck, his family, and his contemporaries--with many passages appearing in English for the first time--to create a portrait of a groundbreaking physicist working in the midst of war. Planck spentmuch of his adult life grappling with the identity crisis of being an influential German with ideas that ran counter to his government. During the later part of his life, he survived bombings and battlefields, surgeries and blood transfusions, all the while performing his influential work amidst aviolent and crumbling Nazi bureaucracy. When his son was accused of treason, Planck tried to use his standing as a German national treasure, and wrote directly to Hitler to spare his son's life. Brown tells the story of Planck's friendship with the far more outspoken Albert Einstein, and shows howhis work fits within the explosion of technology and science that occurred during his life.This story of a brilliant man living in a dangerous time gives Max Planck his rightful place in the history of science, and it shows how war-torn Germany deeply impacted his life and work.

    But was he right? Can the quantum theory of fields and Einstein's general theory of relativity, the two most accurate and successful theories in all of physics, be united in a single quantum theory of gravity? Can quantum and cosmos ever be combined? On this issue, two of the world's most famous physicists--Stephen Hawking ("A Brief History of Time") and Roger Penrose ("The Emperor's New Mind" and "Shadows of the Mind")--disagree. Here they explain their positions in a work based on six lectures with a final debate, all originally presented at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge.How could quantum gravity, a theory that could explain the earlier moments of the big bang and the physics of the enigmatic objects known as black holes, be constructed? Why does our patch of the universe look just as Einstein predicted, with no hint of quantum effects in sight? What strange quantum processes can cause black holes to evaporate, and what happens to all the information that they swallow? Why does time go forward, not backward?In this book, the two opponents touch on all these questions. Penrose, like Einstein, refuses to believe that quantum mechanics is a final theory. Hawking thinks otherwise, and argues that general relativity simply cannot account for how the universe began. Only a quantum theory of gravity, coupled with the no-boundary hypothesis, can ever hope to explain adequately what little we can observe about our universe. Penrose, playing the realist to Hawking's positivist, thinks that the universe is unbounded and will expand forever. The universe can be understood, he argues, in terms of the geometry of light cones, the compression and distortion of spacetime, and by the use of twistor theory. With the final debate, the reader will come to realize how much Hawking and Penrose diverge in their opinions of the ultimate quest to combine quantum mechanics and relativity, and how differently they have tried to comprehend the incomprehensible.

    Emphasizes the applications of theory, and contains new material on particle physics, electron-positron annihilation in solids and the Mossbauer effect. Includes new appendices on such topics as crystallography, Fourier Integral Description of a Wave Group, and Time-Independent Perturbation Theory.

     QUICK ON THE DRAW Glenister McCreedie was never a lucky man. Imprisoned for a crime he never committed, deserted by the woman he loved and betrayed by his own family. His bad luck seems to be running out when he is released early from prison and finds a job on the railroads. But it doesn’t last long. First he gets into a fight with a man who turns up dead and whilst still on the run, his train is held up by his own brother’s gang. Then he somehow manages to offend the railroad boss’ daughter, the beautiful Elizabeth. With the fates out to get him, Glen has to use all his wits and strength to take control of his own destiny… THE FIGHTING COWBOY Steve Blondel is better known throughout the West as El Cougar – the fighting cowboy. An unbeatable force, he’s winning competitions nationwide and earning a reputation for his skills in the ring. As the first fighting cowboy to come out of the West, Blondel is quickly becoming the one to beat. Huge bets are placed on his success and people travel far and wide to watch him in action. But his career is suddenly interrupted when he learns of the disappearance of his brother, who has mysteriously vanished whilst enroute to a fight. However, it’s not long before Blondel realizes that his brother has been murdered by a gang of vicious train robbers, and his body tossed into the nearby canyon. Blondel vows vengeance, and locates the prime suspects of the attack – the infamous Morton family – who will stop at nothing to get what they want... BATTLE AT BROKEN KNEE Trouble always seems to find Careless O’Connor. But when he comes across a wrecked wagon off a lonely Texan trail, dangerously close to the volatile Mexican border, he has little premonition that this chance encounter will change his life forever. Lying amongst the debris of shattered wagon wheels and dead horses is the woman who will turn Careless’ world upside down. Little did he know the plight of Grace Whitfield, with her blue eyes, blonde curls and fierce desire to avenge the ruthless imprisonment of her brother, was going to lead Careless on many an adventure – both in the harsh desert and in his heart. Battling against terrifying odds, Careless and his crew – the beautiful Grace, brave young Yippee Clay, honest Burt and dastardly Big Mouth – struggle on in their quest for justice. Praise for Gordon Landsborough 'A punchy tale coupled with plenty of action - an engaging read!' - Philip McCormac, bestselling western author 'A must-read collection of western adventures.' – Tom Kasey, bestselling author of Trade Off. Gordon Landsborough (1913-1984) was a publisher, author and bookseller. Writing tales about the exploits of gun-toting cowboys fighting out on the arid sands of the Wild West, Landsborough was himself a pioneer in the English paperback publishing world of the 1950s. He was widely known amongst his peers as the ‘maverick publishing genius’.

    At the subatomic level, one particle seems to know what the others are doing, and according to Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle", there is a limit on how accurately nature can be observed. And yet the theory is amazingly accurate and widely applied, explaining all of chemistry and most of physics. "Introducing Quantum Theory" takes us on a step-by-step tour with the key figures, including Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and Schrodinger. Each contributed at least one crucial concept to the theory. The puzzle of the wave-particle duality is here, along with descriptions of the two questions raised against Bohr's "Copenhagen Interpretation" - the famous "dead and alive cat" and the EPR paradox. Both remain unresolved.

    This report, part of the GoodPlay Project, undertaken by researchers at Harvard Graduate School of Education's Project Zero, investigates the ethical fault lines of such digital pursuits. The authors argue that five key issues are at stake in the new media: identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. Drawing on evidence from informant interviews, emerging scholarship on new media, and theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies, the report explores the ways in which youth may be redefining these concepts as they engage with new digital media. The authors propose a model of "good play" that involves the unique affordances of the new digital media; related technical and new media literacies; cognitive and moral development and values; online and offline peer culture; and ethical supports, including the absence or presence of adult mentors and relevant educational curricula. This proposed model for ethical play sets the stage for the next part of the GoodPlay project, an empirical study that will invite young people to share their stories of engagement with the new digital media.The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning