Book picks similar to
The Light Fantastic by Peter Mason


physics
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allie-s-bookshelf

It's Not A Diet: the no cravings, no willpower way to get lean and happy for good


Davinia Taylor - 2021
    

Helgoland: The World of Quantum Theory


Carlo Rovelli - 2020
    In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving.Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious.As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercely debate the meaning of the theory, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships rather than substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for thinking about the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness.Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it.

A Piece of the Sun: The Quest for Fusion Energy


Daniel Clery - 2013
    There, at its center, the fusion of 620 million tons of hydrogen every second generates an unfathomable amount of energy. By replicating even a tiny piece of the Sun’s power on Earth, we can secure all the heat and energy we would ever need.Nuclear fusion scientists have pursued this simple yet extraordinary ambition for decades. Skeptics say it will never work but, as A Piece of the Sun makes clear, large-scale nuclear fusion is scientifically possible—and has many advantages over other options. Fusion is clean, green and virtually limitless and Clery argues passionately and eloquently that the only thing keeping us from proving its worth is our politicians’ shortsightedness. The world energy industry is worth trillions of dollars, divert just a tiny fraction of that into researching fusion and we would soon know if it is workable.Timely and authoritative, A Piece of the Sun is a rousing call-to-arms to seize this chance of avoiding the looming energy crisis.

The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World


Sarah Stewart Johnson - 2020
    Coated in red dust, the terrain is bewilderingly empty. And yet multiple spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium, and Mare Sirenum—on the brink, perhaps, of a staggering find, one that would inspire humankind as much as any discovery in the history of modern science.In this beautifully observed, deeply personal book, Georgetown scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson tells the story of how she and other researchers have scoured Mars for signs of life, transforming the planet from a distant point of light into a world of its own.Johnson’s fascination with Mars began as a child in Kentucky, turning over rocks with her father and looking at planets in the night sky. She now conducts fieldwork in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the salt flats of Western Australia, developing methods for detecting life on other worlds. Here, with poetic precision, she interlaces her own personal journey—as a female scientist and a mother—with tales of other seekers, from Percival Lowell, who was convinced that a utopian society existed on Mars, to Audouin Dollfus, who tried to carry out astronomical observations from a stratospheric balloon. In the process, she shows how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: This other world has been our mirror, our foil, a telltale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings.Empathetic and evocative, The Sirens of Mars offers an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos.

Center of Attention: A True Crime Memoir


Jami D. Brown Martin - 2020
    The photo looks completely out of place on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list where it’s been since December, 8, 2007. For eight of those years, Jason appeared directly beside Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden is long gone, but Jason is still wanted for armed robbery and murder.For years, his sister, Jami D. Brown Martin has watched the true crime programs and read the amateur investigative blogs devoted to Jason, his crime, and the efforts to apprehend him knowing the story wasn’t as simple, nor was it just Jason’s. To be the sister, brother, or relative of one of the world’s most wanted men is to live every day with the horrible truth and many consequences of his brutal act.CENTER OF ATTENTION is the story of a former Mormon missionary turned murderer. It is also a riveting look behind the facade of the genetically blessed, seemingly prominent and pious Brown family of Laguna Beach, California. It is a tale of the family patriarch, John Brown, who disappeared without a trace ten years before his son. More important, it is the gripping and ultimately hopeful story of the sister of one of the world’s most wanted fugitives and her journey to accept that despite being a product of the same crazy environment as her brother, her life and path are her own.

Strength of Materials, Part 1 and Part 2


Stephen P. Timoshenko - 1983
    1: Elementary Theory and Problems contains the essential material that is usually covered in required courses of strength of materials in our engineering schools. Strength of Materials - Part. 2: Advanced Theory and Problems contains the later developments that are of practical importance in the fields of strength of materials, and theory of elasticity. Complete derivations of problems of practical interest are given in most cases. The books are illustrated with a number of problems to which solutions are presented. In many cases, the problems are chosen so as to widen the field covered by the text and to illustrate the application of the theory in the solution of design problems.

Human Technology: A Toolkit for Authentic Living


Ilchi Lee - 2005
    Meditation, breath-work, and Oriental healing arts are offered as self-reliant health management skills. A distinctive perspective on relationships and an inspirational guide to discover a passionate life purpose are featured. This book also includes a practical guide to optimize our life's master controller?the brain. In the name of comfort and security, we have created increasingly complex systems that demand our lives for their maintenance. Systems cannot answer life's most important questions?only you can. The ultimate goal of education, institutions, and expertise should be self-education. Only then will technology serve humanity rather than reign over us. Human Technology contains the principles and tools that can return us to self-mastery and the life well lived. Human Technology is a toolkit for living an authentic life.

The Perfect Machine: Building the Palomar Telescope


Ronald Florence - 1994
    As huge as the Pantheon of Rome and as heavy as the Statue of Liberty, this magnificent instrument is so precisely built that its seventeen-foot mirror was hand-polished to a tolerance of 2/1,000,000 of an inch. The telescope's construction drove some to the brink of madness, made others fearful that mortals might glimpse heaven, and transfixed an entire nation. Ronald Florence weaves into his account of the creation of "the perfect machine" a stirring chronicle of the birth of Big Science and a poignant rendering of an America mired in the depression yet reaching for the stars.

The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the International Race to Split the Atom


Brian Cathcart - 2004
    Re-creating the frustrations, excitements, and obsessions of 1932, the miracle year of British physics, Cathcart reveals in rich detail the astonishing story behind the splitting of the atom in a riveting and erudite narrative.

The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy


Sharon Bertsch McGrayne - 2011
    To its adherents, it is an elegant statement about learning from experience. To its opponents, it is subjectivity run amok.In the first-ever account of Bayes' rule for general readers, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores this controversial theorem and the human obsessions surrounding it. She traces its discovery by an amateur mathematician in the 1740s through its development into roughly its modern form by French scientist Pierre Simon Laplace. She reveals why respected statisticians rendered it professionally taboo for 150 years—at the same time that practitioners relied on it to solve crises involving great uncertainty and scanty information (Alan Turing's role in breaking Germany's Enigma code during World War II), and explains how the advent of off-the-shelf computer technology in the 1980s proved to be a game-changer. Today, Bayes' rule is used everywhere from DNA de-coding to Homeland Security.Drawing on primary source material and interviews with statisticians and other scientists, The Theory That Would Not Die is the riveting account of how a seemingly simple theorem ignited one of the greatest controversies of all time.

Quantum Physics for Beginners: From Wave Theory to Quantum Computing. Understanding How Everything Works by a Simplified Explanation of Quantum Physics and Mechanics Principles


Carl J. Pratt - 2021
    

Smashing Physics


Jon Butterworth - 2014
    Two scientists, Peter Higgs and François Englert, whose theories predicted its existence, shared a Nobel Prize. The discovery was the culmination of the largest experiment ever run, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.But what really is a Higgs boson and what does it do? How was it found? And how has its discovery changed our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature? And what did it feel like to be part of it?Jon Butterworth is one of the leading physicists at CERN and this book is the first popular inside account of the hunt for the Higgs. It is a story of incredible scientific collaboration, inspiring technological innovation and ground-breaking science. It is also the story of what happens when the world's most expensive experiment blows up, of neutrinos that may or may not travel faster than light, and the reality of life in an underground bunker in Switzerland.This book will also leave you with a working knowledge of the new physics and what the discovery of the Higgs particle means for how we define the laws of nature. It will take you to the cutting edge of modern scientific thinking.

To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science


Steven Weinberg - 2015
    He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world—they did not understand what there is to understand, or how to understand it. Yet over the centuries, through the struggle to solve such mysteries as the curious backward movement of the planets and the rise and fall of the tides, the modern discipline of science eventually emerged. Along the way, Weinberg examines historic clashes and collaborations between science and the competing spheres of religion, technology, poetry, mathematics, and philosophy.An illuminating exploration of the way we consider and analyze the world around us, To Explain the World is a sweeping, ambitious account of how difficult it was to discover the goals and methods of modern science, and the impact of this discovery on human knowledge and development.

Living by your own Rules


Devdutt Pattanaik - 2016
    His profound management sutras are derived from his bestselling books on business and management. They show how individuals can realize their potential, create wealth and achieve lasting success by following uniquely Indian principles (based on Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythology) of goal setting, strategic thinking and decision-making.

The Public Speaking Bible; a Survival Guide for Standing on Stage


Marcus Alexander - 2020
    All the tips within come via the author and guest performers, adding up to a combined three hundred years of essential speakers’ know-how!Within this bible:Technical advice: how to effortlessly project your voice, audience manipulation, crowd control, body language, hand gestures and more.Additionally: a frank approach for overcoming stage fright, a foolproof recipe for memorising a speech, how to overcome a sore throat and using the physics of sound to your advantage.Business advice: how to price your speech, approaching agencies, talking overseas, understanding unique selling points, the most complete list of global public speakers’ agencies and more.Children’s author Marcus Alexander, once horrified by the thought of standing on stage, has grown to become one of the most sought-after school speakers. He’s delivered more than 1600 talks in 13 different countries and is booked 18 months in advance. The journey wasn’t easy; he’s tripped, fallen and blundered over every imaginable obstacle. This bible contains all the insights you need to create a similar career at a faster rate and with half the hiccups.'Marcus doesn't just hold the stage he is the stage. Every word spoken is a sledge hammer pinning the audience to their seats.'Adisa the Verbaliser, spoken poet and author.'The first time I saw Marcus Alexander on stage was with a group of other authors. We all watched in amazement as he enthralled both the children and adults with his awesome energy. One of the best author events I have watched.'Andy Briggs, author and scriptwriter.Guest speakers sharing their advice include: best-selling author Chris Bradford, movement icon Dan Edwardes, British actor and producer Joey Ansah, author and teamwork specialist Casper Craven. Other guests include: surgeons, dentist lecturers, thespians, West End singers, polio advisers, educators and coaches.