The book is designed for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students and assumes no prior knowledge of general relativity. An emphasis is placed on developing the readers' physical insight rather than losing them with complex math. An approachable writing style and wealth of fresh and imaginative analogies from "everyday" physics are used to make the concepts of cosmology more accessible. The book is unique in that it not only includes recent major developments in cosmology, like the cosmological constant and accelerating universe, but also anticipates key developments expected in the next few years, such as detailed results on the cosmic microwave background.

    It is also the first of the final three such collections, since Dr. Gould has announced that the series will end with the turn of the millennium. In this collection, Gould consciously and unconventionally formulates a humanistic natural history, a consideration of how humans have learned to study and understand nature, rather than a history of nature itself. With his customary brilliance, Gould examines the puzzles and paradoxes great and small that build nature's and humanity's diversity and order. In affecting short biographies, he depicts how scholars grapple with problems of science and philosophy as he illuminates the interaction of the outer world with the unique human ability to struggle to understand the whys and wherefores of existence. "From the Hardcover edition."

    Amir Aczel, critically acclaimed author of Fermat's Last Theorem, takes us into the heart of science's greatest mystery. In January 1998, astronomers found evidence that the cosmos is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. The way we perceive the universe was changed forever. The most compelling theory cosmologists could find to explain this phenomenon was Einstein's cosmological constant, a theory he conceived--and rejected---over eighty years ago. Drawing on newly discovered letters of Einstein--many translated here for the first time--years of research, and interviews with prominent mathematicians, cosmologists, physicists, and astronomers, Aczel takes us on a fascinating journey into "the strange geometry of space-time," and into the mind of a genius. Here the unthinkable becomes real: an infinite, ever-expanding, ever-accelerating universe whose only absolute is the speed of light. Awesome in scope, thrilling in detail, God's Equation is storytelling at its finest.

    Historical records are first found in Babylon and Egypt, and after two millennia the arithmetical astronomy of the Babylonians merged with the Greek geometrical approach to culminate in the Almagest of Ptolemy. This legacy was transmitted to the Latin West via Islam, and led to Copernicus's claim that the Earth is in motion. In justifying this Kepler converted astronomy into a branch of dynamics, leading to Newton's universal law of gravity. The book concludes with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century applications of Newton's law, and the first explorations of the universe of stars.

    . . He's a real badass. International bestseller Bradley Wright presents the perfect stocking stuffer for every thriller lover this Christmas. Army Ranger Nick Campos was never meant to be Santa Claus. He knows nothing about kids, he certainly isn't jolly, and he hasn't eaten a cookie in over a decade. But as Santa is dying of a heart attack, whether Nick wants them or not, Santa bestows his abilities upon him, and changes Nick's life forever. A year later, Nick has found a way to use the abilities Santa passed along in a way that only a hardass Army Ranger could. To fight the bad guys. And he plans to bring new meaning to the classic line "he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake."However, there is one terrorist in particular that pops up on the radar that Nick is all too familiar with. Because he's the monster that killed Nick's closest friend a few years back. Can Nick use his newfound tools to stop an old enemy's plot to kill more innocent people? Or will Nick--the world's best new weapon in the fight against terror--fail to deliver against an evil that is much more prepared for him than Nick could have ever imagined? This Christmas, Santa Claus is still coming to town, but this time he's bringing a fat sack of justice with him. If you like escaping with a good holiday story, but also love a thrilling romp in the vein of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, Lee Child's Jack Reacher, Brad Thor's Scott Harvath, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, or David Baldacci's Will Robie, you'll find a lot to love about Wright's ridiculously fun SAINT NICK.

    Green has rounded up fifteen new yarns filled with the ornery yet irresistible style that has earned his books a place in classic Western Americana. Some More Horse Tradin’ recounts the dealings of a whole slew of craggy old-timers and rangy characters. See them match wits as they trade well-bred mares, snorty-like range colts, and used-to-be-bad horses from the tumbleweed plains. Admire the old-time knavery, skill, and salesmanship in such tales as “Gittin’ Even,” “Brethren Horse Traders,” “Mule Schoolin’,” and “Water Treatment and the Sore-Tailed Bronc.” Ride along with Green, and he’ll tell you what he knows about horseflesh--but keep your wits about you, and hang on to your wallet.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    The boy who became a famous naturalist was never again to see the spectacle except in his imagination. That childhood event contributed to the profound sense of time and space that marks The Invisible Pyramid. This collection of essays, first published shortly after Americans landed on the moon, explores inner and outer space, the vastness of the cosmos, and the limits of what can be known. Bringing poetic insight to scientific discipline, Eiseley makes connections between civilizations past and present, multiple universes, humankind, and nature.

    40 illustrations throughout.

    The reality is that film has never gone away, and in recent years has experienced a surging, renewed popularity-sometimes simply for its retro, analog status, but mostly for film's ability to create a look and feel that many believe digital can still not achieve. If anyone can attest to this, it's Utah photographer Jonathan Canlas, who exclusively shoots with film, and has both an extremely successful wedding photography business as well as a series of popular workshops held numerous times per year around the world. In "Film Is Not Dead: A Digital Photographer's Guide to Shooting Film, " Canlas teams up with co-author Kristen Kalp to open the doors for anyone who wants to begin-or return to-shooting film. Casual, irreverent, fun, inspiring, and beautiful, this unique 10x8 hardcover book teaches the reader the basics of film, cameras, and shooting in this medium. Whether it's discussing the different tone and color characteristics of different films (Kodak, Fuji, etc.), how to load a medium-format camera back, how to create proper exposures, how and where to get film processed, or how Jonathan uses fun, plastic cameras like the Holga in his commercial and personal work, "Film Is Not Dead "appeals to anyone who is searching to finally begin creating that film look, but until now hasn't known where to start.

    Professor Westfall treats all aspects of Newton's career, but his account centres on a full description of Newton's achievements in science. Thus the core of the work describes the development of the calculus, the experimentation that altered the direction of the science of optics, and especially the investigations in celestial dynamics that led to the law of universal gravitation.

    Her life consists of work and sleep and study. Not necessarily in that order.Everything changes when she is awakened after the graveyard shift by the police--who insist she's a material witness to a murder.Kandi is pulled from everything and everyone she knows and thrust into the world of Monster Witness Protection. What's a good witch psychologist to do? And, on top of everything else, she's falling in love with a dream man!

    Several things bother him however. Despite his technical skills he has made no progress in his attempts to understand how to control his destinations, or in understanding the basic operation of the time complex. Is there something special about the dates and locations pre-programmed into the machine? Is travel to times and places other than he has found even possible? There are clues that the answer to this question is yes, but he has yet to find a way to test what he suspects. He also has no more idea now than when he first chanced upon the time complex as to who or what built it, and why. Despite the hundreds of hours spent in the complex itself or traveling to other time periods, he has never encountered another traveler. The odd symbols on the equipment and what appear to be handwritten records lead him to suspect that the time complex was not created by future humans. If this is so, is there a sinister purpose behind the device, and why were the ‘Builders’ completely absent for so long? Perhaps they have finished their investigations, and have left. If so, why leave it powered and operational?He is also concerned how the complex might be used if he reveals its existence to the wrong people, yet he has come to the conclusion that he needs help if he is to make any headway understanding the secrets locked inside the hidden complex. His decision to disclose the secret to two of his closest friends will set in motion a chain of events he could not have anticipated.After a disastrous trip into the past to ‘show off’ his secret, Jim gains the trust of a fellow traveler from his own future. Together they assemble a select team to unravel the mysteries locked inside the complex. Their investigations lead to a race against time to determine the future of mankind.

    Coming from the all-mod-cons society of Britain at the beginning of the 1980’s, the author is literally transplanted to a farm in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in what is now Kwazulu Natal.Once there, she finds her feet in the ways of Africawith the help of a charming, elderly Dutch couple, an appealing but wily African farm hand, his practical and motherly daughter and a wise and fascinating neighbour who has a fund of local knowledge.These are tales of a different kind of life, whichinclude living without electricity, hand-milking cows, drought, veld fires and mad-cap adventures into the unknown.They are stories told with deep affection and respect, and above all a liberal dose of tongue-in-cheek humour.

    She has been a legend ever since. In this engrossing book, Maria Dzielska searches behind the legend to bring us the real story of Hypatia's life and death, and new insight into her colorful world.Historians and poets, Victorian novelists and contemporary feminists have seen Hypatia as a symbol--of the waning of classical culture and freedom of inquiry, of the rise of fanatical Christianity, or of sexual freedom. Dzielska shows us why versions of Hypatia's legend have served her champions' purposes, and how they have distorted the true story. She takes us back to the Alexandria of Hypatia's day, with its Library and Museion, pagan cults and the pontificate of Saint Cyril, thriving Jewish community and vibrant Greek culture, and circles of philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, and militant Christians. Drawing on the letters of Hypatia's most prominent pupil, Synesius of Cyrene, Dzielska constructs a compelling picture of the young philosopher's disciples and her teaching. Finally she plumbs her sources for the facts surrounding Hypatia's cruel death, clarifying what the murder tells us about the tensions of this tumultuous era.