Showing titles in Physics

Of the codified laws of nature, only one inscribes a direction to time: the dreaded second law of thermodynamics, which declares that the disorder of a closed system tends to increase as time passes. New shoes eventually scuff, our bodies weaken and die. Yet our senses tell us that miraculous order constantly emerges, too: children grow and learn; spontaneous patterns manifest in murmurations of starlings. Can it be true that the laws of our universe mandate only dissolution?

Though extremely different men in most ways, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Third Reich Fuhrer Adolf Hitler shared a passion for science, technology, and (sometimes impractical) "wonder weapons." In some cases, this fixation paid off handsomely, as in the case of British centrimetric radar, a compact, powerful radar type that enabled fitment to individual aircraft and contributed to the defeat of German U-boats.

A daring new vision of quantum theory from one of the leading minds of contemporary physics Quantum physics is the golden child of modern science. It is the basis of our understanding of atoms, radiation, and so much else, from elementary particles and basic forces to the behavior of materials...

We understand the stars at a much deeper level, not as legendary figures connected with constellations, but as engines of matter, energy, and the raw material of life itself. The Life and Death of Stars introduces you to this story in 24 half-hour lectures that lead you through the essential ideas of astrophysics - the science of stars. Your guide is Professor Stassun, an award-winning teacher and noted astrophysicist. He provides lively, eloquent, and authoritative explanations at a level suitable for science novices as well as for those who already know their way around the starry sky.

The beauty of fractal patterns and their relation to chaos, as well as the history of chaos, and its uses in the real world and implications for the philosophy of science are all discussed in this Very Short Introduction audiobook. 

The purpose of this audiobook was to explain something beautiful that doesn't exist yet. It explores time travel as precognitive dreaming, dematerialization with secret time machine technology and through consciousness travel, lucid dreaming, and remote viewing. It also examines various reports of time slips, dimensional doorways, claims of time travel, the physics of time travel, and the nature of timelessness and non-linear causality.

A little over a century ago, a young Albert Einstein presented his general theory of relativity to the world and utterly transformed our understanding of the universe. His theory changed the way we think about space and time, revealed how our universe has been expanding from a hot, dense state called the big bang and predicted black holes. Where the Universe Came From is a 13.8 billiion-year journey through the cosmos.

In The Labyrinth of Logic, science communicator Serena Quillan invites you on a journey through ten of the most bewildering and thought-provoking paradoxes in philosophy and science. These are not merely intellectual riddles, but profound challenges to the very foundations of knowledge, identity, time, consciousness, and reality itself.

In June of 1916, Albert Einstein published his ambitious paper proposing the existence of gravitational waves. In 2016, Einstein's 100-year-old theory was proven correct when scientists detected ripples in the fabric of space. Einstein and Relativity: A Conversation by Paul Rudd and Brian Greene celebrates this achievement, with Greene and Rudd sitting down to talk about string theory, relativity, and the discovery of gravitational waves.

Entropy is one of the most profound and misunderstood concepts in modern science — at once a physical quantity, a measure of uncertainty, and a metaphor for the passage of time itself. Entropy: The Order of Disorder explores this concept in its full philosophical and scientific depth, tracing its evolution from the thermodynamics of Clausius and Boltzmann to the cosmology of the expanding universe, the information theory of Shannon, and the paradoxes of quantum mechanics.

Humans have long sought to comprehend the enormities of cosmic space and time. Here, best selling science writer Timothy Ferris tells the story of that quest. He interweaves the majestic themes of astronomy, physics, religion, and philosophy with fresh and lasting portraits of the men and women who created what has been called our society's most precious treasure - its conception of the universe at large.

Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world. Yet just as the demon-haunted world was being exorcized by the enlightening power of reason, a new kind of demon mischievously materialized in the scientific imagination itself. Scientists began to employ hypothetical beings to perform certain roles in thought experiments―experiments that can only be done in the imagination―and these impish assistants helped scientists achieve major breakthroughs that pushed forward the frontiers of science and technology.

Mistero per profani e scienziati, la natura del tempo è l'oggetto di questo libro sorprendente. Un racconto delle diverse strade intraprese nel corso dei secoli per comprendere ciò di cui tutti facciamo esperienza in ogni istante. Un viaggio illuminante a partire da Anassimandro, passando per Newton e Einstein, fino ad arrivare alle più recenti teorie sulla gravità a loop e ad affacciarsi sul "grande oceano notturno e stellato di quello che ancora non sappiamo".

Black holes are a constant source of fascination to many due to their mysterious nature. This Very Short Introduction audiobook addresses a variety of questions, including what a black hole actually is, how they are characterized and discovered, and what would happen if you came too close to one. 

Join Felix Mercer as he unravels Einstein's theories of relativity, revealing how time dilates, space curves, and gravity warps reality. Through thought experiments and real-world evidence, discover why your experience of the universe depends on how you're moving through it. For more content like this, visit QuietPlease.aiThis show includes AI-generated content.

With the Soviet Union's launch of the first Sputnik satellite in 1957, the Cold War soared to new heights as Americans feared losing the race into space. The X-15 Rocket Plane tells the enthralling yet little-known story of the hypersonic X-15, the winged rocket ship that met this challenge and opened the way into human-controlled spaceflight. Drawing on interviews with those who were there, Michelle Evans captures the drama and excitement of, yes, rocket science.

His face is instantly recognisable. His name is shorthand for genius. Today, he's a figurehead as much as a man, symbolic of things larger than himself: of scientific progress, of the human mind, even of the age. But who was Einstein really? The Nobel Prize-winning physicist who discovered relativity, black holes and E = mc2, dined with Charlie Chaplin in Hollywood and was the inspiration for element 99, Albert Einstein was also a high school dropout with an FBI file 1,400 pages long. In this audiobook, Samuel Graydon's writing brings history's most famous scientist back to life.

Cynthia Sue Larson describes how the Mandela Effect is much more than “false collective memory,” providing a rich tapestry of historical and scientific background as to how this phenomenon is observed.

Science journalist Lydia Denworth takes us in search of the biological, psychological and evolutionary foundations of this important bond. She finds that the human capacity for friendship is as old as humanity itself, when tribes of people on the African savanna grew large enough for individuals to seek meaningful connection with those outside their immediate families. Lydia meets scientists at the frontiers of brain and genetics research and discovers that friendship is reflected in our brain waves, our genomes and our cardiovascular and immune systems.

This Very Short Introduction traces the emergence of entropy and energy as distinct concepts, and explains how entropy spread from thermodynamics into statistical mechanics, probability theory and data science. It explains the implications of entropy for heat pumps, solar cells, carbon capture, and liquified natural gas.