Showing titles in Physics

Imagine that time is not a river. What if your life is not a moving line, but a complete shape. In The Volumetric Time Model, Ralph Clayton invites you to rethink time as physics already does, not as a ticking present that vanishes, but as a finite volume where past, present, and future coexist inside one globally consistent reality. From that viewpoint, the strange feeling that the future is already decided is not superstition, it is what it feels like to live inside a fixed structure while only receiving information a little at a time.

Trace the gripping history of science and intense geopolitics that transformed glowing uranium into a world-ending weapon. Perfect for your daily commute, this dramatic narrative explores the dawn of quantum mechanics and the fierce race to harness atomic energy. Experience the intellectual...

In Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, Lee Smolin provides an accessible overview of the attempts to build a final "theory of everything." He explains in simple terms what scientists are talking about when they say the world is made from exotic entities such as loops, strings, and black holes and tells the fascinating stories behind these discoveries: the rivalries, epiphanies, and intrigues he witnessed firsthand.

Paul Dirac (1902 - 1984) was a brilliant mathematician and a 1933 Nobel laureate whose work ranks alongside that of Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton. Although not as well-known as his famous contemporaries Werner Heisenberg and Richard Feynman, his influence on the course of physics was immense. His landmark book, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, introduced that new science to the world and his "Dirac equation" was the first theory to reconcile special relativity and quantum mechanics.

Dive into a mind-bending astrophysics journey to the edge of spacetime, where gravity crushes stars and light perishes. Perfect for an awe-inspiring daily commute or deep-focus educational listening, this immersive audio experience transforms complex cosmology into an exhilarating cosmic...

Journey into theoretical physics to resolve the tense, epic clash between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Perfect for an intellectual commute, this awe-inspiring narrative transforms complex mathematics into a gripping story of human curiosity. You will explore the bold proposition...

Decode the universe's hidden forces with this accessible physics guide to the elusive fourth state of matter. Perfect for your daily commute, this mind-expanding journey replaces dense math with vivid, everyday analogies. Spark your curiosity and explore the invisible energies powering...

Brought to you by Penguin. Could there be a civilization on a mote of dust? How much of your fate have you made? Who cleans the universe? Through more than fifty Koans -- pleasingly paradoxical vignettes following the ancient Zen tradition -- leading physicist Anthony Aguirre takes the reader...

Quanta and Fields, the second book of Sean Carroll’s already internationally acclaimed series The Biggest Ideas in the Universe, is an adventure into the bare stuff of reality. Sean Carroll is creating a profoundly new approach to sharing physics with a broad audience, one that goes beyond...

The universe is a vast, mysterious, and incredibly cool place. It’s filled with things so strange and wonderful they can make your head spin. From the tiniest particles buzzing around beneath the surface of reality to the largest structures stretching across billions of light-years, the cosmos is packed with surprises. And the more we learn, the more we realize just how much we don’t know. When you glance up at the night sky, you’re not just looking at stars. You’re peering into the deep past, through millions or even billions of years.

For going on two decades, Scientific American’s “Ask the Experts” column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We’ve taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors, and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10 percent of our brains. Now, we’ve combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of books. 

Goswami's basic premise is that quantum physics is not only the future of science, but is also the key to understanding consciousness, life, death, God, psychology, and the meaning of life. Quantum physics is an antidote to the moral sterility and mechanistic approach of scientific materialism and is the best and clearest approach to understanding our universe. In short, quantum physics is indeed the theory of everything. 

A sweeping account of the century of experimentation that confirmed Einstein's general theory of relativity, bringing to life the science and scientists at the origins of relativity, the development of radio telescopes, the discovery of black holes and quasars, and the still unresolved place of gravity in quantum theory.

Have you ever questioned reality? Not in the abstract, philosophical way, but in the eerie, spine-tingling moments when the world just doesn’t seem quite right? Like when a stranger says exactly what you were thinking. When the same numbers keep following you. When time seems to skip. Or when you look in the mirror and wonder: am I real—or just playing a role I didn’t choose?

A Nobel Prize-winning physicist explains what happened at the very beginning of the universe, and how we know “Science writing at its best.” ―New York Review of Books Our universe has been growing for nearly fourteen billion years. But almost everything about it can be traced back to what...

In this masterful account in the spirit of Bill Bryson and Ian Frazier, a longtime deep-sea diver masterfully weaves together the science and history of Earth's last remaining frontier: the sea.In an age of unprecedented exploration and innovation, our oceans remain largely unknown, and...

Half a century after Apollo 11 we have still not returned to the Moon, but that is about to change. The thirteenth person to walk on the Moon could soon be part of a crew establishing a base on the lip of a crater at the lunar south pole. The discovery of ice in the eternal shadows of the polar...

The Martians explores the CIA's top-secret search for the Martians, multiple photos of strange anomalies, and the latest revelations about the environment and water on Mars. And most tantalizing of all: Did an ailing Martian race come to Earth in past eons and were they confused with gods? The questions concerning life on Mars - then and now - are many. The answers are astounding.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Einstein's War written and read by Matthew Stanley. In 1916, Arthur Eddington, a war-weary British astronomer, opened a letter written by an obscure German professor named Einstein. The neatly printed equations on the scrap of paper outlined his...

Michael McCarthy, one of Britain's leading writers on the environment, proposes this joy as a defence of a natural world which is ever more threatened, and which, he argues, is inadequately served by the two defences put forward hitherto: sustainable development and the recognition of ecosystem...