Space and time are the most fundamental features of our experience of the world, and yet they are also the most perplexing. Does time really flow, or is that simply an illusion? Did time have a beginning? What does it mean to say that time has a direction? Does space have boundaries, or is it infinite? Is change really possible? Could space and time exist in the absence of any objects or events? Are our space and time unique, or could there be other, parallel worlds with their own space and time? What, in the end, are space and time? Do they really exist, or are they simply the constructions of our minds? Robin Le Poidevin provides a clear, witty, and stimulating introduction to these deep questions, and many other mind-boggling puzzles and paradoxes. He gives a vivid sense of the difficulties raised by our ordinary ideas about space and time, but he also gives us the basis to think about these problems independently, avoiding large amounts of jargon and technicality. His book is an invitation to think philosophically rather than a sustained argument for particular conclusions, but Le Poidevin does advance and defend a number of controversial views. He argues, for example, that time does not actually flow, that it is possible for space and time to be both finite and yet be without boundaries, and that causation is the key to an understanding of one of the deepest mysteries of time: its direction. Travels in Four Dimensions draws on a variety of vivid examples and stories from science, history, and literature to bring its questions to life. No prior knowledge of philosophy is required to enjoy this book. The universe might seem very different after reading it.

David Harland describes the historical development of particle physics, and explains, in a non-mathematical way, how particle physics has influenced the structure of the Universe from the very beginning of time. He demonstrates the close links between discoveries in particle physics and in cosmology up to the present. He describes how our understanding of the Universe has developed from the discovery that the Universe is expanding, to the idea that all matter originated in a hot, Big Bang, then explains the many subtle improvements to the basic theory that have been necessary to understand how the very smallest particles and earliest structures (the 'microscale') in the Universe evolved to produce the Universe as it is now (the 'macroscale'). The author also describes how scientists are attempting to develop a 'Theory of Everything' that would explain how an instant after the Big Bang a single primordial force was transformed into the four forces of nature that we observe today, which hitherto were believed to be 'fundamental'.

This book summarizes and presents the scientific search for life in the universe, and the current level of scientific understanding of how life begins, grows, and becomes intelligent in our Solar System and beyond. This engaging book promises to appeal not only to the general reader but to scientists as well, many of whom strive to acquire an informed perspective on the search for extraterrestrial life in fields not their own.

In the tradition of Flatland, and with an infectious enthusiasm, Clifford Pickover tackles the problems inherent in our 3-D brains trying to visualize a 4-D world, muses on the religious implications of the existence of higher-dimensional consciousness, and urges all curious readers to venture into 'the unexplored territory lying beyond the prison of the obvious'.

One of our great contemporary scientists reveals the ten profound insights that illuminate what everyone should know about the physical world In Fundamentals, Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek offers the reader a simple yet profound exploration of reality based on the deep revelations of modern science. With clarity and an infectious sense of joy, he guides us through the essential concepts that form our understanding of what the world is and how it works. Through these pages, we come to see our reality in a new way--bigger, fuller, and stranger than it looked before. Synthesizing basic questions, facts, and dazzling speculations, Wilczek investigates the ideas that form our understanding of the universe: time, space, matter, energy, complexity, and complementarity. He excavates the history of fundamental science, exploring what we know and how we know it, while journeying to the horizons of the scientific world to give us a glimpse of what we may soon discover. Brilliant, lucid, and accessible, this celebration of human ingenuity and imagination will expand your world and your mind.

In this book, the authors present current research in the study of the evolution, theory and thermodynamics of black holes. Topics discussed include the effective theory of a matter field near the event horizon of a black hole; dilatonic black holes in 4D Gauss-Bonnet gravity; the relationship between the tunnelling rate of a rotating black hole and the first law of black hole thermodynamics; alternative theories of gravity without black holes; exotic smoothness structures for the application of standard Einstein equations to black hole structures; and lower dimensional quantum black holes.

This book is a historical account of how natural philosophers and scientists have endeavoured to understand the universe at large, first in a mythical and later in a scientific context. Starting with the creation stories of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the book covers all the major events in theoretical and observational cosmology, from Aristotle's cosmos over the Copernican revolution to the discovery of the accelerating universe in the late 1990s. It presents cosmology as a subject including scientific as well as non-scientific dimensions, and tells the story of how it developed into a true science of the heavens. Contrary to most other books in the history of cosmology, it offers an integrated account of the development with emphasis on the modern Einsteinian and post-Einsteinian period. Starting in the pre-literary era, it carries the story onwards to the early years of the 21st century.

In The Life of the Cosmos, Lee Smolin offers a theory of the universe that is radically different from anything proposed before. He argues that 'The underlying structure of our world is to be found in the logic of evolution'. He departs from contemporary physicists to explore the idea that the laws of nature we observe may be the partial result a process of natural selection that occurred before the Big Bang.

The full inside story of the detection of gravitational waves at LIGO, one of the most ambitious feats in scientific history *Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in the Sunday Times* 'This is empirical poetry. A fascinating tale of human curiosity beautifully told, and with black holes and lasers too' Robin Ince In 1916 Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves: miniscule ripples in the very fabric of spacetime generated by unfathomably powerful events. If such vibrations could somehow be recorded, we could observe our universe for the first time through sound: the hissing of the Big Bang, the low tones of merging galaxies, the drumbeat of two black holes collapsing into one... In 2016 a team of hundreds of scientists at work on a billion-dollar experiment made history when they announced the first ever detection of a gravitational wave, confirming Einstein's prediction a century ago. Based on complete access to LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) and the scientists who created it, Black Hole Blues offers a first-hand account of this astonishing achievement: an intimate story of cutting-edge science at its most awe-inspiring and ambitious.

The Great Silence explores the multifaceted problem named after the great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi and his legendary 1950 lunchtime question "Where is everybody?" In many respects, Fermi's paradox is the richest and the most challenging problem for the entire field of astrobiology and the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) studies. This book shows how Fermi's paradox is intricately connected with many fields of learning, technology, arts, and even everyday life. It aims to establish the strongest possible version of the problem, to dispel many related confusions, obfuscations, and prejudices, as well as to offer a novel point of entry to the many solutions proposed in existing literature. Cirkovic argues that any evolutionary worldview cannot avoid resolving the Great Silence problem in one guise or another.

That is merely surface reality. Beneath it lies the deeper reality which reveals itself when the mind is without any armour, when the heart opens up, and when reason becomes free from all sorts of cunningness and instrumentality. Only then does music touch us, and take us to the depths of our existence." The book is full of revelationsAZan intimate engagement with the freshness of the morning and the depth of the dark silent night.

This book provides a comprehensive, critical study of the oldest and most famous argument for the existence of God: the Cosmological Argument. Professor Rowe examines and interprets historically significant versions of the argument from Aquinas to Samuel Clarke and explores the major objections that have been advances against it. Beginning with analyses of the Cosmological Argument as expressed by Aquinas and Duns Scotus in the thirteenth century, the author seeks to uncover, clairfy , and critically explore the philosophical concepts and theses essential to the reasoning exhibited in the principal versions of the Cosmological Argument. The major focus of the book is on the form that the argument takes in the eighteenth century, principally in the writings of Samuel Clarke. The author concludes with a discussion of the extent to which the Cosmological Argument may provide a justification for the belief in God. In a new Preface, the author offers some updates on his own thinking as well as that of others who have grappled with this topic.

Basic to the entire theory and applications of black hole physics Global Aspects in Gravitation and Cosmology covers the topics needed to understand the current key issues in gravitation theory: cosmology and black holes. Emphasized is the basic theme that the very nature of the gravitational field is such that global features of space-time inevitably come into play whenever we try to understand and interpret this force in detail. After discussing the fundamental role played by global considerations in gravity and general relativity, Joshi points out the significant problems that remain. The key problem of which been the issue of quantum effects in strong gravity fields, an understanding of which is essential to formulate any quantum theory of gravity. This book will be beneficial to mathematicians and physicists.

Contemporary science presents us with the remarkable theory that the universe began to exist about fifteen billion years ago with a cataclysmic explosion called `the Big Bang'. But was the Big Bang created (by God), or did it occur without cause? In this book two philosophers of the opposite viewpoints debate the question. Their arguments are based on Einstein's theory of relativity and include a discussion of the new quantum cosmology recently developed by Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time.

From the days of antiquity to the time of the Middle Ages, intellectuals have widely assumed that stars were alive, a belief that gave the cosmos an important position not only in Greek religion, but also in discussions of human psychology and eschatology. In the third century AD, the Christian theologian Origen included such Hellenistic theories on the life and nature of the stars in his cosmology, a theory that would have important implications for early Christian theology. Moving through a wide range of Greek, Latin, and Oriental sources from antiquity to medieval times, this is the first thorough treatment of Origen's biblical theology. The second book in the new Oxford Early Christian Studies series, Origen and the Life of the Stars provides a new look at the roots of early Christian thought.

From the dawn of humankind, men and women have looked at change--as wrought by weather, the seasons, and, most strikingly, the inexorable advance of time--as something essentially to be feared. And partially from this fear the great religions and mythologies have arisen, systems which gave meaning to the ever-changing world, and, quite often, immortality to ourselves. By the late nineteenth century, the quest for ultimate meanings became largely the province of science, and today, change still figures (on the surface, at least) as a malevolent force: most of the cosmological theories formulated in recent years predict the ultimate extinction of the world by universal entropy.

Bringing together the evidence and insights of biology and physics, of astronomy and cosmology, Louise Young offers a profoundly original and stirring vision of order, form, change, and the creative forces in the universe. Opposing the long-held beliefs of many scientists that the universe is running down and will eventually collapse upon itself, Young eloquently argues that the tendency toward increasing entropy is merely one aspect of a single process that is creating more complex, highly organized, and more efficient forms of matter all the time, and at every level--from the microscopic to the stellar.

In vivid, compelling prose, Louise Young--an award-winning writer on science and a former physicist--takes us on an unforgettable tour of the world around us, showing how even the most ordinary aspects of life and the universe display a strangely beautiful symmetry. She clearly demonstrates that creation was not simply some big-bang eons ago, but rather is an ongoing process, one in which we are both witnesses and participants. Illustrating her findings with many remarkable photographs and fascinating examples ranging from geology to animal behavior, and from oceanography to genetics, Young gracefully canvasses the themes of growth, change creativity, and the mystery of the universe in a book that is as much poetry as it is science.

Based on solid scientific knowledge, yet informed by a refreshingly philosophical sensibility, The Unfinished Universe is a book that will inspire anyone who has ever questioned their place and purpose in a world filled with uncertainty and change.

A groundbreaking textbook on twenty-first-century general relativity and cosmology Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford's monumental Modern Classical Physics is now available in five stand-alone volumes that make ideal textbooks for individual graduate or advanced undergraduate courses on statistical physics; optics; elasticity and fluid dynamics; plasma physics; and relativity and cosmology. Each volume teaches the fundamental concepts, emphasizes modern, real-world applications, and gives students a physical and intuitive understanding of the subject. Relativity and Cosmology is an essential introduction to the subject, including remarkable recent advances. Written by award-winning physicists who have made fundamental contributions to the field and taught it for decades, the book differs from most others on the subject in important ways. It highlights recent transformations in our understanding of black holes, gravitational waves, and the cosmos; it emphasizes the physical interpretation of general relativity in terms of measurements made by observers; it explains the physics of the Riemann tensor in terms of tidal forces, differential frame dragging, and associated field lines; it presents an astrophysically oriented description of spinning black holes; it gives a detailed analysis of an incoming gravitational wave's interaction with a detector such as LIGO; and it provides a comprehensive, in-depth account of the universe's evolution, from its earliest moments to the present. While the book is designed to be used for a one-quarter or full-semester course, it goes deep enough to provide a foundation for understanding and participating in some areas of cutting-edge research. Includes many exercise problems Features color figures, suggestions for further reading, extensive cross-references, and a detailed index Optional "Track 2" sections make this an ideal book for a one-quarter or one-semester course An online illustration package is available to professors The five volumes, which are available individually as paperbacks and ebooks, are Statistical Physics; Optics; Elasticity and Fluid Dynamics; Plasma Physics; and Relativity and Cosmology.

From the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, a personal meditation on the quest for objective reality in natural science A century ago, thoughtful people questioned how reality could agree with physical theories that keep changing, from a mechanical model of the ether to electric and magnetic fields, and from homogeneous matter to electrons and atoms. Today, concepts like dark matter and dark energy further complicate and enrich the search for objective reality. The Whole Truth is a personal reflection on this ongoing quest by one of the world's most esteemed cosmologists. What lies at the heart of physical science? What are the foundational ideas that inform and guide the enterprise? Is the concept of objective reality meaningful? If so, do our established physical theories usefully approximate it? P. J. E. Peebles takes on these and other big questions about the nature of science, drawing on a lifetime of experience as a leading physicist and using cosmology as an example. He traces the history of thought about the nature of physical science since Einstein, and succinctly lays out the fundamental working assumptions. Through a careful examination of the general theory of relativity, Einstein's cosmological principle, and the theory of an expanding universe, Peebles shows the evidence that we are discovering the nature of reality in successive approximations through increasingly rigorous scrutiny. A landmark work, The Whole Truth is essential reading for anyone interested in the practice of science.

"Evans and Berggren have produced a work that should be on the shelves of all students and scholars interested in the history of early astronomy. Because of the appeal of Geminos's text, this translation will provide a very valuable resource for teaching the history of astronomy and cosmology, as well as early science more generally. The translation is clear, the scholarly apparatus authoritative, and the commentary will serve the needs and interests of a wide range of readers."--Liba Taub, Director & Curator, Whipple Museum, and Reader, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University

"Evans and Berggren have provided both the specialist historian and the general scholar and reader with everything they might need to profit from the text. The introduction has a judicious discussion of the history of the book and its author, its place in the history of astronomy, its intended audience, and the general conceptual framework that it assumes. And the translators have done a splendid job of finding accurate English equivalents of the Greek terms and phrases."--Alexander Jones, University of Toronto

"Everything about this book is excellent. The translation is a model of clarity and the notes to each section explain the text in detail, both technically and historically. The extensive introduction is, by itself, the most detailed account to date of many, perhaps most, of the subjects treated by Geminos. The book will be of use and interest to everyone curious about ancient science, from the student to the specialist. Evans and Berggren have done such an excellent job in every way, their knowledge of the subject is so complete, that I can only admire their work andrecommend it as exemplary."--Noel M. Swerdlow, University of Chicago

The essential introduction to modern string theory-now fully expanded and revised String Theory in a Nutshell is the definitive introduction to modern string theory. Written by one of the world's leading authorities on the subject, this concise and accessible book starts with basic definitions and guides readers from classic topics to the most exciting frontiers of research today. It covers perturbative string theory, the unity of string interactions, black holes and their microscopic entropy, the AdS/CFT correspondence and its applications, matrix model tools for string theory, and more. It also includes 600 exercises and serves as a self-contained guide to the literature. This fully updated edition features an entirely new chapter on flux compactifications in string theory, and the chapter on AdS/CFT has been substantially expanded by adding many applications to diverse topics. In addition, the discussion of conformal field theory has been extensively revised to make it more student-friendly. The essential one-volume reference for students and researchers in theoretical high-energy physics Now fully expanded and revised Provides expanded coverage of AdS/CFT and its applications, namely the holographic renormalization group, holographic theories for Yang-Mills and QCD, nonequilibrium thermal physics, finite density physics, and entanglement entropy Ideal for mathematicians and physicists specializing in theoretical cosmology, QCD, and novel approaches to condensed matter systems An online illustration package is available to professors

Case Studies in Star Formation offers an overview of our current observational and theoretical understanding in the molecular astronomy of star formation. The book is divided into six sections: the first introduces an overview of star formation and the essential language, concepts and tools specific to molecular astronomy studies. Each subsequent section focuses on individual sources, beginning with a description of large-scale surveys. The volume covers low- and high mass star formation, ionization and photodissociation regions, and concludes with the extragalactic perspective. Conventional textbooks begin with principles, ending with a few convenient examples. Through copious examples, Case Studies reflects the reality of research, which requires the creative matching of ongoing observations to theory and vice-versa, often raising as many questions as answers. This supplementary study guide enables graduate students and early researchers to bridge the gap between textbooks and the wealth of research literature.

'Extraordinary' Leonard Susskind 'A rare event' Sean Carroll _____ When leading theoretical physicist Professor Michael Dine was asked where you could find an accessible and authoritative book that would teach you about the Big Bang, Dark Matter, the Higgs boson and the cutting edge of physics now, he had nothing he could recommend. So he wrote it himself. In This Way to the Universe, Dine takes us on a fascinating tour through the history of modern physics - from Newtonian mechanics to quantum, from particle to nuclear physics - delving into the wonders of our universe at its largest, smallest, and within our daily lives. If you are looking for the one book to help you understand physics, written in language anyone can follow, this is it. _____ 'A tour de force of literally all of fundamental physics' BBC Sky at Night magazine 'Everything you wanted to know about physics but were afraid to ask' Priyamvada Natarajan, author of Mapping the Heavens

Given the prevailing consensus among cosmologists that the universe had its beginning approximately 15 billion years ago, and that it will reach its end in the remote yet foreseeable future, we face the momentous intellectual challenge of how to assimilate these scientific claims into our fundamental world view. In this work the distinguished philosopher Milton Munitz provides a lucid account of the chief empirical findings and theories of recent cosmology and a systematic assessment of their broader philosophical implications.

This is a study of atomic nuclei, the properties of which find applications in diverse fields such as medicine and the generation of nuclear power. The explanations of nuclear structure and nuclear reactions in terms of constituent particles led to the discovery of new unstable particles culminating in the unified theory of electromagnetic and weak-nuclear interactions. In this new edition the author has updated the information and included a section on the relevance of recent discoveries to cosmology. Advances in accelerator and detector technology are noted and there is an account of nuclear reactions. Mathematical material is mostly to be found in the appendices. This book may be used as a first student text for courses in nuclear physics.

This dictionary consists of text and tables, covering all of the areas that are fundamental to understanding our physical world, and life within it. Included are physics - classical, relativistic, quantum, particle, and high-energy; chemistry - inorganic, organic, and physical; the geological sciences - geology, geophysics, oceanography, meteorology, palaeontology, and related areas of molecular, genetic, and evolutionary biology; and cosmology - including astronomy, astrophysics, and the genesis and evolution of the universe. The text features not only definitions but also explanations, formulas, and data. Entries best presented in tabular form are found in 70 tables that follow the text. The 5,000 definitions are both concise and rigorous, abbreviations are spelled out, and unfamiliar terms are themselves defined.