THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER One of TIME's Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade 'Captivating, fascinating, profoundly beautiful. . . Rovelli is a wonderfully humane, gentle and witty guide for he is as much philosopher and poet as he is a scientist' John Banville 'We are time. We are this space, this clearing opened by the traces of memory inside the connections between our neurons. We are memory. We are nostalgia. We are longing for a future that will not come' Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long explored its meaning while scientists have found that its structure is different from the simple intuition we have of it. From Boltzmann to quantum theory, from Einstein to loop quantum gravity, our understanding of time has been undergoing radical transformations. Time flows at a different speed in different places, the past and the future differ far less than we might think, and the very notion of the present evaporates in the vast universe. With his extraordinary charm and sense of wonder, bringing together science, philosophy and art, Carlo Rovelli unravels this mystery. Enlightening and consoling, The Order of Time shows that to understand ourselves we need to reflect on time -- and to understand time we need to reflect on ourselves. Translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre

Fred Hoyle was a remarkable scientist, and made an immense contribution to solving many important problems in astronomy. Several of his obituaries commented that he had made more influence on the course of astrophysics and cosmology in the second half of the twentieth century than any other person. This book found its basis in a meeting that was held in recognition of his work, and contains chapters by many of Hoyle's scientific collaborators. Each chapter reviews an aspect of Fred Hoyle's work; many of the subjects remain of key relevance. The chapters are not confined to the discoveries of Hoyle's own time, but also discuss research areas that were formed out of his pioneering work, particularly on the interstellar medium and star formation, the structure of stars, nucleosynthesis, gravitational dynamics, and cosmology. This wide-ranging overview will be valuable to established researchers in astrophysics and cosmology, and also to professional historians of science.

In the mid-sixteenth century, Copernicus asserted that the Earth was not the center of the universe as was generally believed, but that the sun lay there instead. The relegation of the Earth to the rank of an orbiting planet meant that humankind lost its privileged position as well, thus prompting re-evaluation of all facets of human existence. This transformation in worldview gathered momentum throughout Shakespeare's writing career, yet his canon appears to lack reference to it. Peter D. Usher has studied Hamlet and other Shakespearean plays and has uncovered a consistent pattern of reference to phenomena that prove the correctness of the new worldview, including reference to the infinite universe of stars. These data could not have been known without telescopic aid, which indicates that systematic telescopic study of celestial objects began before the generally accepted date of 1610. In Shakespeare and Saturn, Usher summarizes earlier results and shows that in All's Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare takes account of the last supernova eruption of 1604 known to have occurred in the Milky Way galaxy. He shows further that in Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors Shakespeare makes observations concerning Saturn's spectacular ring system that are remarkably accurate.

Mary Somerville (1780-1872), after whom Somerville College Oxford was named, was the first woman scientist to win an international reputation entirely in her own right, rather than through association with a scientific brother or father. She was active in astronomy, one of the most demanding areas of science of the day, and flourished in the unique British tradition of Grand Amateurs, who paid their own way and were not affiliated with any academic institution. Mary Somerville was to science what Jane Austen was to literature and Frances Trollope to travel writing. Allan Chapman's vivid account brings to light the story of an exceptional woman, whose achievements in a field dominated by men deserve to be very widely known.

This is a definitive reference of 2,100 fundamental formulae used in astronomy and astrophysics. It not only makes accessible all the indispensable equations employed in the field, but also carefully explains the physical assumptions and constants underlying them. The bibliography contains more than 1,900 citations of original papers. Accounting for nearly 20 years since the previous edition, this volume is significantly revised and expanded.

Ultrasound is currently used in a wide spectrum of applications ranging from medical imaging to metal cutting. This book is about using ultrasound in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) inspections. Ultrasonic NDE uses high-frequency acoustic/elastic waves to evaluate components without affecting their integrity or performance. This technique is commonly used in industry (particularly in aerospace and nuclear power) to inspect safety-critical parts for flaws during in-service use. Other important uses of ultrasonic NDE involve process control functions during manufacturing and fundamental materials characterization studies. It is not difficult to set up an ultrasonic NDE measurement system to launch waves into a component and monitor the waves received from defects, such as cracks, even when those defects are deep within the component. It is difficult however to interpret quantitatively the signals received in such an ultrasonic NDE measurement process. For example based on the ultrasonic signal received from a crack, what is the size, shape, and orientation of the crack producing the signal? Answering such questions requires evaluation procedures based on a detailed knowledge of the physics of the entire ultrasonic measurement process. One approach to obtaining such knowledge is to couple quantitative experiments closely with detailed models of the entire ultrasonic measurement system itself. We refer to such models here as ultrasonic NDE measurement models. In other areas of engineering, models have revolutionized how engineering is practiced. A classic example is the impact of the finite-element method on elastic stress analysis.

The joint NASA-ESA Cassini-Huygens mission promises to return four (and possibly more) years of unparalleled scientific data from the solar system's most exotic planet, the ringed, gas giant, Saturn. Larger than Galileo with a much greater communication bandwidth, Cassini can accomplish in a single flyby what Galileo returned in a series of passes. Cassini explores the Saturn environment in three dimensions, using gravity assists to climb out of the equatorial plane to look down on the rings from above, to image the aurora and to study polar magnetospheric processes such as field-aligned currents. Since the radiation belt particle fluxes are much more benign than those at Jupiter, Cassini can more safely explore the inner regions of the magnetosphere. The spacecraft approaches the planet closer than Galileo could, and explores the inner moons and the rings much more thoroughly than was possible at Jupiter. This book is the second volume, in a three volume set, that describes the Cassini/Huygens mission. This volume describes the in situ investigations on the Cassini orbiter: plasma spectrometer, ion and neutral mass spectrometer, energetic charged and neutral particle spectrometer, magnetometer, radio and plasma wave spectrometer and the cosmic dust analyzer. This book is of interest to all potential users of the Cassini-Huygens data, to those who wish to learn about the planned scientific return from the Cassini-Huygens mission and those curious about the processes occurring on this most fascinating planet. A third volume describes the remote sensing investigations on the orbiter.

This volume contains invited papers and contributions delivered at the International Conference on Hamiltonian Mechanics: Integrability and Chaotic Behaviour, held in Tornn, Poland during the summer of 1993. The conference was supported by the NATO Scientific and Environmental Affairs Division as an Advanced Research Workshop. In fact, it was the first scientific conference in all Eastern Europe supported by NATO. The meeting was expected to establish contacts between East and West experts as well as to study the current state of the art in the area of Hamiltonian Mechanics and its applications. I am sure that the informal atmosphere of the city of Torun, the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus, stimulated many valuable scientific exchanges. The first idea for this cnference was carried out by Prof Andrzej J. Maciejewski and myself, more than two years ago, during his visit in Greece. It was planned for about forty well-known scientists from East and West. At that time participation of a scientist from Eastern Europe in an Organising Committee of a NATO Conference was not allowed. But always there is the first time. Our plans for such a "small" conference, as a first attempt in the new European situation -the Europe without borders -quickly passed away. The names of our invited speakers, authorities in their field, were a magnet for many colleagues from all over the world.

The Symposium .Symmetries in Science VI: From the Rotation Group to Quantum Algebras. was held at the Cloister Mehrerau, Bregenz, Austria, during the period August 2-7, 1992. The Symposium was held in honor of Professor Lawrence C. Biedenharn on the occasion of his 70th birthday. During the academic year 1966/67 I worked as research associate with Larry at Duke University and we have ever since maintained close contact. It was thus natural for me to take the initiative and to organize this Symposium in honor of Larry as a great scientist and friend. The response which the Symposium received showed the favorable reaction by the scientific community to the opportunity provided by the Symposium to honor our colleague, teacher and friend. Equally, the scientific contributions contained in this volume illustrate the high esteem in which he is held. I wish to thank all the scientists who participated in the Symposium and who contributed to this volume. It is due to their commitment that the Symposium was successful. Finally I need to thank those who provided financial and logistical assistance to the Symposium: Dr. John H. Guyon, President of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Dr. Russell R. Dutcher, Dean, College of Science at SIUC, Dr. Maurice A. Wright, Chairman, Department of Physics, SIUC, Dr. Victoria J. Molfese, Office of Research Developement and Administration, SIUC, as well as Dr. Martin Purtscher, Landeshauptmann, Land Vorarlberg Dr. Guntram Lins, Landesrat, Land Vorarlberg."

For a better understanding of supernova explosions the contributors to this volume provide researchers and graduate students in astrophysics with a broad spectrum of alternatives. The confrontation of different theories in one volume should prompt further exploration of the driving piston for the explosions and deeper understanding of the experimental data. Properties of supernova shells are discussed, such as their kinematics, ages, sizes, temperatures, spectra, polarizations, energetics and morphologies. Special attention is given to a few shells of extreme age, viz. G 70.68+1.20, Kepler's SN, and CTB 80, as well as to their statistics.

The 1996 Carg se Summer Institute on Frontiers in Particle Physics was organized by the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (M. Levy), the Ecole Nonnale SupCrieure, Paris (J. lliopoulos), the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (R. Gastmans), and the Universite Catholique de Louvain (J.-M. Gerard), which, since 1975, have joined their efforts and worked in common. It was the twelfth Sunnner Institute on High Energy Physics organized jointly at Carg se by three of these universities. The Standard Model for fundamental interactions is constructed on two essential ingredients: the gauge symmetry and the mass generation mechanism. Now that the gauge theory aspect has been finnly established, the new challenge for the young researchers in elementary particle physics is the understanding of the origin of the masses. The standard Higgs mechanism is believed to be responsible for generating the masses of ALL fundamental particles. Professor D. Treille discussed the prospects for Higgs boson search and described the experimental determinations of the gauge boson masses. The influence of the top quark mass on electroweak processes has been emphasized by Professor J.L. Rosner, while Professor M. Neubert introduced the heavy-quark effective theory which allows you to get rid of heavy-quark masses. The theoretical determinations of the light quark masses have been critically analyzed by Professor H. Leutwyler. Professor A. Pich presented the various experimental tests on lepton universality and Professor R.L. MBssbauer reviewed our present knowledge on the neutrino masses."

This book guides readers (astronomers, physicists, and university students) through central questions of Practical Cosmology, a term used by the late Allan Sandage to denote the modern scientific endeavor to find the cosmological model best describing the universe of galaxies, its geometry, size, age, and matter composition. The authors draw on their personal experience in astrophysics and cosmology to explain key concepts of cosmology, both observational and theoretical, and to highlight several items which give cosmology its special character. These highlighted items are: Ideosyncratic features of the cosmic laboratory, Malmquist bias in the determination of cosmic distances, Theory of gravitation as a cornerstone of cosmological models, Crucial tests for checking the reality of space expansion, Methods of analyzing the structures of the universe as mapped by galaxies, Usefulness of fractals as a model to describe the large-scale structure and new cosmological physics inherent in the Friedmann world model."

Der bekannte Astronom Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916) gilt als der Begrunder der Astrophysik und als hervorragender Forscher mit einer erstaunlichen Bandbreite seiner Interessen. Arbeiten zur Himmelsmechanik, Elektrodynamik und Relativitatstheorie weisen ihn als vorzuglichen Mathematiker und Physiker auf der Hohe seiner Zeit aus. Untersuchungen zur Photographischen Photometrie, Optik und Spektroskopie zeigen den versierten Beobachter, der sein Messinstrument beherrscht, und schliesslich arbeitete Schwarzschild als Astrophysiker und an Sternatmospharen, Kometen, Struktur und Dynamik von Sternsystemen. Die in seinem kurzen Leben entstandene Fulle an wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten ist in drei Banden der Gesamtausgabe gesammelt, erganzt durch biographisches Material und ein Essay des Nobelpreistragers S. Chandrasekhar im ersten Band, und Annotationen von Fachleuten in jedem der drei Bande."

This is perhaps the most complete, detailed and readable story of manned space-flight ever published. The text begins with the historical origins of the dream of walking on the Moon, covers the earliest Mercury and Gemini flights and then moves on to the end of the Apollo era. In readable, fascinating detail, Hamish Lindsay - who was directly involved in all three programs - chronicles mankind's greatest adventure with a great narrative, interviews, quotes and masses of photographs, including some previously unpublished. In addition to bringing the history of these missions to life the book serves as a detailed reference for space enthusiasts and students.

Jupiter's ice moon Europa is widely regarded as the most likely place to find extraterrestrial life. This book tells the engaging story of Europa, the oceanic moon. It features a large number of stunning images of the ocean moon's surface, clearly displaying the spectacular crack patterns, extensive rifts and ridges, and refrozen pools of exposed water filled with rafts of displaced ice. Coverage also features firsthand accounts of Galileo's mission to Jupiter and its moons. The book tells the rough and tumble inside story of a very human enterprise in science that lead to the discovery of a fantastic new world that might well harbor life.

The NATO Advanced Study Institute on The Nuclear Equatioo of State was held at Peiiiscola Spain from May 22- June 3, 1989. The school was devoted to the advances, theoretical and experimental, made during the past fifteen years in the physics of nuclear matter under extreme conditions, such as high compression and high temperature. Moie than 300 people had applied for participatio- this demonstrates the tremendous interest in the various subjects presented at the school. Indeed, the topic of this school, namely the Nuclear Equatioo of State, * plays the central role in high energy heavy ion collisions; * contains the intriguing possibilities of various phase transitions (gas - vapor, meson condensation, quark - gluon plasma); * plays an important role in the static and dynamical behavior of stars, especially in supernova explosions and in neutron star stability. The investigation on the nuclear equation of state can only be accomplished in the laboratory by compressing and heating up nuclear matter and the only mechanism known to date to achieve this goal is through shock compression and -heating in violent high energy heavy ion collisions. This key mechanism has been proposed and highly disputed in of high energy heavy ion physics, the early 70's. It plays a central role in the whole field and particularly in our discussions during the two weeks at Peiiiscola.

Multiply charged ions have always been in the focus of atomic physics, astrophysics, plasma physics, and theoretical physics. Within the last few years, strong progress has been achieved in the development of ion sources, ion storage rings, ion traps, and methods to cool ions. As a consequence, nowadays, experiments with ensembles of multiply charged ions of brilliant quality are performed in many laboratories. The broad spectrum of the experiments demonstrates that these ions are an extremely versatile tool for investigations in pure and applied physics. It was the aim of this ASI to bring together scientists working in different fields of research with multiply charged ions in order to get an overview of the state of the art, to sound out possibilities for fruitful cooperations, and to discuss perspectives for the future. Accordingly, the programme of the ASI reached from established areas like QED calculations, weak interactions, x-ray astronomy, x-ray lasers, multi photon excitation, heavy-ion induced fusion, and ion-surface interactions up to the very recently opened areas like bound-beta decay, laser and x-ray spectroscopy, and spectrometry of ions in rings and traps, and the interaction of highly charged ions with biological cells. Impressive progress in nearly all of the fields could be reported during the meeting which is documented by the contributions to this volume. The theoretical understand ing of QED and correlation effects in few-electron heavy ions is rapidly developing."

The present volume contains the expanded lectures of a meeting on relativistic astrophysics, the goal of which was to provide a modern introduction to specific aspects of the field for young researchers, as well as for nonspecialists from related areas. Particular emphasis is placed on the theory of black holes and evolution, relativistic stars and jet hydrodynamics, as well as the production and detection of gravitational waves. The book is complemented by further contributions and animation supplied on the accompanying CD-ROM.

The II international workshop on "Data Analysis in Astronomy" was intended to provide an overview on the state of the art and the trend in data analy sis and image processing in the context of their applications in Astronomy. The need for the organization of a second workshop in this subject derived from the steady. growing and development in the field and from the increasing cross-interaction between methods, technology and applications in Astronomy. The book is organized in four main sections: - Data Analysis Methodologies - Data Handling and Systems dedicated to Large Experiments - Parallel Processing - New Developments The topics which have been selected cover some of the main fields in data analysis in Astronomy. Methods that provide a major contribution to the physical interpretation of the data have been considered. Attention has been devoted to the description of the data analysis and handling organization in very large experiments. A review of the current major satellite and ground based experiments has been included. At the end of the book the following 'Panel Discussions' are included: - Data Analysis Trend in Optical and Radio Astronomy - Data Analysis Trend in X and Gamma Astronomy - Problems and Solutions in the Design of Very Large Experiments - Trend on Parallel Processing Algorithms These contributions in a sense summarize the 'live' reaction of the audience to the various topics.

There is abundant evidence that essentially all luminous hot-star winds contain time-dependent and anisotropic structures. IAU Colloquium 169 was convened to review the observations of variability and asphericity, to discuss the physical processes that might cause such behavior and to look for evolutionary consequences. The topics included OBA stars, Be stars, Wolf-Rayet stars, Be stars, and luminous blue variables (LBVs). The role played by rotation in shaping the stellar wind was a recurrent theme. Photospheric pulsations and/or magnetic fields are particularly appealing mechanisms for triggering the formation of recurrent wind structures.

This volume summarizes recent developments in our understanding of active galactic nuclei, including quasars, seyfert galaxies and radio galaxies. The predominant emphasis is put on observational results with information from essentially all wave bands, but important theoretical results are also presented. Among the contributions are discussions of the different types of active galaxies, the nature of the central engine, the wiggly structure of radio jets, the dynamics of the gas in jets, the study of millimeter and extreme ultraviolet regions, and a discussion of the observed continuum of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The intended readers are professional astronomers and astrophysicists as well as graduate students in this field of research.

The proceedings of this workshop should probably be prefaced with a few words on some of the more confusing jargon. The phrases "Very Low-Mass star" , "VLM star", or simply "VLM" are now used fairly uniformly by as tronomers studying the stars at the bottom of the hydrogen-burning stellar main sequence - unfortunately, however, there is no clear definition as to what constitutes a VLM star. The reader should be warned that VLM stars are variously considered to be stars with; masses less than 0.3M ; masses 0 less than 0.1M ; spectra later than about M6-7; luminosities fainter than 0 Mv = 15; or luminosities fainter than Mbol = 12. The important features of a VLM star, however, would seem to be (1) that it is about as faint as a star can be, and (2) that it still remains a star (ie. it still burns hydrogen) . All of the above criteria, therefore, would seem to qualify an object as a VLM star, and requiring a more stringent definition is probably quibbling.

The 14 papers in this collection discuss recent progress in areas such as mixing in stellar interiors, redistribution and loss of angular momentum, emphasizing in particular the effects of turbulence. An introductory review by E. Schatzman, to whom this volume is dedicated, is followed by three sections: observational facts (surface abundances, stellar rotation, loss of mass and angular momentum, etc.), physical knowledge (mass transport and mixing by waves, turbulent transport, fast dynamo action, etc.), and the interpretation of observations.