Please note that this Floris Books edition has been revised for UK and European notation, language and metric systems. From the early peoples who marvelled at the geometry of nature -- the beehive and bird's nest -- to ancient civilisations who questioned beautiful geometric forms and asked 'why?', the story of geometry spans thousands of years. Using only three simple tools -- the string, the straight-edge and the shadow -- human beings revealed the basic principles and constructions of elementary geometry. Weaving history and legend, this fascinating book reconstructs the discoveries of mathematics's most famous figures. Through illustrations and diagrams, readers are able to follow the reasoning that lead to an ingenious proof of the Pythagorean theorem, an appreciation of the significance of the Golden Mean in art and architecture, or the construction of the five regular solids. This insightful and engaging book makes geometry accessible to everyone. Readers will be fascinated with how the knowledge and wisdom of so many cultures helped shape our civilisation today. String, Straight-edge and Shadow is also a useful and inspiring book for those teaching geometry in Steiner-Waldorf classrooms.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Do we have free will? Is the universe compatible with God? Do we live in a computer simulation? Does the universe think? Physicists are great at complicated research, but they are less good at telling us why it matters. In this entertaining and groundbreaking book, theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder breaks down why we should care. Drawing on the latest research in quantum mechanics, black holes, string theory and particle physics, Existential Physics explains what modern physics can tell us about the big questions. Filled with counterintuitive insights and including interviews with other leading scientists, this clear and yet profound book will reshape your understanding of science and the limits of what we can know.

"More than anything else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being," says W. Brian Arthur. Yet despite technology's irrefutable importance in our daily lives, until now its major questions have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur answers these questions and more, setting forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology.
"The Nature of Technology "is an elegant and powerful theory of technology's origins and evolution. Achieving for the development of technology what Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions "did for scientific progress, Arthur explains how transformative new technologies arise and how innovation really works. Drawing on a wealth of examples, from historical inventions to the high-tech wonders of today, Arthur takes us on a mind-opening journey that will change the way we think about technology and how it structures our lives. "The Nature of Technology "is a classic for our times.

This is not a book of facts; it's a book of 'facts'. Should you finish it believing we became the planet's dominant species because predators found us too smelly to eat; or that the living bloodline of Christ is a family of Japanese garlic farmers - well, that's on you. Why are we here? Do ghosts exist? Did life on Earth begin after a badly tidied-up picnic? Was it just an iceberg that sank the Titanic? Are authors stealing their plotlines from the future? Will we ever talk to animals? And why, when you're in the shower, does the shower curtain always billow in towards you? We don't know the answers to any of these questions. But don't worry, no matter what questions you have, you can bet on the fact that there is someone (or something) out there, investigating it on your behalf. From the sports stars who use cosmic energy to office plants investigating murders, The Theory of Everything Else will act as a handbook for those who want to think differently.

Bringing his cosmic perspective to civilization on Earth, Neil deGrasse Tyson, bestselling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, shines new light on the crucial fault lines of our time-war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, race, and tribalism-in a way that stimulates a deeper sense of unity for us all. In a time when our political and cultural perspectives feel more divisive than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin engines of enlightenment-a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science. After thinking deeply about how a scientist views the world and about what Earth looks like from space, Tyson has found that terrestrial thoughts change as our brain resets and recalibrates life's priorities, along with the actions we might take in response. As a result, no outlook on culture, society, or civilisation remains untouched. In Starry Messenger, Tyson reveals just how human the enterprise of science is. Far from a cold, unfeeling undertaking, scientific methods, tools, and discoveries have shaped modern civilisation and created the landscape we've built for ourselves on which to live, work, and play. Tyson shows how an infusion of science and rational thinking renders worldviews deeper and more informed than ever before-and exposes unfounded perspectives and unjustified emotions. With crystalline prose and an abundance of evidence, Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette that sees and paints the world differently. From lessons on resolving global conflict to reminders of how precious it is to be alive, Tyson reveals, with warmth and eloquence, ten surprising, brilliant, and beautiful truths of human society, informed and enlightened by knowledge of our place in the universe.

WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2022 'Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years . . . Gee is a marvellously engaging writer, juggling humour, precision, polemic and poetry to enrich his impossibly telescoped account . . . [making] clear sense out of very complex narratives' - The Times 'Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically changing canvas of life understandable and exciting. Who will enjoy reading this book? - Everybody!' Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place - covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape by way of incessant volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again. Life has learned and adapted and continued through the billions of years that followed. It has weathered fire and ice. Slimes begat sponges, who through billions of years of complex evolution and adaptation grew a backbone, braved the unknown of pitiless shores, and sought an existence beyond the sea. From that first foray to the spread of early hominids who later became Homo sapiens, life has persisted, undaunted. A (Very) Short History of Life is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you've never seen it before. Life teems through Henry Gee's words - colossal supercontinents drift, collide, and coalesce, fashioning the face of the planet as we know it today. Creatures are engagingly personified, from 'gregarious' bacteria populating the seas to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period to magnificent mammals with the future in their (newly evolved) grasp. Those long extinct, almost alien early life forms are resurrected in evocative detail. Life's evolutionary steps - from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight - are conveyed with an alluring, up-close intimacy.

* PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY * The compelling and moving memoir of forensic psychiatrist Dr Duncan Harding

Instant Physics pulls together all the pivotal physics knowledge and thought into one concise volume. Each page contains a discrete 'cheat sheet', which tells you the most important facts in bite-sized chunks, meaning you can become an expert in an instant. From black holes to black body radiation, telescopes to microscopes, quantum mechanics to general relativity, every key figure, discovery or idea is explained with succinct and lively text and graphics. Perfect for the knowledge hungry and time poor, this collection of graphic-led lessons makes psychology interesting and accessible. Everything you need to know is here.

THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A beautiful little book by a brilliant mind' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Effortlessly instructive, absorbing, up to the minute and - where it matters - witty' GUARDIAN The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves us with his final thoughts on the universe's biggest questions in this brilliant posthumous work. Is there a God? How did it all begin? Can we predict the future? What is inside a black hole? Is there other intelligent life in the universe? Will artificial intelligence outsmart us? How do we shape the future? Will we survive on Earth? Should we colonise space? Is time travel possible? Throughout his extraordinary career, Stephen Hawking expanded our understanding of the universe and unravelled some of its greatest mysteries. But even as his theoretical work on black holes, imaginary time and multiple histories took his mind to the furthest reaches of space, Hawking always believed that science could also be used to fix the problems on our planet. And now, as we face potentially catastrophic changes here on Earth - from climate change to dwindling natural resources to the threat of artificial super-intelligence - Stephen Hawking turns his attention to the most urgent issues for humankind. Wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, passionately argued, and infused with his characteristic humour, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, the final book from one of the greatest minds in history, is a personal view on the challenges we face as a human race, and where we, as a planet, are heading next. A percentage of all royalties will go to charity.

Was there a beginning of time? Could time run backwards? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? These are just some of the questions considered in the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by the world renowned physicist - generally considered to have been one of the world's greatest thinkers. It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the Big Bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory. To this day A Brief History of Time remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and clear language continues to introduce millions to the universe and its wonders. This new edition includes recent updates from Stephen Hawking with his latest thoughts about the No Boundary Proposal and offers new information about dark energy, the information paradox, eternal inflation, the microwave background radiation observations, and the discovery of gravitational waves. It was published in tandem with the app, Stephen Hawking's Pocket Universe.

This book challenges the perception of chemistry as too difficult to bother with and too clinical to be any fun. Cathy Cobb and Monty L. Fetterolf, both professional chemists and experienced educators, introduce readers to the magic, elegance, and, yes, joy of chemistry. From the fascination of fall foliage and fireworks, to the functioning of smoke detectors and computers, to the fundamentals of digestion (as when good pizza goes bad ), the authors illustrate the concepts of chemistry in terms of everyday experience, using familiar materials.
The authors begin with a bang--a colorful bottle rocket assembled from common objects you find in the garage--and then present the principles of chemistry using household chemicals and friendly, nontechnical language. They guide the reader through the basics of atomic structure, the nature of molecular bonds, and the vibrant universe of chemical reactions. Using analogy and example to illuminate essential concepts such as thermodynamics, photochemistry, electrochemistry, and chemical equilibrium, they explain the whys and wherefores of chemical reactions. Hands-on demonstrations, selected for their ease of execution and relevance, illustrate basic principles, and lively commentaries emphasize the fun and fascination of learning about chemistry.
This delightful and richly informative book amply proves that chemistry can appeal to our intuition, logic, and--if we're willing to get down and dirty--our sense of enjoyment too.

"Animals in Translation" is the culmination of Temple Grandin's extraordinary life's work, drawing upon the latest research, her distinguished career as an animal scientist and her own experience of being autistic. With co-author Catherine Johnson, Grandin argues that while 'normal people' convert experience into words and abstractions, animals and autistics process the world as sensory information - specific pictures, sights and sounds. This difference is the key to understanding how animals see, think and feel. As much a revelation about life with autism as it is about life with animals, "Animals in Translation" explores pain, fear, aggression, love, friendship, communication and learning in a startling book that will change the way you think about animals.

This is an account of the author's investigation, on behalf of the Canadian government, into the life and ideas of the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla. This is a completely revised and redesigned edition, with a new introduction by the former head of the Tesla Museum, a new chapter and a selection of photographs of Tesla and his work in search of the holy grail of electricity - the transmission of power without loss. As a student in Prague in the 1870s, Tesla "saw" the electric induction motor and patented his discovery, -the first of many inventions whose plans seem to have come to him fully fledged. He worked for the Edison company in Paris before emigrating to the US and battling with Thomas Edison himself to ensure that alternating, rather than direct current, became the standard. He sold his patent in the induction motor for $1 million dollars to George Westinghouse, who used this system for the Niagara Falls Power Project. Moving to Colorado Springs, Tesla worked on resonance, building enormous oscillating towers in experiments which still intrigue today. In later life Tesla became a recluse, bombarding newspapers with eccentric claims, including energy transmissions to other planets. Though he died alone and virtually forgotten, rumours gradually grew that Tesla had made further remarkable discoveries. In an attempt to replicate his experiments, people still build Tesla towers and puzzle over the possible link with low-frequency broadcasts which can supposedly disrupt the weather and affect the human mind.

This book covers thirty years of the Leningrad Mathematical Olympiad, which was, ostensibly, the very first formally organized, open, official city-level mathematical contest in the world. Founded in 1934 by a group of dedicated Soviet mathematicians, it played an outstanding (and often underappreciated) role in creating the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) school of mathematics of the 20th century.The book begins with the extensive introduction containing two prefaces (one of them written specifically for this edition), a large historical survey of the Leningrad Mathematical Olympiad, a section describing the logistical side of the contest, and a small chapter dedicated to the very first Mathematical Olympiad held in 1934, whose problems were recently found in the Soviet-era library archives.The main text contains approximately 1,100 highly original questions for students of grades 5 through 10 (ages 11-12 through 17-18) offered at the two concluding rounds of the Leningrad City Mathematics Olympiads in the years of 1961-1991. Full solutions, hints and answers are provided for all questions with very rare exceptions.It also includes 120 additional questions, offered at the various mathematical contests held in Leningrad over the same thirty-year period — on average, their difficulty is somewhat higher than that of the regular Mathematical Olympiad problems.

This book covers thirty years of the Leningrad Mathematical Olympiad, which was, ostensibly, the very first formally organized, open, official city-level mathematical contest in the world. Founded in 1934 by a group of dedicated Soviet mathematicians, it played an outstanding (and often underappreciated) role in creating the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) school of mathematics of the 20th century.The book begins with the extensive introduction containing two prefaces (one of them written specifically for this edition), a large historical survey of the Leningrad Mathematical Olympiad, a section describing the logistical side of the contest, and a small chapter dedicated to the very first Mathematical Olympiad held in 1934, whose problems were recently found in the Soviet-era library archives.The main text contains approximately 1,100 highly original questions for students of grades 5 through 10 (ages 11-12 through 17-18) offered at the two concluding rounds of the Leningrad City Mathematics Olympiads in the years of 1961-1991. Full solutions, hints and answers are provided for all questions with very rare exceptions.It also includes 120 additional questions, offered at the various mathematical contests held in Leningrad over the same thirty-year period — on average, their difficulty is somewhat higher than that of the regular Mathematical Olympiad problems.

In China, lots of excellent maths students take an active part in various maths contests and the best six senior high school students will be selected to form the IMO National Team to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad. In the past ten years China's IMO Team has achieved outstanding results - they won the first place almost every year.The authors of this book are coaches of the China national team. They are Xiong Bin, Yao Yijun, Qu Zhenhua et al. Those who took part in the translation work are Zhao Wei and Zhou Tianyou.The materials of this book come from a series of two books (in Chinese) on Forward to IMO: A Collection of Mathematical Olympiad Problems (2019-2020). It is a collection of problems and solutions of the major mathematical competitions in China. It provides a glimpse of how the China national team is selected and formed.

In the visionary tradition of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring, One Square Inch of Silence "alerts us to beauty that we take for granted and sounds an urgent environmental alarm. Natural silence is our nation's fastest-disappearing resource, warns Emmy-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton, who has made it his mission to record and preserve it in all its variety--before these soul-soothing terrestrial soundscapes vanish completely in the ever-rising din of man-made noise. Recalling the great works on nature written by John Muir, John McPhee, and Peter Matthiessen, this beautifully written narrative, co-authored with John Grossmann, is also a quintessentially American story--a road trip across the continent from west to east in a 1964 VW bus. But no one has crossed America like this. Armed with his recording equipment and a decibel-measuring sound-level meter, Hempton bends an inquisitive and loving ear to the varied natural voices of the American landscape--bugling elk, trilling thrushes, and drumming, endangered prairie chickens. He is an equally patient and perceptive listener when talking with people he meets on his journey about the importance of quiet in their lives. By the time he reaches his destination, Washington, D.C., where he meets with federal officials to press his case for natural silence preservation, Hempton has produced a historic and unforgettable sonic record of America. With the incisiveness of Jack Kerouac's observations on the road and the stirring wisdom of Robert Pirsig repairing an aging vehicle and his life, "One Square Inch of Silence "provides a moving call to action. More than simply a book, it is an actual place, too, located in one of America's last naturally quiet places, in Olympic National Park in Washington State.

A handwriting expert reveals the secrets hidden in your penmanship-now featuring a new afterword analyzing the handwriting of President Donald Trump. Handwriting expert Michelle Dresbold-the only civilian to be invited to the United States Secret Service's Advanced Document Examination training program-draws on her extensive experience helping law enforcement agencies around the country on cases involving kidnapping, arson, forgery, murder, embezzlement, and stalking to take us inside the mysterious world of crossed t's and dotted i's. In Sex, Lies, and Handwriting, Dresbold explains how a single sentence can provide insight into a person's background, psychology, and behavior. Throughout the book, Dresbold explores the handwriting of sly politicians, convicted criminals, notorious killers, suspected cheats, and ordinary people who've written to Dresbold's "The Handwriting Doctor" column for help. She shows you how to identify the signs of a dirty rotten scoundrel and a lying, cheating, backstabbing lover. And she introduces you to some of the most dangerous traits in handwriting, including weapon-shaped letters, "shark's teeth," "club strokes," and "felon's claws." Dresbold also explains how criminals are tracked through handwritten clues and what spouses, friends, or employees might be hiding in their script. Sex, Lies, and Handwriting will have you paying a bit more attention to your-and everyone else's-penmanship.

Freeman Dyson's life experiences made him a wise, kindly grandfather figure to two generations of students enrolled in an undergraduate university course 'Science, Technology, & Society.' Near the end of each semester, the class sent him written questions, on reading Professor Dyson's memoir Disturbing the Universe. The letter exchanges occurred regularly from April 1993 through December 2019.'Yours Ever, Freeman' is devoted to this correspondence between Professor Dyson and the students. His responses went beyond answering questions, as he enlarged the scope of the questions by sharing stories from his experiences. While others have written of Professor Dyson's accomplishments and awards; the class came to know him through his discussions about life, science, and society. Topics ranged from the existential to headlines of the day, from national policies to personal values. Over three thousand students have been blessed to count Freeman Dyson as a mentor and consider him as a friend.'Yours Ever, Freeman' supplements Dear Professor Dyson published earlier. While the 2016 book included in-depth reviews of the STS course contents from which the correspondence emerged, besides including the 2016-2019 correspondence, the present book maintains a tight focus on the correspondence itself, annotated as necessary for context. The book's title comes from the way Professor Dyson signed his letters.

Freeman Dyson's life experiences made him a wise, kindly grandfather figure to two generations of students enrolled in an undergraduate university course 'Science, Technology, & Society.' Near the end of each semester, the class sent him written questions, on reading Professor Dyson's memoir Disturbing the Universe. The letter exchanges occurred regularly from April 1993 through December 2019.'Yours Ever, Freeman' is devoted to this correspondence between Professor Dyson and the students. His responses went beyond answering questions, as he enlarged the scope of the questions by sharing stories from his experiences. While others have written of Professor Dyson's accomplishments and awards; the class came to know him through his discussions about life, science, and society. Topics ranged from the existential to headlines of the day, from national policies to personal values. Over three thousand students have been blessed to count Freeman Dyson as a mentor and consider him as a friend.'Yours Ever, Freeman' supplements Dear Professor Dyson published earlier. While the 2016 book included in-depth reviews of the STS course contents from which the correspondence emerged, besides including the 2016-2019 correspondence, the present book maintains a tight focus on the correspondence itself, annotated as necessary for context. The book's title comes from the way Professor Dyson signed his letters.

Quantum mechanics is an extraordinarily successful scientific theory. But it is also completely mad. Although the theory quite obviously works, it leaves us chasing ghosts and phantoms; particles that are waves and waves that are particles; cats that are at once both alive and dead; lots of seemingly spooky goings-on; and a desperate desire to lie down quietly in a darkened room. The Quantum Cookbook explains why this is. It provides a unique bridge between popular exposition and formal textbook presentation, written for curious readers with some background in physics and sufficient mathematical capability. It aims not to teach readers how to do quantum mechanics but rather helps them to understand how to think about quantum mechanics. Each derivation is presented as a 'recipe' with listed ingredients, including standard results from the mathematician's toolkit, set out in a series of easy-to-follow steps. The recipes have been written sympathetically, for readers who - like the author - will often struggle to follow the logic of a derivation which misses out steps that are 'obvious', or which use techniques that readers are assumed to know.

Authored by London-based Researcher from Imperial, Exponential Progress takes readers on a journey through over seven decades of progress, as technology has shaped and controlled everything from banking and business to education, medicine, and the very basis of the human genome. It is a must read for anyone look to learn about fascinating emerging technologies that will disrupt our lives over the next ten years. Humanity is progressing towards a world that will be dominated by the end-results the scientific inventions that will evolve over the next decade. Technological progress has accelerated over the past decade - it was slow and buggy at the beginning, but the rate of improvement is now exponential. The growth is accelerating faster than we could have ever imagined. From a business perspective, these ground-breaking technologies are expected to be the best investments for the next decade. That is why investors and entrepreneurs are tenacious to grow rapidly. But where did it all start? How far have we come in the past 70 years since we developed the first digital computer? Thousands of innovators are in the process of developing the building blocks of these technologies, that will radically grow over the next decade and potentially dominate the century. But now, civilisation has reached a point when this progress cannot be controlled. The author cuts to the core of what humanity has achieved since the invention of the digital computer, where the new jaw-dropping technological innovation will come from, and where the line is drawn between fact and fad. This nonfiction meticulously looks back at the history, analyse current progress and what the researchers have achieved until now. The author attempts to comprehend the need for advancement and in parallel, the potential over the next decade, and reflecting on the necessity of control. If you are interested in new technologies, this will be one of the best books to read. Prepared to be mind-blown with the ideas you are going to find. Farabi, the author of Exponential Progress, is the Head of Research at IntelXSys(TM) and working as one of the Research Experience Leads for Clinical Research and Innovation (CRI) module at the Imperial College London. He has worked with over 100 companies as a technology consultant and spoken at a number of international conferences around the world.

The book is unique in its emphasis on the road to scientific success rather than the science itself. Scientists communicate much on their science through research publications, but they tend to talk much less, if at all, on the challenges encountered on the road to success. Information on the road to scientific success is helpful to people that are considering embarking on the journey on this road or are in the middle of the journey on this road. These people need inspiration and encouragement. Unless the information is recorded, it would be lost.The objectives of this book series are to:

The book is unique in its emphasis on the road to scientific success rather than the science itself. Scientists communicate much on their science through research publications, but they tend to talk much less, if at all, on the challenges encountered on the road to success. Information on the road to scientific success is helpful to people that are considering embarking on the journey on this road or are in the middle of the journey on this road. These people need inspiration and encouragement. Unless the information is recorded, it would be lost.The objectives of this book series are to:

'Kindness and co-operation have played a crucial role in raising humans to the top of the evolutionary tree ... We have thrived on the milk of human kindness.' Observer BY THE AUTHOR OF ARE WE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW HOW SMART ANIMALS ARE? 'There is a widely-held assumption that humans are hard-wired for relentless and ruthless competition ... Frans de Waal sees nature differently - as a biological legacy in which empathy, not mere self-interest, is shared by humans, bonobos and animals.' Ben Macintyre, The Times Empathy holds us together. That we are hardwired to be altruistic is the result of thousands of years of evolutionary biology which has kept society from slipping into anarchy. But we are not alone: primates, elephants, even rodents are empathetic creatures too. Social behaviours such as the herding instinct, bonding rituals, expressions of consolation and even conflict resolution demonstrate that animals are designed to feel for each other. From chimpanzees caring for mates that have been wounded by leopards, elephants reassuring youngsters in distress and dolphins preventing sick companions from drowning, with a wealth of anecdotes, scientific observations, wry humour and incisive intelligence, The Age of Empathy is essential reading for all who believe in the power of our connections to each other.