Amongst the famous planetary inhabitants of our solar system there is an entire ecosystem of smaller, less recognised bodies in the form of comets and 'minor' planets. These native residents, derived from the building blocks of planets, contain valuable information. By studying them in detail, we may learn about the processes that occurred from the Sun's birth to the emergence of the solar system as we know it today.Small Bodies of the Solar System paints a detailed picture of the space missions, laboratory experiments and computer experiments behind our current understanding of the comets, minor planets, meteors and meteorites. With a rich selection of pictures, this book combines personal reflection and poetic imagery with a mathematical and physical overview to introduce the reader to these small wonders of our universe.

From the Royal Society Winton Prize winner 'Sean Carroll examines what it means to exist on this speck of dust in a possibly infinite universe. It's fascinating to see a real working physicist thinking these things through and trying to come to a conclusion.' - Professor Brian Cox on The Big Picture, a Mail on Sunday Book of the Year Quantum physics is not mystifying. The implications are mind-bending, and not yet fully understood, but this revolutionary theory is truly illuminating. It stands as the best explanation of the fundamental nature of our world. Spanning the history of quantum discoveries, from Einstein and Bohr to the present day, Something Deeply Hidden is the essential guide to the most intriguing subject in science. Acclaimed physicist and writer Sean Carroll debunks the myths, resurrects and reinstates the Many-Worlds interpretation, and presents a new path towards solving the apparent conflict between quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of general relativity. In doing so, he fills a gap in the science that has existed for almost a century. A magisterial tour, Something Deeply Hidden encompasses the cosmological and everyday implications of quantum reality and multiple universes. And - finally - it all makes sense.

Winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books

A Best Science Book of the Year for the Guardian, Financial Times, and New Scientist

It was the universe s most elusive particle, the linchpin for everything scientists dreamed up to explain how physics works. It had to be found. But projects as big as CERN s Large Hadron Collider don t happen without incredible risks and occasional skullduggery. In the definitive account of this landmark event, Caltech physicist and acclaimed science writer Sean Carroll reveals the insights, rivalry, and wonder that fuelled the Higgs discovery, and takes us on a riveting and irresistible ride to the very edge of physics today.

What can a microbial gravesite on a moon teach us? Why are scientists risking their lives to safeguard a seed bank? How does a virus detective story show us why we need to be vigilant about the next disease outbreak? Great science writing compels us to pay attention to parts of the world often unseen, from a dusty gold mine which could help answer one of the biggest questions in astrophysics to a delightful date with the misunderstood blobfish. This acclaimed anthology-now in its twelfth year-selects the most riveting, entertaining, poignant, and fascinating science stories and essays from Australian writers, poets, and scientists. With a foreword by health broadcaster and commentator Dr. Norman Swan, this collection covers another remarkable year, not only filled with seismic moments in science, but also shining a light on important work that would otherwise be overlooked.

Over the years, Jeremy Bernstein has been in contact with many of the worlda (TM)s most renowned physicists and other scientists, many of whom were involved in politics, literature, and language. In this diverse collection of essays, he reflects on their work, their personal relationships, their motives, and their contributions. Even for those people he writes about that he did not know personally, he provides important insights into their lives and work, and questions their character, their decisions, and the lives they led. In the first three essays, Professor Bernstein looks at economic theory and how some physicists who developed interesting economic models based on derivatives and hedge funds almost led to the country into bankruptcy. In later essays, he discusses a suspect visit to Poland by the great Heisenberg during the Nazi era, a visit that there is almost nothing written about. Included also are essays on ancient languages and a nuclear weapons program in South Africa that was supposedly dismantled. In one particularly humorous essay, he describes how an ill-conceived manned spaceship to be powered by an atomic bomb was being developed by some of the countrya (TM)s most powerful intellects. The project never got off the ground. Dipping into these pages is like rummaging around in the mind of a genius who has a potpourri of interests and an abundance of fascinating experiences. Bernstein has not only rubbed elbows with some of the finest minds in world, he has worked and played with them. He has sometimes mourned with them and laughed at them. His sharp wit and even sharper analysis make for a fascinating read.

It's the twenty-first century, and although we tried to rear unisex children-boys who play with dolls and girls who like trucks-we failed. Even though the glass ceiling is cracked, most women stay comfortably beneath it. And everywhere we hear about vitally important "hardwired" differences between male and female brains. The neuroscience that we read about in magazines, newspaper articles, books, and sometimes even scientific journals increasingly tells a tale of two brains, and the result is more often than not a validation of the status quo. Women, it seems, are just too intuitive for math; men too focused for housework. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, Cordelia Fine debunks the myth of hardwired differences between men's and women's brains, unraveling the evidence behind such claims as men's brains aren't wired for empathy and women's brains aren't made to fix cars. She then goes one step further, offering a very different explanation of the dissimilarities between men's and women's behavior. Instead of a "male brain" and a "female brain," Fine gives us a glimpse of plastic, mutable minds that are continuously influenced by cultural assumptions about gender. Passionately argued and unfailingly astute, Delusions of Gender provides us with a much-needed corrective to the belief that men's and women's brains are intrinsically different-a belief that, as Fine shows with insight and humor, all too often works to the detriment of ourselves and our society.

For the millions who remain curious about the world around them, but gained little from science at school, this book offers a way forward. Based on live discussions with adults from all walks of life, each chapter begins with an everyday experience, like swallowing a pill or watching a bee on a flower. The main scientific ideas underlying each topic are then explored, so that understanding of a set of fundamental concepts builds up gradually throughout the book. In contrast to more traditional approaches to science learning, topics range freely across the subject areas. The story of Covid, for example includes aspects of biology, chemistry, mathematics and social behaviour. Plain English is used throughout and mathematical expressions are avoided. Key points are illustrated with clear diagrams and photographs. By drawing on questions and perspectives of ordinary people, the book offers an introduction to basic ideas in science as a whole, rather than any one particular subject. For the adult wishing to make good a gap in their understanding it provides a starting point for entering the rich world of popular science.

Penicillin is the drug of the twentieth century. It was the first of the antibiotics that, for decades after the Second World War, underpinned a popular belief that infectious disease had at last met its match. With the emergence of 'superbugs' in recent decades these hopes have faded. Across the world, we are warned that widespread antibiotic abuse will inexorably erode the drugs' efficacy and our own earlier confidence in them. Penicillin pulls these different but conjoined stories into a compelling narrative spanning the second half of the twentieth century. Using a wealth of new research, Robert Bud sets the discovery and use of penicillin in the broader context of social and cultural change across the world. He examines the drug's critical contributions to medicine and agriculture, and he investigates the global spread of resistant bacteria as antibiotic use continues to rise. Clearly written and highly topical, his book will be of great interest to historians, scientists, and anyone wishing to understand penicillin's seismic impact on modern life. Penicillin: Triumph and Tragedy Curated by Robert Bud A new exhibition looking back over 50 years will explore changing attitudes to antibiotics and launch at the Science Museum on Thursday 10 May 2007 . In the 1950s antibiotics were cast as wonder drugs, but strains of bacteria resistant to penicillin were already widespread. They caused many deaths, most dramatically, infecting hospitalised victims of Asian flu in the autumn of 1957. Now we fear MRSA. How have attitudes, hopes and fears changed in half a century? Press information from Stephen Bromberg, Science Museum Press Office, [email protected] 020 7942 4352

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "An informed and entertaining guide to what science can and cannot tell us." -The Wall Street Journal "Stimulating . . . encourage[s] readers to push past well-trod assumptions [...] and have fun doing so." -Science Magazine From renowned physicist and creator of the YouTube series "Science without the Gobbledygook," a book that takes a no-nonsense approach to life's biggest questions, and wrestles with what physics really says about the human condition Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation. On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is conscious is difficult to rule out entirely. According to Sabine Hossenfelder, it is not a coincidence that quantum entanglement and vacuum energy have become the go-to explanations of alternative healers, or that people believe their deceased grandmother is still alive because of quantum mechanics. Science and religion have the same roots, and they still tackle some of the same questions: Where do we come from? Where do we go to? How much can we know? The area of science that is closest to answering these questions is physics. Over the last century, physicists have learned a lot about which spiritual ideas are still compatible with the laws of nature. Not always, though, have they stayed on the scientific side of the debate. In this lively, thought-provoking book, Hossenfelder takes on the biggest questions in physics: Does the past still exist? Do particles think? Was the universe made for us? Has physics ruled out free will? Will we ever have a theory of everything? She lays out how far physicists are on the way to answering these questions, where the current limits are, and what questions might well remain unanswerable forever. Her book offers a no-nonsense yet entertaining take on some of the toughest riddles in existence, and will give the reader a solid grasp on what we know-and what we don't know.

This book contains the most interesting problems from the first 24 years of the 'Mathematical Duel', an annual international mathematics competition between the students of four schools: the Gymnazium Mikulase Kopernika in Bilovec, Czech Republic, the Akademicki Zespol Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych in Chorzow, Poland, the Bundesrealgymnasium Kepler in Graz, Austria and the Gymnazium Jakuba Skody in Prerov, Czech Republic.The problems are presented by topic, grouped under the headings Geometry, Combinatorics, Number Theory and Algebra, which is typical for olympiad-style competitions.Above all, it is of interest to students preparing for mathematics competitions as well as teachers looking for material to prepare their students, as well as mathematically interested enthusiasts from all walks of life looking for an intellectual challenge.

For many years, de Waal has observed chimpanzees soothe distressed neighbors and bonobos share their food. Now he delivers fascinating fresh evidence for the seeds of ethical behavior in primate societies that further cements the case for the biological origins of human fairness. Interweaving vivid tales from the animal kingdom with thoughtful philosophical analysis, de Waal seeks a bottom-up explanation of morality that emphasizes our connection with animals. In doing so, de Waal explores for the first time the implications of his work for our understanding of modern religion. Whatever the role of religious moral imperatives, he sees it as a Johnny-come-lately role that emerged only as an addition to our natural instincts for cooperation and empathy.

But unlike the dogmatic neo-atheist of his book s title, de Waal does not scorn religion per se. Instead, he draws on the long tradition of humanism exemplified by the painter Hieronymus Bosch and asks reflective readers to consider these issues from a positive perspective: What role, if any, does religion play for a well-functioning society today? And where can believers and nonbelievers alike find the inspiration to lead a good life?

Rich with cultural references and anecdotes of primate behavior, The Bonobo and the Atheist engagingly builds a unique argument grounded in evolutionary biology and moral philosophy. Ever a pioneering thinker, de Waal delivers a heartening and inclusive new perspective on human nature and our struggle to find purpose in our lives."

There are some mathematical problems whose significance goes beyond the ordinary - like Fermat's Last Theorem or Goldbach's Conjecture - they are the enigmas which define mathematics. The Great Mathematical Problems explains why these problems exist, why they matter, what drives mathematicians to incredible lengths to solve them and where they stand in the context of mathematics and science as a whole. It contains solved problems - like the Poincare Conjecture, cracked by the eccentric genius Grigori Perelman, who refused academic honours and a million-dollar prize for his work, and ones which, like the Riemann Hypothesis, remain baffling after centuries. Stewart is the guide to this mysterious and exciting world, showing how modern mathematicians constantly rise to the challenges set by their predecessors, as the great mathematical problems of the past succumb to the new techniques and ideas of the present.

The Industrial Revolution provided the greatest increase in living standards the world has ever known while propelling Britain to dominance on the global stage. In Forging Modernity, Martin Hutchinson looks at how and why Britain gained this prize ahead of its European competitors. After comparing their endowments and political structures as far back as 1600, he then traces how Britain, through better policies primarily from the political Tory party, diverged from other European countries. Hutchinson's Harvard MBA allows a unique perspective on the early industrial enterprises - many successes resulted from marketing, control systems and logistics rather than from production technology alone, while on a national scale the scientific method and commercial competition were as important as physical infrastructure.  By 1830, through ever-improving policies, Britain had built a staggering industrial lead, half a century ahead of its rivals. Then the Tories lost power and policy changed forever. In his conclusion, Hutchinson shows how changes welcomed by conventional historians caused the decline of Industrial Britain. Nevertheless, the policies that drove growth, ingenuity and rising living standards are still available for those bold enough to adopt them.  

'A fascinating exploration of how we learned what matter really is, and the journey matter takes from the Big Bang, through exploding stars, ultimately to you and me.' - Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden 'If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.' - Carl Sagan We probably all have a vague idea of how to make an apple pie: mix flour and butter, throw in some apples and you're probably most of the way there, right? Think again. Making an apple pie from scratch requires ingredients that definitely aren't available in the supermarket, ovens that can reach temperatures of trillions of degrees, and a preparation time of 13.8 billion years. Inspired by Sagan's famous line, Harry Cliff ventures out in search of the ultimate apple pie recipe, tracing the ingredients of our universe through the hearts of dying stars and back in time to a tiny fraction of a second after our universe began. Along the way, he confronts some really big questions: What is matter really made of? How does the stuff around us escape annihilation in the fearsome heat of the Big Bang? And will we ever be able to understand the very first moments of our universe? In pursuit of answers, Cliff ventures to the largest underground research facility in the world, deep beneath Italy's Gran Sasso mountains, where scientists gaze into the heart of the Sun using the most elusive of particles, the ghostly neutrino. He visits CERN in Switzerland to explore the 'Antimatter Factory' where this stuff of science fiction is manufactured daily (and we're close to knowing whether it falls upwards). And he reveals what the latest data from the Large Hadron Collider may be telling us about the fundamental ingredients of matter. Along the way, Cliff illuminates the history of physics, chemistry, and astronomy that brought us to our present understanding of the world, while offering readers a front-row seat to one of the most dramatic intellectual journeys human beings have ever embarked on. A transfixing deep dive into origins of our world, How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch doesn't just put the makeup of our universe under the microscope, but the awe-inspiring, improbable fact that it exists at all.

Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021 'To compare any book to a Sacks is unfair, but this one lives up to it . . . I finished it feeling thrillingly unsettled, and wishing there was more.' - James McConnachie, Sunday Times In Sweden, refugee children fall asleep for months and years at a time. In upstate New York, high school students develop contagious seizures. In the US Embassy in Cuba, employees complain of headaches and memory loss after hearing strange noises in the night. These disparate cases are some of the most remarkable diagnostic mysteries of the twenty-first century, as both doctors and scientists have struggled to explain them within the boundaries of medical science and - more crucially - to treat them. What unites them is that they are all examples of a particular type of psychosomatic illness: medical disorders that are influenced as much by the idiosyncratic aspects of individual cultures as they are by human biology. Inspired by a poignant encounter with the sleeping refugee children of Sweden, Wellcome Prize-winning neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan travels the world to visit other communities who have also been subject to outbreaks of so-called 'mystery' illnesses. From a derelict post-Soviet mining town in Kazakhstan, to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua via an oil town in Texas, to the heart of the Maria Mountains in Colombia, O'Sullivan hears remarkable stories from a fascinating array of people, and attempts to unravel their complex meaning while asking the question: who gets to define what is and what isn't an illness? Reminiscent of the work of Oliver Sacks, Stephen Grosz and Henry Marsh, The Sleeping Beauties is a moving and unforgettable scientific investigation with a very human face. 'A study of diseases that we sometimes say are 'all in the mind', and an explanation of how unfair that characterisation is.' - Tom Whipple, The Times Books of the Year

___ ***SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2022*** Did you know that we can lead longer and healthier lives by making simple changes right now? Professor Rose Anne Kenny has 35 years of experience at the forefront of ageing medicine. In Age Proof, she draws on her own pioneering research and the latest evidence to demystify why we age and shows us that 80% of our ageing biology is within our control: we can not only live longer lives but become happier and healthier deep into our later years. Effortlessly distilling scientific theory into practical advice that we can apply to our everyday lives, Professor Kenny examines the impact that food, genetics, friendships, purpose, sex, exercise and laughter have on how our cells age. This illuminating book will show you the steps you can take to stay younger for longer - and will prove that you really are just as young as you feel.

This book is a unique introduction to graph theory, written by one of its founding fathers. It is not intended as a comprehensive treatise, but rather as an account of those parts of the theory that have been of special interest to the author. Professor Tutte details his experiences in the area, and provides a fascinating insight into the processes leading to his proofs.

Swearing, it turns out, is an incredibly useful part of our linguistic repertoire. Not only has some form of swearing existed since the earliest humans began to communicate, but it has been shown to reduce physical pain, help stroke victims recover their language, and encourage people to work together as a team.

Swearing Is Good For You is a spirited and hilarious defence of our most cherished dirty words, backed by historical case studies and cutting-edge research. From chimpanzees creating their own curse words to a man who lost half his brain in a mining accident experiencing a new-found compulsion to swear, Dr Emma Byrne outlines the fascinating science behind swearing: how it affects us both physically and emotionally, and how it is more natural and beneficial than we are led to believe.

We live in the age of the individual. We are supposed to be slim, prosperous, happy, extroverted and popular. This is our culture’s image of the perfect self. We see this person everywhere: in advertising, in the press, all over social media. We’re told that to be this person you just have to follow your dreams, that our potential is limitless, that we are the source of our own success.

But this model of the perfect self can be extremely dangerous. People are suffering under the torture of this impossible fantasy. Unprecedented social pressure is leading to increases in depression and suicide. Where does this ideal come from? Why is it so powerful? Is there any way to break its spell?

To answer these questions, Selfie by Will Storr takes us from the shores of Ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of narcissism and the selfie generation, and right up to the era of hyper-individualistic neoliberalism in which we live now.

It tells the extraordinary story of the person we all know so intimately – our self.

As featured on Russell Brand's Under The Skin podcast.

Some people fear and mistrust numbers. Others want to use them for everything. After a long career as a statistician, Paul Goodwin has learned the hard way that the ones who want to use them for everything are a very good reason for the rest of us to fear and mistrust them. Something Doesn't Add Up is a fieldguide to the numbers that rule our world, even though they don't make sense. Wry, witty and humane, Goodwin explains mathematical subtleties so painlessly that you hardly need to think about numbers at all. He demonstrates how statistics that are meant to make life simpler often make it simpler than it actually is, but also reveals some of the ways we really can use maths to make better decisions. Enter the world of fitness tracking, the history of IQ testing, China's social credit system, Effective Altruism, and learn how someone should have noticed that Harold Shipman was killing his patients years before they actually did. In the right hands, maths is a useful tool. It's just a pity there are so many of the wrong hands about.

Can we correctly predict the flip of a fair coin more than half the time - or the decay of a single radioactive atom? Our intuition, based on a lifetime of experience, tells us that we cannot, as these are classic examples of what are known to be 50-50 guesses.But mathematics is filled with counterintuitive results - and this book discusses some surprising and entertaining examples. It is possible to devise experiments in which a flipped coin lands heads completely at random half the time, but we can also correctly predict when it will land heads more than half the time. The Fate of Schrodinger's Cat shows how high-school algebra and basic probability theory, with the invaluable assistance of computer simulations, can be used to investigate both the intuitive and the counterintuitive.This book explores fascinating and controversial questions involving prediction, decision-making, and statistical analysis in a number of diverse areas, ranging from whether there is such a thing as a 'hot hand' in shooting a basketball, to how we can successfully predict, more than half the time, the decay of the radioactive atom that determines the fate of Schrodinger's Cat.

Vladimir Babitsky was born before the Second World War and migrated West after Perestroika. The theory of vibro-impact systems that he developed helped create the world's safest jackhammer and other record-breaking machines. The author has lived through a series of fascinating epochs: experiencing life under totalitarianism, witnessing the Soviet Union's collapse, and then migrating to Europe as a specialist in his field. "On the Waves of a Pulsating World" is an animated and highly engaging story about the journey of an engineer; from childhood daydreams to creating new technologies, from East to West, and from concepts to realities. It is also the story of people who outshine authoritarianism.

If you find visual illusions fascinating Programming Visual Illusions for Everyone is a book for you. It has some background, some history and some theories about visual illusions, and it describes in some detail twelve illusions. Some are about surfaces, some are about apparent size of objects, some are about colour and some involve movement. This is only one aspect of the book. The other is to show you how you can create these effects on any computer. The book includes a brief introduction to a powerful programming language called Python. No previous experience with programming is necessary. There is also an introduction to a package called PsychoPy that makes it easy to draw on a computer screen. It is perfectly ok if you have never heard the names Python or PsychoPy before. Python is a modern and easy-to-read language, and PsychoPy takes care of all the graphical aspects of drawing on a screen and also interacting with a computer. By the way, both Python and PsychoPy are absolutely free. Is this a book about illusions or about programming? It is both!

Read the Sunday Times bestseller that reveals the Earth’s awesome impact on the shape of human civilisations.

‘Stands comparison with Sapiens… Thrilling’ Sunday Times

Human evolution in East Africa was driven by geological forces. Ancient Greece developed democracy because of its mountainous terrain. Voting behaviour in the United States today follows the bed of an ancient sea.

Professor Lewis Dartnell takes us on an astonishing journey into our planet’s past to tell the ultimate origin story. Blending science and history, Origins reveals the Earth’s awesome impact on the shape of human civilisations – and helps us to see the challenges and opportunities of the future.

The physiologist Benjamin Libet famously demonstrated that activity in the brain's motor regions can be detected some 300 milliseconds before a person feels that he has decided to move. Another lab recently used fMRI data to show that some "conscious" decisions can be predicted up to 10 seconds before they enter awareness (long before the preparatory motor activity detected by Libet). Clearly, findings of this kind are difficult to reconcile with the sense that one is the conscious source of one's actions. The question of free will is no mere curio of philosophy seminars. A belief in free will underwrites both the religious notion of "sin" and our enduring commitment to retributive justice. The Supreme Court has called free will a "universal and persistent" foundation for our system of law. Any scientific developments that threatened our notion of free will would seem to put the ethics of punishing people for their bad behaviour in question.In Free Will Harris debates these ideas and asks whether or not, given what brain science is telling us, we actually have free will?