What is time? Did it have a beginning? What makes it appear to flow? Why is there a directionality or 'arrow' of time, and can it ever be reversed? It time travel possible? And might the universe be older than we thought?

The puzzles and paradoxes of time have dazzled the world's finest thinkers and throughout the ages philosophers have wrestled with the tensions between time and eternity, linear time and cyclicity, being and becoming. When Einstein formulated his theory of relativity early this century, it brought about a revolution in our understanding of time, yet also presented a new set of mysteries. Einstein's time can be warped, leading to bizarre possibilities such as black holes and time travel, while making nonsense of our perception of a 'now' and a division of time into past, present and future. In relation to quantum physics, time takes on even stranger aspects.

In this, his latest book, acclaimed physicist and writer Paul Davies confronts the tough questions about time, including the weird relationship between physical time and our psychological perception of it. He gives straightforward descriptions of topics such as the theory of relativity, time dilation and Hawking's 'imaginary time'. Davies concludes that despite decades of progress in unravelling the mysteries of time, the revolution begun by Einstein remains tantalizingly incomplete.

In this second English-language edition of one of his most notable works, Miguel Leon-Portilla explores the Maya Indians' remarkable concepts of time. At the book's first appearance Evon Z. Vogt, Curator of Middle American Ethnology in Harvard University, predicted that it would become "a classic in anthropology," a prediction borne out by the continuing critical attention given to it by leading scholars.

Like no other people in history, the ancient Maya were obsessed by the study of time. Their sages framed its cycles with tireless exactitude. Yet their preoccupation with time was not limited to calendrics; it was a central trait in their evolving culture.

In this absorbing work Leon-Portilla probes the question, What did time really mean for the ancient Maya in terms of their mythology, religious thought, worldview, and everyday life? In his analysis of key Maya texts and computations, he reveals one of the most elaborate attempts of the human mind to penetrate the secrets of existence.

Our Own Time retells the history of American labor by focusing on the politics of time and the movements for a shorter working day. It argues that the length of the working day has been the central issue for the American labor movement during its most vigorous periods of activity, uniting workers along lines of craft, gender and ethnicity. The authors hold that the workweek is likely again to take on increased significance as workers face the choice between a society based on free time and one based on alienated work and employment.

Richard Sorabji here takes time as his central theme, exploring fundamental questions about its nature: Is it real or an aspect of consciousness? Did it begin along with the universe? Can anything escape from it? Does it come in atomic chunks? In addressing these and myriad other issues, Sorabji engages in an illuminating discussion of early thought about time, ranging from Plato and Aristotle to Islamic, Christian, and Jewish medieval thinkers. Sorabji argues that the thought of these often neglected philosophers about the subject is, in many cases, more complete than that of their more recent counterparts.

The fascinating story of an ancient riddle?and what it reveals about the nature of time and space
Three millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Zeno constructed a series of logical paradoxes to prove that motion is impossible. Today, these paradoxes remain on the cutting edge of our investigations into the fabric of space and time. "Zeno's Paradox" uses the motion paradox as a jumping-off point for an exploration of the twenty-five-hundred-year quest to uncover the true nature of the universe. From Galileo to Einstein to Stephen Hawking, some of the greatest minds in history have tackled the problem and made spectacular breakthroughs?but through it all, the paradox of motion remains.

In this fascinating book, the renowned astrophysicist J. Richard Gott leads time travel out of the world of H. G. Wells and into the realm of scientific possibility. Building on theories posited by Einstein and advanced by scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne, Gott explains how time travel can actually occur. He describes, with boundless enthusiasm and humor, how travel to the future is not only possible but has already happened, and he contemplates whether travel to the past is also conceivable. Notable not only for its extraordinary subject matter and scientific brilliance, Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe is a delightful and captivating exploration of the surprising facts behind the science fiction of time travel.

Estudios de los Mayas/La Nueva Edad "La lectura de este libro es una experiencia impactante y electrizante; cada pagina nos permite comprender perspicazmente los misterios mas profundos de la historia humana y de la evolucion de la consciencia mundial." --Michael E. Salla, Ph.D., Centro para la Paz Mundial El calendario profetico Maya no esta ajustado al movimiento de los cuerpos planetarios, mas bien funciona como un mapa metafisico de la evolucion de la consciencia y registra como fluye el tiempo espiritual, brindando una nueva ciencia del tiempo. El calendario esta asociado a nueve ciclos de creacion, cada uno de los cuales representa uno de los nueve niveles de consciencia o Submundo presentes en la piramide cosmica de los mayas. Al utilizar investigaciones empiricas, Carl Johan Calleman muestra como esta estructura piramidal del desarrollo de la consciencia puede explicar temas tan dispares como el origen comun de las religiones del mundo y el reclamo de nuestros dias de que parece que el tiempo se mueve mas rapido. Los lectores aprenderan que en realidad el tiempo se esta acelerando a medida que hacemos una transicion entre el materialista Submundo Planetario que nos rige hoy, hacia una frecuencia nueva y mas elevada de la consciencia --el Submundo Galactico---- lo cual nos prepara para el ultimo nivel universal de esclarecimiento de la consciencia. El Calendario Maya y la Transformacion de la Consciencia da a conocer el calendario Maya como un recurso espiritual que permite una comprension mayor de la naturaleza de la evolucion de la consciencia a traves de toda la historia humana, y como este brinda los pasos concretos que podemos tomar para alinearnos con este desarrollo haciael esclarecimiento. CARL JOHAN CALLEMAN posee un doctorado en biologia fisica y ha servido como experto en cancer a la Organizacion Mundial de la Salud (World Health Organization). En 1979 comenzo sus estudios sobre el calendario Maya y ahora imparte conferencias por todo el mundo; tambien es autor de Solving the Greatest Mystery of Our Time: The Mayan Calendar. Calleman vive en Suecia.

The untold story of the religious figures, philosophers, astronomers, geologists, physicists, and mathematicians who, for more than four hundred years, have pursued the answer to a fundamental question at the intersection of science and religion: When did the universe begin?

The moment of the universe's conception is one of science's Holy Grails, investigated by some of the most brilliant and inquisitive minds across the ages. Few were more committed than Bishop James Ussher, who lost his sight during the fifty years it took him to compose his Annals of all known history, now famous only for one date: 4004 b.c. Ussher's date for the creation of the world was spectacularly inaccurate, but that didn't stop it from being so widely accepted that it was printed in early twentieth-century Bibles. As writer and documentary filmmaker Martin Gorst vividly illustrates in this captivating, character-driven narrative, theology let Ussher down just as it had thwarted Theophilus of Antioch and many before him. Geology was next to fail the test of time. In the eighteenth century, naturalist Comte de Buffon, working out the rate at which the earth was supposed to have cooled, came up with an age of 74,832 years, even though he suspected this was far too low. Biology then had a go in the hands of fossil hunter Johann Scheuchzer, who alleged to have found a specimen of a man drowned at the time of Noah's flood. Regrettably it was only the imprint of a large salamander.

And so science inched forward via Darwinism, thermodynamics, radioactivity, and, most recently, the astronomers at the controls of the Hubble space telescope, who put the beginning of time at 13.4 billion years ago (give or take a billion). Taking the reader into the laboratories and salons of scholars and scientists, visionaries and eccentrics, Measuring Eternity is an engagingly written account of an epic, often quixotic quest, of how individuals who dedicated their lives to solving an enduring mystery advanced our knowledge of the universe.


From the Hardcover edition.

What is time? Is there a link between objective knowledge about time and subjective experience of time? And what is eternity? Does religion have the answer? Does science?Internationally known scholar Antje Jackelen investigates the problem and concept of time. Her study draws on her experiences in the Continental-European science and religion dialogue, with a particular focus on the German, Scandinavian, and Anglo-American dialogues. Her analysis of the subject includes: The notion of time and eternity as it is narrated through Christian hymn books stemming from Germany, Sweden, and the English-speaking world, with insights into changes of the concept and understanding of time in Christian spirituality over the past few decadesTheological approaches to time and eternity, as well as a look at Trinitarian theology and its relation to timeThe discussion of scientific theories of time, including Newtonian, relativistic, quantum, and chaos theoriesThe formulation of a "theology of time," a theological-mathematical model incorporating relational thinking oriented toward the future, the doctrine of trinity, and the notion of eschatology