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Stargazers rejoice! Renowned physicist Alan Lightman and
collaborators, with help from the Hubble telescope, light up the
night sky. A dazzling picture book from MIT Kids Press. There is so
much for Ada to do while visiting her grandparents on an island in
Maine, but no amount of beachcombing and kayaking during the day
can take the place of looking at the bright and beautiful stars at
night. She can hardly wait for the sun to set, but will a thick fog
spoil her stargazing plans? Photographs taken from the Hubble
telescope are seamlessly layered with charming illustrations to
beautifully bring to life this enchanting story of a curious child
and her caring grandfather, who share a love for our incredible
night sky and the mysteries it holds.
In Alan Lightman's new book, a verse narrative, we meet a man who
has lost his faith in all things following a mysterious personal
tragedy. After decades of living "hung like a dried fly," emptied
and haunted by his past, the narrator awakens one morning
revitalized and begins a Dante-like journey to find something to
believe in, first turning to the world of science and then to the
world of philosophy, religion, and human life. As his personal
story is slowly revealed, little by little, we confront the great
questions of the cosmos and of the human heart, some questions with
answers and others without.
In Alan Lightman's new book, a verse narrative, we meet a man who
has lost his faith in all things following a mysterious personal
tragedy. After decades of living "hung like a dried fly," emptied
and haunted by his past, the narrator awakens one morning
revitalized and begins a Dante-like journey to find something to
believe in, first turning to the world of science and then to the
world of philosophy, religion, and human life. As his personal
story is slowly revealed, little by little, we confront the great
questions of the cosmos and of the human heart, some questions with
answers and others without.
A series of engaging essays that explore iconic moments of
discovery and debate in physicists' ongoing quest to understand the
quantum world. The ideas at the root of quantum theory remain
stubbornly, famously bizarre: a solid world reduced to puffs of
probability; particles that tunnel through walls; cats suspended in
zombielike states, neither alive nor dead; and twinned particles
that share entangled fates. For more than a century, physicists
have grappled with these conceptual uncertainties while enmeshed in
the larger uncertainties of the social and political worlds around
them, a time pocked by the rise of fascism, cataclysmic world wars,
and a new nuclear age. In Quantum Legacies, David Kaiser introduces
readers to iconic episodes in physicists' still-unfolding quest to
understand space, time, and matter at their most fundamental. In a
series of vibrant essays, Kaiser takes us inside moments of
discovery and debate among the great minds of the era--Albert
Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Stephen Hawking, and many more who
have indelibly shaped our understanding of nature--as they have
tried to make sense of a messy world. Ranging across space and
time, the episodes span the heady 1920s, the dark days of the
1930s, the turbulence of the Cold War, and the peculiar political
realities that followed. In those eras as in our own, researchers'
ambition has often been to transcend the vagaries of here and now,
to contribute lasting insights into how the world works that might
reach beyond a given researcher's limited view. In Quantum
Legacies, Kaiser unveils the difficult and unsteady work required
to forge some shared understanding between individuals and across
generations, and in doing so, he illuminates the deep ties between
scientific exploration and the human condition.
A modern classic, Einstein' s Dreams is a fictional collage of
stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a
patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young
genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of
time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular,
so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and
over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited
by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time
is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar.
Now translated into thirty languages, Einstein' s Dreams has
inspired playwrights, dancers, musicians, and painters all over the
world. In poetic vignettes, it explores the connections between
science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the
fragility of human existence.
A series of engaging essays that explore iconic moments of
discovery and debate in physicists' ongoing quest to understand the
quantum world. The ideas at the root of quantum theory remain
stubbornly, famously bizarre: a solid world reduced to puffs of
probability; particles that tunnel through walls; cats suspended in
zombielike states, neither alive nor dead; and twinned particles
that share entangled fates. For more than a century, physicists
have grappled with these conceptual uncertainties while enmeshed in
the larger uncertainties of the social and political worlds around
them, a time pocked by the rise of fascism, cataclysmic world wars,
and a new nuclear age. In Quantum Legacies, David Kaiser introduces
readers to iconic episodes in physicists' still-unfolding quest to
understand space, time, and matter at their most fundamental. In a
series of vibrant essays, Kaiser takes us inside moments of
discovery and debate among the great minds of the era-Albert
Einstein, Erwin Schroedinger, Stephen Hawking, and many more who
have indelibly shaped our understanding of nature-as they have
tried to make sense of a messy world. Ranging across space and
time, the episodes span the heady 1920s, the dark days of the
1930s, the turbulence of the Cold War, and the peculiar political
realities that followed. In those eras as in our own, researchers'
ambition has often been to transcend the vagaries of here and now,
to contribute lasting insights into how the world works that might
reach beyond a given researcher's limited view. In Quantum
Legacies, Kaiser unveils the difficult and unsteady work required
to forge some shared understanding between individuals and across
generations, and in doing so, he illuminates the deep ties between
scientific exploration and the human condition.
A modern classic, Einstein's Dreams is a fictional collage of
stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a
patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young
genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of
time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular,
so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and
over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited
by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time
is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar. Now translated
into thirty languages, Einstein's Dreams has inspired playwrights,
dancers, musicians, and painters all over the world. In poetic
vignettes, it explores the connections between science and art, the
process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human
existence.
Renowned physicist Alan Lightman, author of Ada and the Galaxies,
turns his focus to light waves in a second story for children.
There’s only one gift Isabel wants for her sixth birthday: a way
to see invisible things. She can hardly think of anything else
until the day of her party arrives! Unwrapping a big box, Isabel
finds a surprise inside – a glass prism – and a dazzling world
of previously invisible colour emerges, lighting up the room around
her. What else could be out there, waiting for her eyes to
discover? In simple, engaging language, complemented by luminous
artwork from bestselling illustrator Ramona Kaulitzki, author and
physicist Alan Lightman unveils the hidden world of light waves –
the ones you can see and the ones you can’t...
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Flatland (Paperback, New Ed)
Edwin Abbott; Introduction by Alan Lightman
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R244
R198
Discovery Miles 1 980
Save R46 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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"Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it...and you will have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen." Narrated by A. Square, Flatland is Edwin A. Abbott's delightful mathematical fantasy about life in a two-dimensional world. All existence is limited to length and breadth in Flatland, its inhabitants unable even to imagine a third dimension. Abbott's amiable narrator provides an overview of this fantastic world-its physics and metaphysics, its history, customs, and religious beliefs. But when a strange visitor mysteriously appears and transports the incredulous Flatlander to the Land of Three Dimensions, his worldview is forever shattered. Written more than a century ago, Flatland conceals within its brilliant parody of Victorian society speculations about the universe that resonate in Einstein's theory of relativity as well as the current "string-theory" of nature.
"A joyful and dazzling exploration of our universe" Booklist
Stargazers rejoice at this beautiful, accessible and fascinating
story about our incredible night sky, with stunning pictures from
the Hubble telescope! There is so much for Ada to do while visiting
her grandparents on an island in Maine, but no amount of
beachcombing and kayaking during the day can take the place of
looking at the bright and beautiful stars at night. She can hardly
wait for the sun to set, but will a thick fog spoil her stargazing
plans? Photographs taken from the Hubble telescope are seamlessly
layered with charming illustrations to beautifully bring to life
this enchanting story of a curious child and her caring
grandfather, who share a love for our incredible night sky and the
mysteries it holds. "A joyful and dazzling exploration of our
universe" Booklist, starred review "An insanely gorgeous and
thought-provoking book" Books Up North "Luminous" The Bookseller
"Young readers will delight in seeing our universe's
interconnectedness, and, later, when Ada's family dashes outside to
spin in starlight, they will recognize the inextricable bonds among
loved ones... Astonishing artwork shines." Kirkus Reviews, starred
review "Chapman [artwork] draws power from glowing light sources,
creating night skies that glitter and seawater that sparkles."
Publishers Weekly, starred review
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Ghost (Paperback)
Alan Lightman
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R463
R401
Discovery Miles 4 010
Save R62 (13%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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A stunning new novel about an ordinary man's encounter with the
extraordinary, from the author of "Einstein's Dreams."
David Kurzweil, a quiet man with modest ambitions, was taking a
break at his new job, when he saw something out of the corner of
his eye. Something no science could explain. Suddenly David's life
is changed, and he soon finds himself in the middle of a wild
public controversy over the existence of the supernatural. As David
searches for an explanation, we embark on a provocative exploration
of the delicate divide between the physical and the spiritual,
between science and religion as only Alan Lightman could provide.
Combining a beautiful narrative with provocative ideas, "Ghost"
investigates timeless questions that continue to challenge the
truth as we know it.
Unusually gifted as both a physicist and a novelist, Alan Lightman
has lived in the dual worlds of
science and art for much of his life. In these brilliant essays,
the two worlds meet. In A Sense of the Mysterious, Lightman records
his personal struggles to reconcile certainty with uncertainty,
logic with intuition, questions with answers and questions without.
Lightman explores the emotional life of science, the power of
metaphor and imagination in science, the creative moment, the
different uses of language in science and literature, and the
alternate ways in which scientists and humanists think about the
world. Included are in-depth portraits of some of the great
scientists of our time: Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Edward
Teller, and astronomer Vera Rubin. Rather than finding a forbidding
gulf between the two cultures, as did the physicist and novelist C.
P. Snow fifty years ago, Lightman discovers complementary ways of
looking at the world, both part of being human.
Original, thoughtful, and beautifully written, A Sense of the
Mysterious confirms Alan Lightman's unique position at the
crossroads of science and art.
"From the Hardcover edition.
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Reunion (Paperback)
Alan Lightman
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R455
R398
Discovery Miles 3 980
Save R57 (13%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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The "New York Times has called Alan Lightman "highly original and imaginative." Each of his novels is a new exploration of that imagination, utterly unlike the others. Einstein's Dreams, an international best-seller, was a whimsical and provocative tone poem about time. The Diagnosis, hailed by the Washington Post as a "major accomplishment" and a finalist for the National Book Award, was a disturbing examination of our obsession with speed, information, and money, and the resulting poverty of our spiritual lives. Lightman's new novel, Reunion, is a delicate and haunting story of how we shape our identity through memory. Charles is a middle-aged professor at a minor liberal-arts college, a once promising poet, admiring of passion but without passion himself. Without knowing why, he decides to attend his thirtieth college reunion. And there, he magically witnesses a replay of his senior year. Drawn back into his memories, Charles watches his tender and romantic twenty-two-year-old self embark on an all-consuming love affair with a beautiful dancer. As the two young people struggle to find themselves amidst the social and political chaos of the late 1960s, the older Charles recalls contradictory versions of his past, ultimately confronting for the second time a series of devastating events that would forever change his life. Written with crystalline prose, at once precise and mysterious, Reunion explores the pain of self-examination, the clay-like nature of memory, and the impossible hopefulness of youth. "From the Hardcover edition.
Ideas and Opinions contains essays by eminent scientist Albert Einstein on subjects ranging from atomic energy, relativity, and religion to human rights, and economics. Previously published articles, speeches, and letters are gathered here to create a fascinating collection of meditations by one of the world's greatest minds.
The author of Einstein's Dreams now presents a collection of essays, written over the past 20 years, that displays his genius for bringing literary and scientific concerns into ringing harmony. Sometimes provocative, sometimes fanciful, always elegantly conceived and written, these meditations offer readers a fascinating look into the creative compulsions shared by the scientist and the artist. Reading tour.
Now, Alan Lightman, the author of the brilliantly original
bestselling novel Einstein's Dreams, presents the real-life drama
of astronomy, a journey far into the stars that outpaces any
fiction for adventure and excitement. Unsurpassed in its
authoritativeness, TIME FOR THE STARS is based on the report of the
National Academy of Science's Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey
Committee, for whose science panel Alan Lightman served as chair.
Here is a book that will introduce you to cosmic puzzles about
people and planets stars and galaxies, and the beginnings and the
ends of the universe. How do we know what's inside the sun? What
are the prospects of finding other solar systems -- and
extraterrestrial life -- in coming years? What was the universe
like ten billion years ago? Will it keep on expanding forever?
Here are the latest advances in technology that have rocketed us
to dazzling new frontiers. They may catch you off guard. But they
will leave you fixed in wonder.
As a physicist, Alan Lightman has always held a purely scientific
view of the world. Even as a teenager, experimenting in his own
laboratory, he was impressed by the logic and materiality of the
universe, which is governed by a small number of disembodied forces
and laws. Those laws decree that all things in the world are
material and impermanent. But one summer evening, while looking at
the stars from a small boat at sea, Lightman was overcome by the
overwhelming sensation that he was merging with something larger
than himself - a grand and eternal unity, a hint of something
absolute and immaterial. Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine
is the result of these seemingly contradictory impulses, written as
an extended meditation on an island in Maine, where Lightman and
his wife spend their summers. Framing the dialogue between religion
and science as a contrast between absolutes and relatives, Lightman
explores our human quest for truth and meaning and the different
methods of religion and science in that quest. Along the way, he
draws from sources ranging from St. Augustine's conception of
absolute truth to Einstein's relativity, from a belief in the
divine and eternal nature of stars to their discovered materiality
and mortality, from the unity of the once indivisible atom to the
multiplicity of subatomic particles and the recent notion of
multiple universes. What emerges is not only an understanding of
the encounter between science and religion but also a profound
exploration of the complexity of human existence.
"Alan Lightman brings a light touch to heavy questions. Here is
a book about nesting ospreys, multiple universes, atheism,
spiritualism, and the arrow of time. Throughout, Lightman takes us
back and forth between ordinary occurrences--old shoes and entropy,
sailing far out at sea and the infinite expanse of space.
"In this slight volume, Lightman looks toward the universe and
captures aspects of it in a series of beautifully written essays,
each offering a glimpse at the whole from a different perspective:
here time, there symmetry, not least God. It is a meditation by a
remarkable humanist-physicist, a book worth reading by anyone
entranced by big ideas grounded in the physical world."
--Peter L. Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard
University
Contributions by Julie Cantrell, Katherine Clark, Susan Cushman,
Jim Dees, Clyde Edgerton, W. Ralph Eubanks, John M. Floyd, Joe
Formichella, Patti Callahan Henry, Jennifer Horne, Ravi Howard,
Suzanne Hudson, River Jordan, Harrison Scott Key, Cassandra King,
Alan Lightman, Sonja Livingston, Corey Mesler, Niles Reddick, Wendy
Reed, RP Saffire, Nicole Seitz, Lee Smith, Michael Farris Smith,
Sally Palmer Thomason, Jacqueline Allen Trimble, M. O. Walsh, and
Claude Wilkinson The South is often misunderstood on the national
stage, characterized by its struggles with poverty, education, and
racism, yet the region has yielded an abundance of undeniably great
literature. In Southern Writers on Writing, Susan Cushman collects
twenty-six writers from across the South whose work celebrates
southern culture and shapes the landscape of contemporary southern
literature. Contributors hail from Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana,
Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and
Florida. Contributors like Lee Smith, Michael Farris Smith, W.
Ralph Eubanks, and Harrison Scott Key, among others, explore issues
like race, politics, and family and the apex of those issues
colliding. It discusses landscapes, voices in the South, and how
writers write. The anthology is divided into six sections,
including ""Becoming a Writer""; ""Becoming a Southern Writer"";
""Place, Politics, People""; ""Writing about Race""; ""The Craft of
Writing""; and ""A Little Help from My Friends.""
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