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Far too often, issues based on science are decided by voters and politicians who have received their science secondhand....
Far too often, issues based on science are decided by voters and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Science guides us back to the original texts that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves. Whether referenced individually or read together as the narrative of Western scientific development, the book s twenty-eight succinct chapters lead readers from the first science texts by Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle through twentieth-century classics in biology, physics, and cosmology, including works by Einstein, Schrodinger, and Dawkins. Each chapter recommends one or more classic books and provides an entertaining account of the discovery, a vivid sketch of the scientist-writer, and a clear explanation of any technical issues. The Story of Science reveals science to be a human pursuit an essential, often deeply personal, sometimes flawed, frequently brilliant way of understanding the world." Author:Susan Wise Bauer ISBN:9780393243260
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* The story of cosmic evolution, science and civilisation * Spacecraft missions to nearby planets * The Library of ancie...
* The story of cosmic evolution, science and civilisation * Spacecraft missions to nearby planets * The Library of ancient Alexandria * The human brain * Egyptian hieroglyphics * The origin of life * The death of the sun * The evolution of galaxies * The origins of matter, suns and worlds The story of fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution transforming matter and life into consciousness, of how science and civilisation grew up together, and of the forces and individuals who helped shape modern science. A story told with Carl Sagan's remarkable ability to make scientific ideas both comprehensible and exciting. Author: Carl Sagan ISBN:9780349107035
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An accessible and extremely well-written exploration of the deep waters of cosmology, astrophysics, and exobiology."--Ki...
An accessible and extremely well-written exploration of the deep waters of cosmology, astrophysics, and exobiology."--Kirkus Reviews Our true origins are not just human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on recent scientific breakthroughs and the current cross-pollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, Origins explains the soul-stirring leaps in our understanding of the cosmos. From the first image of a galaxy birth to Spirit Rover's exploration of Mars, to the discovery of water on one of Jupiter's moons, coauthors Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith conduct a galvanizing tour of the cosmos with clarity and exuberance. Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Donald Goldsmith ISBN:9780393350395
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When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the nature of...
When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the nature of reality? Why are the laws of nature so finely tuned as to allow for the existence of beings like ourselves? And, finally, is the apparent “grand design” of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion—or does science offer another explanation? The most fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and of life itself, once the province of philosophy, now occupy the territory where scientists, philosophers, and theologians meet—if only to disagree. In their new book, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe, in nontechnical language marked by both brilliance and simplicity. In The Grand Design they explain that according to quantum theory, the cosmos does not have just a single existence or history, but rather that every possible history of the universe exists simultaneously. When applied to the universe as a whole, this idea calls into question the very notion of cause and effect. But the “top-down” approach to cosmology that Hawking and Mlodinow describe would say that the fact that the past takes no definite form means that we create history by observing it, rather than that history creates us. The authors further explain that we ourselves are the product of quantum fluctuations in the very early universe, and show how quantum theory predicts the “multiverse”—the idea that ours is just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing, each with different laws of nature. Along the way Hawking and Mlodinow question the conventional concept of reality, posing a “model-dependent” theory of reality as the best we can hope to find. And they conclude with a riveting assessment of M-theory, an explanation of the laws governing us and our universe that is currently the only viable candidate for a complete “theory of everything.” If confirmed, they write, it will be the unified theory that Einstein was looking for, and the ultimate triumph of human reason. A succinct, startling, and lavishly illustrated guide to discoveries that are altering our understanding and threatening some of our most cherished belief systems, The Grand Design is a book that will inform—and provoke—like no other. Author: Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow ISBN:9780553819229
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