Engineering Physics

For the past 50 years, governments and research teams have tried to bottle the sun with lasers, magnets, sound waves, and particle beams, struggling to harness the power of fusion. Again and again, they have failed, disgracing generations of scientists. Throughout this fascinating journey, Charles Seife introduces us to the daring geniuses, villains, and victims of fusion science.

Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world. Yet just as the demon-haunted world was being exorcized by the enlightening power of reason, a new kind of demon mischievously materialized in the scientific imagination itself. Scientists began to employ hypothetical beings to perform certain roles in thought experiments―experiments that can only be done in the imagination―and these impish assistants helped scientists achieve major breakthroughs that pushed forward the frontiers of science and technology.

Fritjof Capra and the Systems View of Life (Great Minds, Book 3): 2017 Revised, Updated, and Reformatted Edition is a passionate study about the great contemporary physicist and a review of all of his published books, including extensive quotes. The author considers Fritjof Capra as one of the most important authors on new science and systems research and considers as genius Capra's unique gift to formulate and explain complex scientific and philosophical insights and interrelations in a way that the educated listener can understand.

Years ago, cosmologist Stephon Alexander received life-changing advice: to discover real physics, he needed to stop memorizing and start taking risks. In Fear of a Black Universe, Alexander shows that great physics requires us to think outside the mainstream - to improvise and rely on intuition. His approach leads him to three principles that shape all theories of the universe: the principle of invariance, the quantum principle, and the principle of emergence. Alexander uses them to explore some of physics' greatest mysteries.

In this fascinating and illuminating work, Leonard Mlodinow guides us through the critical eras and events in the development of science, all of which, he demonstrates, were propelled forward by humankind's collective struggle to know. From the birth of reasoning and culture to the formation of the studies of physics, chemistry, biology, and modern-day quantum physics, we come to see that much of our progress can be attributed to simple questions - why? how? - bravely asked.

Marc Lachièze-Rey avec la collaboration de Ludovic Ligot (nouvelle édition). Pourquoi et comment les théories d'Einstein ont-elles révolutionné nos conceptions de l'espace, du temps et de la matière ? Installez-vous confortablement dans un transat, puis laissez Marc Lachièze-Rey vous guider sur le chemin menant de la relativité aux modèles de Big Bang et aux trous noirs. Découvrez les mystères de la courbure de l'espace-temps.

The beauty of fractal patterns and their relation to chaos, as well as the history of chaos, and its uses in the real world and implications for the philosophy of science are all discussed in this Very Short Introduction audiobook.

Many people are fed up with the way traditional religion alienates them. Too easily it perpetuates conflict, vilifies science, and undermines reason. Nancy Abrams - a philosopher of science, lawyer, and lifelong atheist - is among these people, but she has also found freedom in imagining a higher power. Here, Abrams explores a radically new way of thinking about God. She shows why an omniscient, omnipotent God that created the universe and plans what happens is incompatible with science - but that this doesn’t preclude a God that can comfort and empower us.

In this stunning new volume, Jim Baggott argues that there is no observational or experimental evidence for many of the ideas of modern theoretical physics: Super-symmetric particles, super strings, the multiverse, the holographic principle, or the anthropic cosmological principle. These theories are not only untrue; they are not even science. They are fairy-tale physics: Fantastical, bizarre and often outrageous, perhaps even confidence-trickery. This book provides a much-needed antidote.

In Earth-Shattering, astronomy writer Bob Berman guides us through an epic, all-inclusive investigation into these instances of violence both mammoth and microscopic. From the sudden creation of dazzling "new stars" to the furiously explosive birth of our moon, from the uncomfortable truth about ultra-high-energy cosmic rays bombarding us to the incredible ways in which humanity has harnessed cataclysmic energy for its gain, Berman masterfully synthesizes some of our worst fears into an astonishing portrait of the universe.

Discover the science behind the most popular sci-fi franchise of all time. Capturing the imagination and hearts of crowds worldwide, Star Wars is a fantastic feat of science fiction and fantasy. We marvel at the variety of creatures and technology and the mystery behind the force. But how much of the Star Wars world is rooted in reality? Could we see some of the extraordinary inventions materialize in our world?

What is time? What does it mean for time to pass? Is it possible to travel in time? What is the difference between the past and future? Until the work of Newton, these questions were purely topics of philosophical speculation. Since then we've learned a great deal about time, and its study has moved from a subject of philosophical reflection to instead became part of the subject matter of physics.

Un aperçu complet, accessible et très à jour dune des deux théories scientifiques les plus radicales et fécondes du XXe siècle. La relativité restreinte. En 1905, Albert Einstein est un obscur employé de l'Institut Fédéral de la Propriété Intellectuelle de la ville de Berne. Totalement inconnu, il publie pourtant trois articles qui révolutionnent la physique dans ses fondements les plus profonds. Le plus connu établit sa théorie de la relativité restreinte qui bouleverse la physique en vigueur depuis Newton.

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, engineer, and physicist. In his work On Electricity, the prodigious inventory describes the development and influence of electricity.

The surprising truth about how the things our ears hear affect what's between them. Every day, we are surrounded by millions of sounds - ambient ones like the rumble of the train and the hum of air conditioner, as well as more attention-grabbing sounds, such as human speech, music, and sirens. But how do we process what we hear every day? And how does it affect our brains and our minds?

A brief conceptual overview of quantum mechanics, with minimal math. The structure is motivated by asking and answering questions about the nature of the universe.

What is the nature of the material world? How does it work? What is the universe and how was it formed? What is life? Where do we come from and how did we evolve? How and why do we think? What does it mean to be human? How do we know? There are many different versions of our creation story. This book tells the version according to modern science. It is a unique account, starting at the Big Bang and travelling right up to the emergence of humans as conscious intelligent beings, 13.8 billion years later.

This bundle of six books includes works covering such varied topics as astrophysics and speculation on matters such as UFOs and time travel.

In the late 1940s, a handful of visionaries were working to steer Europe toward a more peaceful future through science, and CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, was duly born. James Gillies tells the gripping story of particle physics, from the original atomists of ancient Greece through the people who made the crucial breakthroughs to CERN itself, one of the most ambitious scientific undertakings of our time, and its eventual confirmation of the Higgs boson.

Quantum physics is the cornerstone of our world, offering a framework so expansive and precise that it underpins nearly every piece of modern technology. Yet, at the same time, it’s one of the hardest subjects to grasp. In Why Nobody Understands Quantum Physics, a leading scientist and a literary mind unite to explain the revolutionary discoveries and astounding phenomena at the heart of quantum physics. From the greenness of grass to the solidity of matter, they unravel why the universe behaves in the peculiar ways it does and why it's so important.