Engineering Physics

Un día, Miguel estaba viendo Star Trek cuando, de pronto, se le ocurrió cómo revolucionar la teoría de la relatividad y viajar más rápido que la luz… La anécdota, que parece sacada de The Big BangTheory, es completamente real. La protagonizó un joven mexicano cuando estudiaba su doctorado en Cardiff. Este libro cuenta aquel momento, pero—más interesante aún—relata la ciencia que hay detrás de esa posibilidad, de aquellateoría de Einstein y de algunos de los postulados más espléndidos de la astrofísica.

The history of particle physics, the hunt for the most elusive particle, and the fundamental questions the search has inspired.

Black holes are the most extreme objects in the universe, and yet they are ubiquitous. Frighteningly enigmatic, these dark giants continue to astound even the scientists who spend their careers studying them. Einstein’s Monsters reveals how our comprehension of black holes is intrinsically linked to how we make sense of the universe and our place within it. From the small questions to the big ones - from the tiniest particles to the nature of space-time itself - black holes might be the key to a deeper understanding of the cosmos.

Galileo Unbound traces the journey that brought us from Galileo's law of free fall to today's geneticists measuring evolutionary drift, entangled quantum particles moving among many worlds, and our lives as trajectories traversing a health space with thousands of dimensions. Remarkably, common themes persist that predict the evolution of species as readily as the orbits of planets or the collapse of stars into black holes.

"The Accelerating Universe is not only an informative book about modern cosmology. It is rich storytelling and, above all, a celebration of the human mind in its quest for beauty in all things." (Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams)

Icy, rocky, sometimes dusty, always mysterious – comets and asteroids are among the Solar System's very oldest inhabitants, formed within a swirling cloud of gas and dust in the area of space that eventually hosted the Sun and its planets. Locked within each of these extra-terrestrial objects is the 4.6-billion-year wisdom of Solar System events, and by studying them at close quarters using spacecraft we can coerce them into revealing their closely-guarded secrets. This offers us the chance to answer some fundamental questions about our planet and its inhabitants.

A collection of chapters from the previous five volumes in the Rational Science series. We discuss the difference between objects and concepts, hypothesis and theory, and science and technology. We learn about light, time, and mass, the Big Bang Theory, black holes, and Mach’s principle. We find out about dinosaurs and why they were so big. We look at a couple hypotheses on planetary and solar system formation. From atom to sun, we learn to think about reality in new ways.

The discovery of the quantum - the idea, born in the early 1900s in a remote corner of physics, that energy comes in finite packets instead of infinitely divisible quantities - planted a rich set of metaphors in the popular imagination. Quantum imagery and language now bombard us like an endless stream of photons. Phrases such as multiverse, quantum leap, alternate universe, the uncertainty principle, and Schrödinger's cat get reinvented continually in cartoons and movies, coffee mugs and T-shirts, and fiction and philosophy.

In the evolution of science and technology, laws governing exceptional creativity and innovation have yet to be discovered. The historian Thomas Kuhn, in his influential study The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, noted that the final stage in a scientific breakthrough such as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity - that is, the most crucial stage - was "inscrutable". The same is still true half a century later.

This is an indispensable guide to physics that offers readers an overview of the most popular physics topics written in an accessible, irreverent, and engaging manner while still maintaining a tone of wry skepticism. Even the novice will be able to follow along, as the topics are addressed using plain English and (almost) no equations. Veterans of popular physics will also find their nagging questions addressed, like whether the universe can expand faster than light.

As smartphones, supercomputers, supercolliders, and AI propel us into an ever more unfamiliar future, How to Speak Science takes us on a rollicking historical tour of the greatest discoveries and ideas that make today's cutting-edge technologies possible. Wanting everyone to be able to "speak" science, YouTube science guru Bruce Benamran explains - as accessibly and wittily as in his acclaimed videos - the fundamental ideas of the physical world: matter, life, the solar system, light, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, special and general relativity, and much more.

This entertaining account, offering a plethora of little known facts and insights from previously classified military projects, shows how the real-world science of the Cold War followed in the footsteps of SF - and how the two together changed our perception of both science and scientists, and paved the way to the world we live in today.

The story begins on a windswept beach in Barbados, from where we follow the ascent of a weather balloon that will travel along the jet stream all around the world. From this viewpoint we observe the effect of the jet in influencing human life around the hemisphere, and witness startling changes emerging. What is the jet stream and how well do we understand it? How does it affect our weather and is it changing? These are the main questions tackled in this book.

Cosa succederebbe se la Terra orbitasse attorno a un buco nero? E se dalla sua superficie sparissero tutti gli oceani? E se venisse colpita da una supertempesta solare? E il Sole, appunto: se un giorno levassimo il naso all'insù senza più vederlo? Se qualcuno volesse improvvidamente tentare di spegnerlo con una gigantesca secchiata d'acqua? (Spoiler: sarebbe una pessima idea.) E la Luna! Cosa accadrebbe se una notte in cielo ne spuntassero due? Raddoppierebbe la poesia o ci ritroveremmo non esattamente nelle condizioni ideali per apprezzare la cosa?

Since physicists discovered the four fundamental forces of nature--weak, strong, electromagnetic, and gravity--they have tried to unify them into one theory. Physicists went down to the subatomic level to search and ended up with vibrating strings. They went up into space and ended up with gravitons (which are yet to be found). But what do these forces mean in terms of human behavior? In The Four Forces of Human Nature: A Unifying Theory, Dr. Trevino Pena identifies the human forces and the specific areas of the brain responsible for processing them.

Magnum opus of evolutionary cyberneticist and digital philosopher Alex M. Vikoulov on the ultimate nature of reality, consciousness, the physics of time, philosophy of mind, transhumanism, economic theory, the technological singularity, the extended Gaia theory, the impending phase transition of humanity, the simulation hypothesis, transcendental metaphysics, and God. In one volume, the author covers it all: from quantum physics to your experiential reality, from the Big Bang to the Omega Point, from the "flow state" to psychedelics, and more.

How does Einstein’s description of space and time compare with Doctor Who? Can James Bond really escape from an armor-plated railroad car by cutting through the floor with a laser concealed in a wristwatch? What would it take to create a fully intelligent android, such as Star Trek’s Commander Data? Exploring Science Through Science Fiction addresses these and other intriguing questions, using science fiction as a springboard for discussing fundamental science concepts and cutting-edge science research.

Con questo audiolibro breve, ma profondo e documentato, Jim Al-Khalili - fisico, divulgatore e autore di veri bestseller - espone l'intera concezione del mondo secondo la fisica attuale. Per farlo, parte dalle basi, dalle fondamenta stesse della trama di cui è fatta la realtà, chiarendo nel dettaglio, per iniziare, i concetti di spazio, tempo, energia e materia. Preparato così il palcoscenico del mondo, alzato il sipario sul racconto, l'autore espone i tre pilastri su cui poggia la fisica moderna: la relatività, la meccanica quantistica e la termodinamica.

There are many things regarding the science of this world that are as yet undiscovered. Perhaps, the most important is the mystery that is gravity and its relationship to living beings. To date, we do not know the full origin of gravity, how we organize within gravity, and how we interact with it on a mature and immature level. These unknowns are the primary cause for concern when discussing the future reality that is space travel and interplanetary colonization.

Skillfully translating complex scientific concepts into accessible, everyday terms, Safavy invites listeners to consider the arguments for and against universal determinism. How does the presence or absence of free will affect our lives and our decisions? If there is no free will, how would that change our approach to crucial moral and sociological issues? Do we have free will? If not, what is occurring when we make a decision and act on it? The answers lie in No-Choice Theory.