Engineering Technology

The term metaverse is suddenly everywhere, from debates over Fortnite to the pages of the New York Times to the speeches of Mark Zuckerberg, who proclaimed in June 2021 that “the overarching goal” of Facebook is to “bring the metaverse to life”. But what, exactly, is the metaverse? As pioneering theorist and venture capitalist Matthew Ball explains, it is the successor to the mobile internet that has defined the last two decades.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to find yourself strapped to a giant rocket that's about to go from zero to 17,500 miles per hour? Or to look back on Earth from outer space and see the surprisingly precise line between day and night? Or to stand in front of the Hubble Space Telescope, wondering if the emergency repair you're about to make will inadvertently ruin humankind's chance to unlock the universe's secrets? Mike Massimino has been there, and in Spaceman he puts you inside the suit.

The Los Angeles Times headline screamed: Rocket Scientist Killed in Pasadena Explosion. The man known as Jack Parsons, a maverick rocketeer who helped transform a derided sci-fi plotline into actuality, was at first mourned as a scientific prodigy. But reporters soon uncovered a more shocking story: Parsons had been a devotee of the city’s occult scene.

A preeminent geneticist hunts the Neanderthal genome to answer the biggest question of them all: what does it mean to be human? What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Pbo’s mission to answer that question, beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009.

There may never be another era of science like the first half of the twentieth century, when many of the most important physicists ever to live—Marie Curie, Max Planck, Wolfgang Pauli, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Ernst Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, and others—came together to uncover the quantum world: a concept so outrageous and shocking, so contrary to traditional physics, that its own founders rebelled against it until the equations held up and fundamentally changed our understanding of reality. Tobias Hürter takes us back to this uniquely momentous and harrowing time.

This book is for engineering leaders and experienced developers who want to build serious software with AI—and actually unlock the leverage it offers. It introduces a clear, step-by-step workflow that makes this approach reliable, repeatable, and scalable. You’ll learn a practical, disciplined approach to building applications—not with AI as a co-pilot, but as the primary developer.

The Secret Science of Games is an accessible and entertaining guide to the hidden role of science in making games more fun. User experience (UX) research is a vital part of the story of how video games have become a cultural juggernaut, but game developers generally don’t speak publicly about how data shapes game design and game development.

Exploring Creation with Physical Science, 3rd Edition was created to give middle school students an understanding of the basic world that surrounds them each day of their lives and the forces in creation so that they can appreciate the real world relevance of scientific inquiry and the beauty of creation. We believe that students’ educations should prepare them for life, not just an academic year.

The grid is an accident of history and of culture, in no way intrinsic to how we produce, deliver and consume electrical power. Yet this is the system the United States ended up with, a jerry-built structure now so rickety and near collapse that a strong wind or a hot day can bring it to a grinding halt. The grid is now under threat from a new source: renewable and variable energy, which puts stress on its logics as much as its components.

From our offices and homes to schools, hospitals, and restaurants, the indoor spaces where we work, learn, play, eat, and heal have an outsized impact on our performance and well-being. They affect our creativity, focus, and problem-solving ability and can make us sick - jeopardizing our future and dragging down profits in the process. Joseph Allen and John Macomber make a compelling case in this urgently needed book for why every business and home owner should make certain relatively low-cost investments a top priority.

Are you still treating AI like a novelty—or are you ready to make it your most powerful business ally? In AI ChatGPT: Prompt Engineering Secrets, Maxwell Cyberstein doesn’t just show you how to talk to artificial intelligence. He teaches you how to think with it, build with it, and grow with it—whether you’re an entrepreneur, marketer, freelancer, or simply someone looking to save time and create with more clarity. This is not another dry tech manual.

Information Technology Law is the ideal companion for a course of study on IT law and the ways in which it is evolving in response to rapid technological and social change. The fourth edition of this groundbreaking textbook develops its unique examination of the legal processes and their relationship to the modern "information society". Charting the development of the rapid digitization of society and its impact on established legal principles, Murray examines the challenges faced with enthusiasm and clarity.

More than 50 years ago, John Coltrane drew the 12 musical notes in a circle and connected them with straight lines, forming a five-pointed star. Inspired by Einstein, Coltrane had put physics and geometry at the core of his music. Physicist and jazz musician Stephon Alexander returns the favor, using jazz to answer physics' most vexing questions about the past and future of the universe.

By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only 24, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries.

You can't afford to make every mistake yourself! Software Development Pearls helps you improve faster and bypass much of the pain by learning from others who have already climbed the learning curve. Drawing on 25-plus years of helping software teams succeed, Karl Wiegers has crystallized 60 concise, practical lessons for all your projects, regardless of your role, industry, technology, or methodology.

In this comprehensive guide, authors Kelly Shortridge and Aaron Rinehart help you navigate the challenges of sustaining resilience in complex software systems by using the principles and practices of security chaos engineering. By preparing for adverse events, you can ensure they don't disrupt your ability to innovate, move quickly, and achieve your engineering and business goals.

Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the 20th century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories. Here Lawrence M. Krauss, himself a theoretical physicist and best-selling author, offers a unique scientific biography: a rollicking narrative coupled with clear and novel expositions of science at the limits.

Few books in computing have had as profound an influence on software management as "peopleware". The unique insight of this longtime best seller is that the major issues of software development are human, not technical. They’re not easy issues; but solve them, and you’ll maximize your chances of success. For this third edition, the authors have added six new chapters and updated the text throughout, bringing it in line with today’s development environments and challenges.

With this beginner’s handbook, you’ll learn how to use ChatGPT efficiently and create maximized results. Create natural, human-like conversations, being aware of its limitations and biases, and prepare for the artificial intelligence future.

The world of online business is changing fast — and in 2025, ChatGPT and AI tools are leveling the playing field for everyday entrepreneurs. Whether you’re launching your first digital product, automating client work, or scaling your side hustle, this step-by-step guide gives you everything you need to turn ideas into income using the latest AI technologies.