Science Universe

There are deep connections between stars and atoms, between the cosmos and the microworld. Just six numbers, imprinted in the "Big Bang", determine the essential features of our entire physical world. Moreover, cosmic evolution is astonishingly sensitive to the values of these numbers. If any one of them were "untuned", there could be no stars and no life. This realization offers a radically new perspective on our universe, our place in it, and the nature of physical laws.

A Journey Through the Universe is a grand tour of the most amazing celestial objects and how they fit together to build the cosmos. There's a whole universe out there.... Imagine you had a spacecraft capable of travelling through interstellar space. You climb in, blast into orbit, fly out of the solar system and keep going. Where do you end up, and what do you see along the way? The answer is: mostly nothing. Space is astonishingly, mind-blowingly empty.

For centuries, electricity was seen as little more than a curious property of certain substances that sparked when rubbed. Then, in the 1790s, Alessandro Volta began the scientific investigation that ignited an explosion of knowledge and invention. The force that once seemed inconsequential was revealed to be responsible for everything from the structure of the atom to the functioning of our brains. In harnessing its power, we have created a world of wonders—complete with roller coasters and radar, computer networks and psychopharmaceuticals.

All the matter and light we can see in the universe makes up a trivial five per cent of everything. The rest is hidden. This could be the biggest puzzle that science has ever faced. Since the 1970s, astronomers have been aware that galaxies have far too little matter in them to account for the way they spin around: they should fly apart, but something concealed holds them together. That ’something' is dark matter - invisible material in five times the quantity of the familiar stuff of stars and planets.

After a dismal upbringing on decaying, alien-infested Earth, Emmaline "Cricket" Beatty now lives a charmed life on humanity's new and improved home planet Meeus. The constant vulnerability of the before has given way to the ironclad security of the present. Everything is pretty, organized, predictable. There are no flaws in this new world. When the hospital where Cricket works hosts an intergalactic symposium, she is called upon to translate for the alien guests. She is intrigued to see that a secretive Rix nation has sent a delegate.

In Calculating the Cosmos, Ian Stewart presents an exhilarating guide to the cosmos, from our solar system to the entire universe. He describes the architecture of space and time, dark matter and dark energy, how galaxies form, why stars implode, how everything began, and how it's all going to end. He considers parallel universes, the fine-tuning of the cosmos for life, what forms extraterrestrial life might take, and the likelihood of life on Earth being snuffed out by an asteroid.

Almost two years since the Uprising, the world has drastically changed. Sophia has taken up the mantle of the world's champion superhero, Freedom. However due to her cryptic message to the United Nations the world is divided in regards to her role in it. To some, she is a beacon of hope, while others see her as a new global threat they must find a way to deal with. The aftermath of Peace's attempted takeover of the planet has given rise to superhuman boosting and genetic hate groups.

On March 21, 2013, the European Space Agency released a map of the afterglow of the big bang. Taking in 440 sextillion kilometers of space and 13.8 billion years of time, it is physically impossible to make a better map: We will never see the early universe in more detail. On the one hand, such a view is the apotheosis of modern cosmology; on the other, it threatens to undermine almost everything we hold cosmologically sacrosanct.

One night in Lagos, two former friends reunite. Obinna is a dutiful and unsophisticated stay-at-home husband and father married to a powerful businesswoman. Eze is single, a cautious rebel from his university days whose arrival soon upsets the balance in Obinna’s life. In a world where men are constantly under surveillance and subject to the whims of powerful women, more than Obinna’s ordered and accustomed routine might be on the line.

Her Space, Her Time shares the stories of women in physics and astronomy whose work expanded scientific understanding yet whose accomplishments are often overlooked—creating a thrilling account of scientific discovery, inspirational leadership and persistence in the face of overwhelming challenges. In shaping her narrative around the science that fascinated them and the social context in which they worked, award-winning quantum physicist Shohini Ghose champions these remarkable women’s contributions, which loom even larger given the misogyny and discrimination they faced.

First Class Courier Pilot Theo Waitley was already known as a nexus of violence - and then she inherited the precarious captaincy of a mysterious self-aware ship designed to serve a long dead trader. Now she has a trade route to run for Clan Korval while she convinces the near-mythic ghost ship Bechimo - and herself - that she wants to commit herself as the human side to their immensely powerful symbiosis. While her former lover battles a nanovirus that's eating him alive, she's challenged to rescue hundreds of stranded pilots and crewmen from an explosive situation in near orbit around a suddenly hostile planet.

Scientists in the past few decades have made crucial discoveries about how our cosmos evolved over the past 13.8 billion years. But there remains a critical gap in our knowledge: We still know very little about what happened in the first seconds after the Big Bang. At the Edge of Time focuses on what we have recently learned and are still striving to understand about this most essential and mysterious period of time at the beginning of cosmic history.

Ten thousands years ago, the Furies nearly exterminated all life in the universe, before being defeated by a coalition of worlds led by the Olympians. Or so everyone thought.... Now they're back and a new reign of terror has begun. Chase trains to increase his powers tenfold in the hope to defeat the Furies once and for all. But will it be enough to stop an unstoppable enemy?

While Reuben is house-sitting for his neighbors and caring for their pets, he finds a mysterious note with a warning—beware the mobster, the monster, and the monsieur. What could this mean? Reuben quickly realizes that something strange is going on, and finds himself on an adventure with monsters and alternate universes!

Young Alvin returns to the town of his birth and begins his apprenticeship with Makepeace Smith, committing seven years of his life in exchange for the skills and knowledge of a blacksmith. But Alvin must also learn to control and use his own talent, that of a Maker, or else his destiny will be unfulfilled.

As a Mech Warrior of the Draconis Combine, Minobu Tetsuhara was bound by Bushido, a code that demands loyal service to the devious Warlord Grieg Samsonov. But when Minobu came upon a strange blue and gold Archer, Bushido also dictated that he not destroy the honorable but helpless warrior. And so he rescued Jaime Wolf.

There are always scourges in the universe. This time, they found the wrong prey. Bethany Anne is trying to ignore that Michael is out hunting a beast to bring back 10 tons of meat when she gets an unexpected call. The group of friends hanging out on New Devon have come up with a devious way to protect their client's money, while building a fortune by outsourcing their jobs. Will Bethany Anne take high Tortuga to war? The children work to make something special for Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, it comes with an unexpected adventure.

Based on 18 months of reporting, Woodward's 17th book The Price of Politics is an intimate, documented examination of how President Obama and the highest profile Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States Congress attempted to restore the American economy and improve the federal government's fiscal condition over three and one half years. The Price of Politics addresses the key issue of the presidential and congressional campaigns: the condition of the American economy.

Here are four stories derived from the same universe as the Koban series. Listening to the series is not required to understand and enjoy these stand-alone tales. Australian Krall: A fully gene-enhanced Kobani woman finds herself trapped in total darkness and underground, pursued by hundreds of slavering, semi-sentient, maniacally aggressive, and hungry aliens. Walk with her on the dark side!

In the 1940s and '50s, a group of eccentric geniuses - led by John von Neumann - gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their joint project was the realization of the theoretical universal machine, an idea that had been put forth by mathematician Alan Turing. This group of brilliant engineers worked in isolation, almost entirely independent from industry and the traditional academic community. But because they relied exclusively on government funding, the government wanted its share of the results....