Physics, once known as "natural philosophy," is the most basic science, explaining the world we live in, from the largest scale down to the very, very, very smallest, and our understanding of it has changed over many centuries. In Black Bodies and Quantum Cats, science writer Jennifer Ouellette traces key developments in the field, setting descriptions of the fundamentals of physics in their historical context as well as against a broad cultural backdrop. Newton’s laws ar...

The fascinating story of science in pursuit of the ghostly, ubiquitous subatomic particle—the neutrino.Isaac Asimov is said to have observed of the neutrino: “The only reason scientists suggested its existence was their need to make calculations come out even. And yet the nothing-particle was not a nothing at all.” In fact, as one of the most enigmatic and most populous particles in the universe—about 100 trillion are flying through you every second—the neutrino ma...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHORSThe science classic made more accessible• More concise • IllustratedFROM ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANT MINDS OF OUR TIME COMES A BOOK THAT CLARIFIES HIS MOST IMPORTANT IDEASStephen Hawking’s worldwide bestseller A Brief History of Time remains a landmark volume in scientific writing. But for years readers have asked for a more accessible formulation of its key concepts—the nature of space and time, the role o...

The national bestselling author of The God Equation takes us on a thrilling journey to explore black holes and time machines, multidimensional space and the possibility that parallel universes may lay alongside our own.“A wonderful tour, with an expert guide.” —Brian Greene, New York Times bestselling author of The Elegant UniverseKaku skillfully guides us through the latest innovations in string theory and its la...

Physics is the science that deals with the properties and interrelationship of matter and energy. It studies mechanics, heat, light, sound, electricity, magnetism, radiation, and atomic structure. This tale stretches from 2000 BCE to 1945 and introduces the reader to the brilliant men and women from Thales of Miletos to Albert Einstein who working alone or collaboratively made it all possible.

On July 4, 2012, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva madehistory when they discovered an entirely new type of subatomic particle that many scientists believe is the Higgs boson. For forty years, physicists searched for this capstone to the Standard Model of particle physics—the theory that describes both the most elementary components that are known in matter and the forces through which they interact. This particle points to the Higgs field, which provides the key to underst...

Winner of the prestigious 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books“A modern voyage of discovery.” —Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureate, author of The Lightness of BeingThe Higgs boson is one of our era’s most fascinating scientific frontiers and the key to understanding why mass exists. The most recent book on the subject, The God Particle, was a bestseller. Now, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll documents the doorway that...

Cutting-edge astrophysics that builds on Einstein's theories to find the unseen matter that fills the Universe.Dark energy. Dark matter. These strange and invisible substances don't just sound mysterious: their unexpected appearance in the cosmic census is upending long-held notions about the nature of the Universe. Astronomers have long known that the Universe is expanding, but everything they could see indicated that gravity should be slowing this spread. Instead, it appears that...

Scientific American's daily Sixty-Second Science podcast was such an unexpected success, with millions of downloads, that a spin-off site was created around the concept of bite-sized science. This new series of books will tackle the biggest topics in science by breaking them up into quick and easy two- to four-page spreads. Topics in each book will take the light and accessible tone of the 60-Second Science podcasts and blog. INSTANT EGGHEAD PHYSICS will explore quantum physics, r...

"This detective story is magnificently presented . . . [the] chronology of the quest to answer one of the most challenging questions in astronomy." — ChoiceAstronomers have determined that our universe is 13.7 billion years old. How exactly did they come to this precise conclusion? How Old Is the Universe? tells the incredible story of how astronomers solved one of the most compelling mysteries in science and, along the way, introduces readers to f...

This book explores the Micro-World of subatomic particles and forces, including the recently discovered Higgs boson.The pursuit of nature’s smallest parts is one of mankind’s oldest quests, beginning at least 26 centuries ago. But, just in our lifetimes it seems we’ve finally “hit bottom.” Each step deeper into the Micro-World has revealed surprises, and expanded our understanding of nature on all size scales. At the bottom, we see a remarkable unity — nature is the same everywhere...

As you read this, billions of neutrinos from the sun are passing through your body, antimatter is sprouting from your dinner and the core of your being is a chaotic mess of particles known only as quarks and gluons.If the recent discovery of the Higgs boson piqued your interest, then Why The Universe Exists will take you deeper into the world of particle physics, with leading physicists and New Scientist exploring how the universe functions at the smalles...