The writers behind New Scientist explore the baffling concept of nothingness from the fringes of the universe to our minds' inner workings.It turns out that nothing is as curious or as enlightening as nothingness itself. What is nothing? Where can it be found? The writers of the world's top-selling science magazine investigate—from the big bang, dark energy, and the void, to superconductors, vestigial organs, hypnosis, and the placebo effect. And they disco...

A rogue planet is speeding its way towards the inner solar system, destined to become a hot Jupiter. It is a scenario that has played out countless times throughout the galaxy, and the result is always that the rocky inner planets are flung into the deep freeze of interstellar space, taking their inhabitants with them.The people in the story are compelled by their character, culture, history, and beliefs to choose a particular path and they have little conscious choice in the matte...

A brilliant scientist has nearly perfected his time machine. His vision is to go back and fix the mistakes of history, eliminating war, hunger, epidemics, and the other scourges of mankind.Naturally, everybody wants to get their hands on the machine and use it to acquire fame, fortune, and power. This includes the current vice president who wants to go back and wipe out everyone who now stands in the way of his path to absolute power.The machine has been tested by sending a...

Where is the closest livable, rocky planet to earth? One with a similar gravity, climate, atmosphere, water and natural resources, non-hazardous space environment, stable axis, and which is not tidally locked? We currently do not know of such a planet, but if we find one, it will be tens if not hundreds or thousands of light years away.Suppose we were able to send probes to candidate planets. Once a probe arrived, it might take hundreds of years to send data back. If humans were th...

Delve into the fascinating world of dirt in this history of culture, cleanliness, and our evolving perceptions of what is and isn't gross.In this engaging and often humorous study of life's imperfections, public health and hygiene authority Terence McLaughlin dissects our attitudes toward the filth that has accompanied society throughout human history. According to him, "dirt" is a matter of opinion.Cultural attitudes about everything from factory smoke to ...

For readers of Michio Kaku and Stephen Hawking, the book readers have acclaimed as "A mega-comprehensive outlook at intelligence as convincing as it is surprising" and "A truly breathtaking forecast on the future of intelligence."With the ongoing advancement of AI and other technologies, our world is becoming increasingly intelligent. From chatbots to innovations in brain-computer interfaces to the possibility of superintelligences leading to the Singularity later ...

This "excellent" popular science book explores just what we—and the things around us—are made of ( Aftenposten, Norway).Some elements get all the attention: glittering gold, radioactive uranium—materials we call "precious" because they are so rare. But what could be more precious than the building blocks of life—from the oxygen in our air to the carbon in all living things?In The Elements We Live By, physicist and award-winning author Anja R...

Award-winning Boston University educator and researcher Muhammad H. Zaman provides a chilling look at the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, explaining how we got here and what we must do to address this growing global health crisis.In September 2016, a woman in Nevada became the first known case in the U.S. of a person who died of an infection resistant to every antibiotic available. Her death is the worst nightmare of infectious disease doctors and public hea...

" The Consciousness Instinct could be the clearest and most compelling attempt to demystify the mind yet written." —Julian Baggini, The Wall Street JournalHow do neurons turn into minds? How does physical "stuff"—atoms, molecules, chemicals, and cells—create the vivid and various worlds inside our heads? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the sc...

A theoretical astrophysicist explores the ideas that transformed our knowledge of the universe over the past century.The cosmos, once understood as a stagnant place, filled with the ordinary, is now a universe that is expanding at an accelerating pace, propelled by dark energy and structured by dark matter. Priyamvada Natarajan, our guide to these ideas, is someone at the forefront of the research—an astrophysicist who literally creates maps of in...

Long-listed for the 2016 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing AwardDelightfully readable, Spooky Action at a Distance is a mind-bending voyage to the frontiers of modern physics that will change the way we think about reality.What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past...

Fun and fascinating Q&As on topics from astronomy to zoology: "A treasure." — Library JournalWe've all grown so used to living in a world filled with wonders that we sometimes forget to wonder about them: What creates the wind? Do fish sleep? Why do we blink? All too often, the explanations remain shrouded in mystery—or behind a haze of technical language. For kids of all ages—or those of us who should have raised our hands in science class but didn't—Larry...