*Shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize*One of the most fascinating scientific detective stories of the last fifty years, an exciting quest for a new form of matter. “A riveting tale of derring-do” (Nature), this book reads like James Gleick’s Chaos combined with an Indiana Jones adventure.When leading Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt began working in the 1980s, scientists ...

Globalisation is considered a success story. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the political divides between East and West Germany, nothing seemed to stand in the way of peaceful cooperation between people everywhere. Under the precepts of economic liberalism, by removing institutional obstacles to international trade and capital flows, a spontaneous global order would emerge, and the dream of a world populated by free and prosperous global citizens would eventua...

The two towering achievements of modern physics are quantum theory and Einstein's general theory of relativity. Together, they explain virtually everything about the world we live in. But, almost a century after their advent, most people haven't the slightest clue what either is about.Did you know that there's so much empty space inside matter that the entire human race could be squeezed into the volume of a sugar cube? Or that you grow old more quickly on the top floor of a buildi...

“A great read… Goldberg is an excellent guide.”—Mario Livio, bestselling author of The Golden RatioPhysicist Dave Goldberg speeds across space, time and everything in between showing that our elegant universe—from the Higgs boson to antimatter to the most massive group of galaxies—is shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven all our recent discoveries about the universe and all the ones to come.Why is the sky dark at night? If there is anti-matt...

In these lively and fascinating essays edited by theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili, scientists from around the world weigh in on the latest advances in the search for intelligent life in the universe and discuss just what that might look like.Since 2000, science has seen a surge in data and interest on several fronts related to E.T. (extraterrestrials); A.I. (artificial intelligence); and SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence). The debate has intensified...

Time and again, when studying the history of scientific and philosophical thought in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries-they are, indeed, so closely interrelated and linked together that, separated, they become ununderstandable-I have been forced to recognize, as many others have before me, that during this period human, or at least European, minds underwent a deep revolution which changed the very framework and patterns of our thinking and of which modern science and modern philo...

The Big Questions series enables renowned experts to tackle the 20 most fundamental and frequently asked questions of a major branch of science or philosophy. Each 3000-word essay simply and concisely examines a question that has eternally perplexed enquiring minds, providing answers from history's great thinkers. This ambitious project is a unique distillation of humanity's best ideas.In Big Questions: The Universe, Dr Stuart Clark tackles the 20 key questions of astronomy and cosm...

An extraterrestrial civilization created human civilization and all other life on Earth. There was a time when mankind knew about these beings, but as religion and science took over the world, people forgot their true origins.Religion and science remain at odds, but they continue to work together to erase all knowledge of the extraterrestrials. The only thing that hints at the truth is the continued reports of unidentified flying objects and other unexplained pheno...

In the bestselling literary tradition of Lewis Thomas's Lives of a Cell and James Watson's The Double Helix, Poetry of the Universe is a delightful and compelling narrative charting the evolution of mathematical ideas that have helped to illuminate the nature of the observable universe. In a richly anecdotal fashion, the book explores teh leaps of imagination and vision in mathematics that have helped pioneer our understanding of the world around us.

'I could have done with a copy of Ad Astra in December 2015!' –Tim Peake‘A wonderful, wise and witty guide for space explorers everywhere.' – Richard Osman‘A must read both for intrepid space explorers and misty-eyed dreamers. Now, to space!’ – Hannah Fry‘Few people are more knowledgeable, celebratory and witty about space travel than Dallas Campbell.’ – Adam RutherfordNeed som...

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity leads to two remarkable predictions: first, that the ultimate destiny of many massive stars is to undergo gravitational collapse and to disappear from view, leaving behind a 'black hole' in space; and secondly, that there will exist singularities in space-time itself. These singularities are places where space-time begins or ends, and the presently known laws of physics break down. They will occur inside black holes, and in the past are what might be...

General Relativity has passed all experimental and observational tests to model the motion of isolated bodies with strong gravitational fields, though the mathematical and numerical study of these motions is still in its infancy. It is believed that General Relativity models our cosmos, with a manifold of dimensions possibly greater than four and debatable topology opening a vast field of investigation for mathematicians and physicists alike. Remarkable conjectures have been proposed, many...