Given the fact that there are perhaps 400 billion stars in our Galaxy alone, and perhaps 400 billion galaxies in the Universe, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, in the 14-billion-year-old cosmos, there is or once was a civilization at least as advanced as our own. The sheer enormity of the numbers almost demands that we accept the truth of this hypothesis. Why, then, have we encountered no evidence, no messages, no artifacts of these extraterrestrials?In this second, si...

1956 was a momentous year for science fiction, with the release of timeless films and the publication of classic novels and stories. It was also a pivotal year for the world at large, with events producing ripples we still feel seven decades later.This book explores how the year’s landmark works – films such as Forbidden Planet and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and stories such as Asimov’s The Last Question and Clarke’s The City and the Stars –...

This anthology invites readers to revisit twelve timeless stories from visionary authors while pondering the scientific advancements they foreshadowed, making it ideal for fans of both science fiction and science.In Algernon Blackwood’s A Victim of Higher Space, the concept of extra spatial dimensions is explored, while Miles J. Breuer’s The Gostak and the Doshes examines time as a dimension in relativity. Stanley Waterloo’s Love and a Triangle touches on...

Have you ever gazed up at the night sky and wondered how many stars you can see? Whether the universe is infinite? Or, more prosaically, what the chances are of you being hit by a rock from space? The Quizzer’s Guide to the Cosmos is here to satisfy your curiosity by offering an overview of the history of astronomy, from the earliest beginnings through to the most recent discoveries. This isn’t a typical astronomy book, however — it’s packed with a 500-question multiple-choice quiz that no...

The second edition of this celebrated book by two of the world′s leading researchers in social work introduces readers to the main theories, theorists and perspectives that contribute to the debate on social work theory and social work methods. It brings together some outstanding international researchers in social work to challenge the reader to critically question how they think about social work.The new edition includes a focus on the psychosocial perspective, with three new cha...

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Social Work brings together the world’s leading scholars in the field to provide a cutting-edge overview of classic and current research and future trends in the subject.Comprised of 48 chapters divided into six parts:Historical, social, and political influencesMapping the theoretical and conceptual terrainMethods of engagement and modes of analysisCritica...

True Confessions of a TrendsetterHi! I'm Kat. Welcome to my blog. I may be from a small town but I'm also Glitter Girl Cosmetics' newest trendsetter. Thanks to my flair for fashion and my popular style blog, I've been chosen to be an Alpha Girl, which means I get to try out all the Glitter Girl products before they hit the stores.Forty-eight hours after she blogs about the goodies in the new line, every girl at Kat's school is sporting the gear. Ka...

Around the World in 80 Ways offers a (sometimes opinionated) discussion of 80 data-driven maps of our planet. Taken together, the maps tell a story about the physical world; about the impact our species is having on the world; and about how people live in the world – or at least how we lived immediately before the emergence of Covid-19. The maps lie. All maps lie. But the origins of the deceptions are explained, the data sources are signposted and referenced, and the read...

It has been argued that science fiction (SF) gives a kind of weather forecast – not the telling of a fortune but rather the rough feeling of what the future might be like. The intention in this book is to consider some of these bygone forecasts made by SF and to use this as a prism through which to view current developments in science and technology.In each of the ten main chapters - dealing in turn with antigravity, space travel, aliens, time travel, the nature of reality, invisib...

Chris and Stephen off Gogglebox are known and loved by millions of viewers for their outrageous humour, filthy language and adorable sausage dogs.But there's a lot more to them than that. The ex-partners have both had their fair share of ups and downs, and here in their joint memoir they carry us through their experiences on a wave of hilarious back-and-forth conversations and killer one-liners. From their childhoods to finding fame on Gogglebox, nothing is off-lim...

This book presents the reader with some of the earliest classic SF short stories – all of them published between 1858 and 1934, featuring both well-known and long-forgotten writers – dealing for the first time with topics to which science had (some) answers only at much later stages. This includes aspects of alien life forms, transmogrification, pandemics, life on Mars, android robots, big data, matter transmission and impact events to name but a few.The short stories are reprinted...

This book is an attempt to share some of the fascinating and exciting ideas of modern theoretical physics with a non-mathematical audience. I also hope to give some appreciation of the exceptionally creative people who have generated these ideas. I had no intention of writing a comprehen sive history of these ideas, however; I apologize to those physicists whose important contributions I may have omitted. Several people have contributed directly to the writing of this book, and I would lik...