“VERDICT A vivid and moving book-length narrative poem that places the reader inside of a universe of wonder; of interest to poetry readers and beyond.” —Library JournalFrom the author of international bestseller Einstein's Dreams and National Book Award nominee The Diagnosis.After decades of living “hung like a dried fly,” emptied and haunted by his past, the narrator, a man who has lost his faith in all things f...

"Engrossing . . . Leave[s] us with a richer picture of physics as a lived activity." — Los Angeles Review of BooksIn Quantum Legacies, David Kaiser introduces readers to iconic episodes in physicists' still-unfolding quest to understand space, time, and matter at their most fundamental. In a series of vibrant essays, Kaiser takes us inside moments of discovery and debate among the great minds of the era—Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Stephen H...

A profound and moving novel about life, death, and what might follow from the critically acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams."I didn't have a happy life," Ludvig Bergsson's father told him shortly before his death. Haunted by these words, Ludvig grapples with his father's memory, charting the landscape of his eighty-seven-years. He had not seemed particularly discontent, but at some point, something must have shifted. Or, perhaps, it had been a slow and ...

**In this captivating, insightful book, acclaimed physicists Alan Lightman and Martin Rees illuminate the life and work of numerous scientists in order to demystify the scientific process and show that scientists are concerned citizens, just like the rest of us.“Remarkable. . . . Illuminating with refreshing clarity the ordinary and sometimes extraordinary work of scientists. This book is essential reading." —Jennifer Ackerman, bestselling author of What an Owl Knows**...

A gorgeously illustrated exploration of the science behind the universe’s most stunning natural phenomena—from atoms and parameciums to rainbows, snowflakes, spider webs, the rings of Saturn, galaxies, and moreNature is capable of extraordinary phenomena. Standing in awe of those phenomena, we experience a feeling of connection to the cosmos. For acclaimed physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, just as remarkable is that all of what we see around us—soap bubbles, sc...

Bestselling author and MIT Professor, Alan Lightman, reveals the benefits of wasting time and allowing our minds to freely roam.We have apps, smart watches and calendars that constantly remind us to be productive and stop wasting time. We have created a frenzied lifestyle in which time is money, with not a minute to be wasted, and the twenty-four hours of each day are carved up, dissected, and reduced down to small units of efficiency.Profe...

A story about the hidden world of light... Renowned physicist Alan Lightman, author of Ada and the Galaxies, turns his focus to light waves in a second story for children.There’s only one gift Isabel wants for her birthday: a way to see invisible things. She can hardly think of anything else until the day of her party arrives! Unwrapping a big box, Isabel finds a surprise inside – a glass prism – and a dazzling world of previously invisibl...

From the acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams comes a rich, fascinating answer to the question, Can the scientifically inclined still hold space for spirituality?“Lightman…belongs to a noble tradition of science writers, including Oliver Sacks and Lewis Thomas, who can poke endlessly into a subject and…stir up fresh embers of wonder.” —The Wall Street JournalGazing at the stars, falling in love, or listening to music, we ...

The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between.Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space exte...

The bestselling author of Einsteins Dreams explores the emotional and philosophical questions raised by recent discoveries in science with passion and curiosity.He looks at the dialogue between science and religion; the conflict between our human desire for permanence and the impermanence of nature; the possibility that our universe is simply an accident; the manner in which modern technology has separated us from direct experience of the world; and our resistance ...

**A “romance in many dimensions” that has fascinated generations of readers with its clever blend of social satire and mathematical theoryA Penguin Classic**A work that continues to pose provocative questions about perception and reality, Flatland is a brilliant parody of Victorian society where all existence is limited to length and breadth—its inhabitants unable even to imagine a third dimension. The amiable narrator, A Square, provides an overview of this fantas...

As a physicist, Alan Lightman has always held a purely scientific view of the world. Even as a teenager, experimenting in his own laboratory, he was impressed by the logic and materiality of the universe, which is governed by a small number of disembodied forces and laws. Those laws decree that all things in the world are material and impermanent. But one summer evening, while looking at the stars from a small boat at sea, Lightman was overcome by the overwhelming sensation that he was mer...