Thought the science of the future was all hoverboards and space travel? Think again.Every day, scientists come up with the ingenious solutions and surprising discoveries that will define our future. So here, Jim Al-Khalili and his crack team of experts bin the crystal ball and use cutting-edge science to get a glimpse of what's in store.From whether teleportation is really possible (spoiler: it is), to what we'll do if artificial intelligence takes over, What's Next?

“This Will Change Everything offers seemingly radical but actually feasible ideas with the potential to change the world.”—Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and SteelEditor John Brockman continues in the same vein as his popular compilations What Are You Optimistic About and What Have You Changed Your Mind About with This Will Change Everything. Brockman asks 150 intellectual superstars “what game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect t...

"Refreshing . . . A penetrating analysis of the assumptions that underlie SETI and the entire enterprise of searching for life beyond Earth." —Chris McKay, NatureFifty years ago, a young astronomer named Frank Drake first pointed a radio telescope at nearby stars in the hope of picking up a signal from an alien civilization. Thus began one of the boldest scientific projects in history, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). After a half-centur...

From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Inevitable— a sweeping vision oftechnology as a living force that can expand our individual potentialThis provocative book introduces a brand-new view of technology. It suggests that technology as a whole is not a jumble of wires and metal but a living, evolving organism that has its own unconscious needs and tendencies. Kevin Kelly looks out through the eyes of this global technological system ...

In the history of planet earth, mass species extinctions have occurred five times, about once every 100 million years. A "sixth extinction" is known to be underway now, with over 200 species dying off every day. Not only that, but the cause of the sixth extinction is also the source of single biggest threat to human life: our own inventions.What this bleak future will truly hold, though, is much in dispute. Will our immune systems be attacked by so-called super bugs, always evolvin...

In this classic work that continues to inspire its many readers, Jim Lovelock puts forward his idea that life on earth functions as a single organism. Written for non-scientists, Gaia is a journey through time and space in search of evidence with which to support a new and radically different model of our planet. In contrast to conventional belief that living matter is passive in the face of threats to its existence, the book explores the hypothesis that the earth's livingmatter air, ocean...

**The national bestselling author of The God Equation and renowned theoretical physicist examines the scientific revolutions that have reshaped the twentieth century—the quantum mechanics, biogenetics, and artificial intelligence—and shows how they will change and alter science and the way we live."An erudite, compelling insider's look into the most mind-bending potential of science research." —Chicago Tribune**The next century will witness more far-reachi...

I am not a climatic scientist; I am an experienced electrical engineer, drawn to study this subject by the peculiarity of the news I was observing. And it became obvious, very quickly, that something weird was going on. So I began to collect data, news, and other factual information that gradually became available. I have now assembled a wide range of proven, factual details on global warming (which became climate change when warming stopped in 1998 and temperatures began to drop), the cla...

With wit, colour and clarity, What A Wonderful World quickly and painlessly brings us up to speed on how the world of the 21st century works. From economics to physics and biology to philosophy, Marcus Chown explains the complex forces that shape our universe.Why do we breathe? What is money? How does the brain work? Why did life invent sex? Does time really exist? How does capitalism work - or not, as the case may be? Where do mountains come from? How do computer...

“Remarkably upbeat, and imbued with wit, wisdom and a palpable sense of awe over our universe.”—Tucson WeeklyMost of us are aware of our own mortality, but few among us know what science, with insights yielded from groundbreaking new research, has to say about endings on a larger scale. Enter astronomer Chris Impey, who chronicles the death of the whole shebang: individual, species, bio- sphere, Earth, Sun, Milky Way, and, finally, the entire universe....

In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, ...

Mark Stevenson set out on a global journey to find the future - a few years before it impacts on the rest of us. The results are frankly encouraging. He finds he is very likely to live longer than he had expected with a few biological tweaks. Perhaps even long enough to share the planet with a resurrected sabre-tooth tiger or dodo or at least a super-intelligent computer able to understand and determine to act upon his commands. He feels good about the planet too. The energy crisis can be ...