In this “captivating” (Sky + Telescope) book, a top cosmologist argues that physics must embrace the excluded and listen to the unheardWhen asked by legendary theoretical physicist Christopher Isham why he had attended graduate school, cosmologist Stephon Alexander answered: "To become a better physicist." As a young student, he could hardly have anticipated Isham's response: "Then stop reading those physics books." Instead, Isham said, Alexander should st...

**A spectacular musical and scientific journey from the Bronx to the cosmic horizon that reveals the astonishing links between jazz, science, Einstein, and Coltrane“I’ll forever be grateful to musician/physicist Stephon Alexander… He’ll help you see how our awe-inspiring universe is on a never-ending, cosmological riff.”―Felix Contreras,** NPRMore than fifty years ago, John Coltrane drew the twelve musical notes in a circle and connected the...

In this guide to science and society, a cosmologist argues that physics must embrace the excluded, listen to the unheard, and be unafraid of being wrong.Years ago, cosmologist Stephon Alexander received life-changing advice: to discover real physics, he needed to stop memorizing and start taking risks. In Fear of a Black Universe, Alexander shows that great physics requires us to think outside the mainstream—to improvise and rely on intuition. His approach...

**A top cosmologist argues that physics must embrace the excluded and listen to the unheard “A brief yet undiluted history of the most groundbreaking discoveries that have shaped our understanding of the universe, peering into the unlit horizons of its future.” ―Maria Popova, The Marginalian**When asked by a legendary theoretical physicist why he had attended graduate school, cosmologist Stephon Alexander answered: “To become a better physicist.” As a young student...

More than fifty years ago, John Coltrane drew the twelve musical notes in a circle and connected them by straight lines, forming a five-pointed star. Inspired by Einstein, Coltrane had put physics and geometry at the core of his music. Physicist and jazz musician Stephon Alexander returns the favor, using jazz to answer physics’ most vexing questions about the past and future of the universe.Following the great minds that first drew the links between music and physics—a list includ...

Now a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke and Daveed DiggsWinner of the National Book Award for FictionFrom the bestselling author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Deacon King Kong (an Oprah Book Club pick) and The Color of Water comes the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John Brown’s antislavery crusade—and who must pass as a girl to survive.Henry Shackleford is a ...

Bestselling author and acclaimed physicist Lawrence Krauss offers a paradigm-shifting view of how everything that exists came to be in the first place.“Where did the universe come from? What was there before it? What will the future bring? And finally, why is there something rather than nothing?”One of the few prominent scientists today to have crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss describes the staggeringly beautiful experimental ob...

Modern physics made thrillingly accessible.A landmark in science communication, The Elegant Universe introduces readers to string theory - the bold idea that everything in the universe is made of tiny vibrating strands of energy. With lucid storytelling and analogies drawn from everyday life, physicist Brian Greene explains the concepts of relativity, quantum mechanics and multidimensional space with unmatched elegance.This book do...

From award-winning physicist, public intellectual, and the bestselling author of A Universe from Nothing Lawrence Krauss, comes “a masterful blend of history, modern physics, and cosmic perspective that empowers the reader to not only embrace our understanding of the universe, but also revel in what remains to be discovered” (Neil deGrasse Tyson, American Museum of Natural History).In this grand poetic vision of the universe, Lawrence Krauss tells the dram...

In Warped Passages one of the world's most exciting scientists gives us a glimpse into our future. Incredibly readable - and illustrated throughout - it allows the general reader to understand the questions that scientists are dealing with at the frontiers of research today. Lisa Randall allows the reader to understand the kind of problems that extra dimensions might solve and the kind of speculation that is needed even to imagine them. She also gives an introduction to developments in ear...

The definitive, behind-the-scenes account of the greatest science story of our timeWinner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science BooksA Best Science Book of the Year for the Guardian, Financial Times, and New ScientistIt was the universe’s most elusive particle, the linchpin for everything scientists dreamed up to explain how physics works. It had to be found. But projects as big as CERN’s Large H...

On July 4, 2012, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva madehistory when they discovered an entirely new type of subatomic particle that many scientists believe is the Higgs boson. For forty years, physicists searched for this capstone to the Standard Model of particle physics—the theory that describes both the most elementary components that are known in matter and the forces through which they interact. This particle points to the Higgs field, which provides the key to underst...