Dr. Myer Bloom is beloved for his irrepressible zest for life, and equally respected for his extraordinary scientific achievements. In Lucky Hazards, Bloom recounts his many adventures and accomplishments, beginning with his formative years in Jewish Montreal. He was born in 1928 and raised in a family that encouraged him to plot his own course. He soon became an accomplished athlete, ultimately playing basketball for McGill University. It was almost by accident that Bloom settled on an ed...

**NATIONAL BESTSELLERStephen Hawking has dazzled readers worldwide with a string of bestsellers exploring the mysteries of the universe. Now, for the first time, perhaps the most brilliant cosmologist of our age turns his gaze inward for a revealing look at his own life and intellectual evolution.**My Brief History recounts Stephen Hawking’s improbable journey, from his postwar London boyhood to his years of international acclaim and celebrity. Lavishly illustrated...

An illuminating portrayal of Richard Feynman—a giant of twentieth century physics—from his childhood tinkering with radios, to his vital work on the Manhattan Project and beyondRaised in Depression-era Rockaway Beach, physicist Richard Feynman was irreverent, eccentric, and childishly enthusiastic—a new kind of scientist in a field that was in its infancy. His quick mastery of quantum mechanics earned him a place at Los Alamos working on the Manhattan Project under...

**Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book PrizeThe definitive biography of Paul Dirac, the brilliant—and enigmatic—physicist whose foundational work in quantum mechanics revolutionized modern science.“This biography is a gift.… A thought-provoking meditation on human achievement, limitations, and the relations between the two.” —New York Times Book Review**Paul Dirac was among the great scientific geniuses of the modern age. An admired colleague of Al...

On the 8th of January 2012 a man who discovered at 21 that he had motor neurone disease, which usually means a few years' degeneration then death, celebrated his 70th birthday. Stephen Hawking was born January 8, 1942 in Oxford, England. Even as a child, he exhibited a fascination for mathematics, science and the sky. At age 21, while studying cosmology at Cambridge, Stephen was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In the two years after this live changing announcement; Step...

The authoritative story of the headline-making discovery of gravitational waves—by an eminent theoretical astrophysicist and award-winning writer.From the author of How the Universe Got Its Spots and A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, the epic story of the scientific campaign to record the soundtrack of our universe.Black holes are dark. That is their essence. When black holes collide, they will do so unilluminated. Yet the black hole col...

Speculation is rife that by 2012 the elusive Higgs boson will be found at the Large Hadron Collider. If found, the Higgs boson would help explain why everything has mass. But there's more at stake -- what we're really testing is our capacity to make the universe reasonable.Our best understanding of physics is predicated on something known as quantum field theory. Unfortunately, in its raw form, it doesn't't make sense -- its outputs are physically impossible infinite percentages wh...

From the sudden expansion of a cloud of gas or the cooling of a hot metal, to the unfolding of a thought in our minds and even the course of life itself, everything is governed by the four Laws of Thermodynamics. These laws specify the nature of 'energy' and 'temperature', and are soon revealed to reach out and define the arrow of time itself: why things change and why death must come.In this Very Short Introduction Peter Atkins explains the basis and deeper implications of each law, highl...

An accessible look at the hottest topic in physics and the experiments that will transform our understanding of the universeThe biggest news in science today is the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle-smasher, and the anticipation of finally discovering the Higgs boson particle. But what is the Higgs boson and why is it often referred to as the God Particle? Why are the Higgs and the LHC so important? Getting a handle on the scienc...

“Meticulously researched and unapologetically romantic, How the Hippies Saved Physics makes the history of science fun again.”—ScienceIn the 1970s, an eccentric group of physicists in Berkeley, California, banded together to explore the wilder side of science. Dubbing themselves the “Fundamental Fysiks Group,” they pursued an audacious, speculative approach to physics, studying quantum entanglement in terms of Eastern mysticism and psychic mind reading. As David K...

An insightful look into the brilliant mind of physicist Richard Feynman.One of the towering figures of twentieth-century science, Richard Feynman possessed a curiosity that was the stuff of legend. Even before he won the Nobel Prize in 1965, his unorthodox and spellbinding lectures on physics secured his reputation amongst students and seekers around the world. It was his outsized love for life, however, that earned him the status of an American cultural icon—here ...

The biggest science story of our time, Massive spans four decades, weaving together the personal narratives and international rivalries behind the search for the "God" particle, or Higgs boson. A story of grand ambition, intense competition, clashing egos, and occasionally spectacular failures, Massive is the first book that reveals the science, culture, and politics behind the biggest unanswered question in modern physics -- what gives things mass?Drawing upon hi...