New Releases by John Gribbin

Galaxies are the building blocks of the Universe: standing like islands in space, each is made up of many hundreds of millions of stars in which the chemical elements are made, around which planets form, and where on at least one of those planets intelligent life has emerged. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one of several hundred million other galaxies that we can now observe through our telescopes. Yet it was only in the 1920s that we realised that there is more to the Universe than the Milky Way, and that there were in fact other ''islands'' out there. In many ways, modern astronomy began with this discovery, and the story of galaxies is therefore the story of modern astronomy. Since then, many exciting discoveries have been made about our own galaxy and about those beyond: how a supermassive black hole lurks at the centre of every galaxy, for example, how enormous forces are released when galaxies collide, how distant galaxies provide a window on the early Universe, and what the formation of young galaxies can tell us about the mysteries of Cold Dark Matter. In this Very Short Introduction, renowned science writer John Gribbin describes the extraordinary things that astronomers are learning about galaxies, and explains how this can shed light on the origins and structure of the Universe. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Carl Linnaeus - Joseph Banks - Francis Masson - Carl Peter Thunberg - David Douglas - William Lobb - Thomas Lobb - Robert Fortune - Marianne North - Richard Spruce - Joseph Dalton Hooker.

In this sweeping survey, acclaimed science writers Paul Davies and John Gribbin provide a complete overview of advances in the study of physics that have revolutionized modern science. From the weird world of quarks and the theory of relativity to the latest ideas about the birth of the cosmos, the authors find evidence for a massive paradigm shift. Developments in the studies of black holes, cosmic strings, solitons, and chaos theory challenge commonsense concepts of space, time, and matter, and demand a radically altered and more fully unified view of the universe.

Provides an overview of the hundred-year saga of particle physics, explaining details from the basics to the research that has produced new models of the universe, among them the radical theories of "superstrings" - the hypothesis that particles are loops of vibrating "string" - and "supersymmetry."

Examines the lives and obsessions of the men associated with the scientific revolution and the birth of the Royal Society in seventeenth-century England including William Gilbert, Francis Bacon, William Harvey, Christopher Wren, and Isaac Newton.

Gribbin focuses on ten controversial, unanswered issues in the physical sciences and explains how current cutting-edge research may yield solutions in the very near future. He explores ideas concerning the creation of the universe, the possibility of other forms of life, and the fate of the expanding cosmos.

"From Atoms to Infinity takes you on a journey from the furthest reaches of the known Universe to the tiniest particles that make up life on Earth. May and John Gribbin explore how our telescopes can see 10 billion years into the past, and why a thimbleful of a neutron star would contain as much mass as all the people on Earth put together." -- BOOK JACKET.

Drawing on string theory and spacetime, quantum physics and chaos theory, award-winning science writers Mary and John Gribbin reveal the real science behind Pullman''s bestselling His Dark Materials trilogy.

2005 marks the 100th anniversary of Einstein''s three papers which were the basis for the Theory of Relativity, and that are referred to in the science community as the "Annus Mirabilis."

A richly textured biography of Robert FitzRoy, captain of the Beagle on which Charles Darwin was a passenger, explores his accomplishments and motivations, including his tenure as governor of New Zealand, his contribution to Darwin''s ideas of evolution, and his innovations in the field of meteorological science.

This title begins with Galileo and takes the reader through to the scientific developments of string theory. It is an accessible narrative history, focusing on the way in which science has progressed by building on what went before, and also on the very close relationship between the progress of science and improved technology.

Presents a guide to quantum physics including the history of quantum theory, its basic principles, and future applications.

We share so much of our genetic material with other apes and it is clear that, like other species alive on earth today, we have evolved by the Darwinian process of natural selection. We can therefore learn about our own sexuality by looking at how sex works in other species. Gribbin and Cherfas put forward the challenging theory that males have outlived their evolutionary usefulness and include discussion of ideas such as the red queen effect (the need to run as fast as possible, in evolutionary terms, in order to stay in the same place) and the growing resistance bacteria have evolved to widely used drugs.

Bestselling science writer John Gribbin explores--and explains--black holes, supernovas, the big bang, and the mysterious case of the missing neutrinos, in this wonderfully lucid . . . primer to the dizzying intermarriage of cosmology, astronomy, and particle physics. (Publishers Weekly).

"Gribbin takes us through the history of cosmological discoveries, focusing in particular on the seventy years since the Big Bang model of the origin of the universe. He explains how conflicting views of the age of the universe and stars converged in the 1990s because scientists (including Gribbin) were able to use data from the Hubble Space Telescope that measured distances across the universe."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

En este libro encontraras: ADN, Agua, Agujeros de gusano, Ctomo, Efecto Jupiter, Evento KT, Experimento Young, Genes saltarines, Gaia, Seleccion natural, Vida unicelular, Virus, ...

This book captures the science and personality of Richard Feynman, who won a Nobel Prize for his discoveries concerning the behaviour of electrons. For him physics was fun, and he had an extraordinary ability to prove his theory by formulae.

During the late 1920s Edwin Hubble postulate d that the universe is expanding. Gathered together in this study are photographs that concur with the theory, whilst th e authors explain for the layman the awesome implications of the Big Bang and our origin ''

Everybody knows the names of the great scientists, but how many of us know anything about their work, let alone their private lives? This easy-to-read series enables each of us to become an instant expert

Fire on Earth reveals that comets have been a continuing problem throughout geological time. It examines the controversial claims that there are ''periodic extinctions'' of life on earth linked to a recurring cycle of cometary impacts

Biography of Charles Darwin and how he was drawn into the research that resulted in the publication of his theory of evolution, an event that inspired a controversy that lives on today.

Gribbin presents the recent dramatic improvements in experimental techniques that have enabled physicists to formulate and test new theories about the nature of light. He describes these theories not in terms of hard-to-imagine entities like spinning subnuclear particles, but in terms of the fate of two small cats separated at a tender age and carried to opposite sides of the universe.

Along with lucid descriptions of Einstein''s milestone contributions, Gribbin recounts his debates with fellow scientists and the failures that shadowed his later scientific life.

Inspired by the Eyewitness "lexigraphic" approach, the definitive text, detailed captions, and labels combine with many full-color graphics, photos, and 3-D models to show the landmark experiments, the complex equipment, procedures, and concepts in all fields -- from relativity to genetics to ecology.

A Gripping Account Of A Physicist Whose Speculations Could Prove As Revolutionary As Those Of Albert Einstein... It Can Be Consulted As A Clear And Authoritative Guide Through Three Decades Of Hawking S Central Contributions To Cosmology. - Bernard Dixon In The New Statesman & Society Excellent... From The Opening Pages, Which Relate The Occasion When Shirley Maclaine Sought An Audience With Her Hero In A Cambridge Restaurant, To The Final Chapter On Hollywood, Fame And Fortune , The Book Is Well-Nigh Unputdownable... [It] Ought To Be Read Alongside A Brief History Of Time As A Kind Of Explanatory Supplement. - Heather Cooper In The Times Educational Supplement Fascinating... What Makes This Book So Rewarding Is The Way That The Authors Have Blended Their Account Of Hawking S Science With That Of His Life, Giving A Picture Of A Remarkable Scientist As A Remarkable Person. - Tony Osman In The Spectator It S Compulsive Reading, Maybe Because Hawking Towers Above It All, A Complex And Fascinating Character Who Remains Strangely Elusive: Boyish Yet Indomitable, Stubborn Yet Charming, A Private Man Revelling In Fame. - Clare Francis In The Sunday Express [Their Book] Conveys How Scientific Research Is Not Just A Dry Intellectual Pursuit But An Adventure Full Of Joy, Despair And Humour, And Fraught With The Sort Of Inter-Personal Problems And Rivalries Which Mark All Human Endeavours. - Bernard Carr In The Independent On Sunday Few Scientists Become Legends In Their Own Lifetime. Stephen Hawking Is One. It Is Good To Have This Well-Documented And Immensely Readable Biography To Remind Us That The Media-Hyped Mute Genius In The Wheelchair Is In Fact A Sensitive, Humorous, Ambitious And Occasionally Wilful Human Being. - Paul Davies In The Times Higher Education Supplement

"Once the stuff of science-fiction novels, black holes, and their even stranger cosmological counterparts, white holes and worm holes, are now the subject of serious scientific inquiry. Physicists who formerly shunned these astrophysical eccentricities have begun to theorize about them and search for the physical proof of their existence with the zeal of converts. Their unavoidable conclusion of this research is that these "rips in the fabric of spacetime" are not only real, they might actually provide a passage to other universes and travel through time." "Unveiling the Edge of Time tells the fascinating story of the theories and discoveries that have led scientists to these astonishing conclusions. Here, acclaimed science writer John Gribbin tells of the scientists and the ideas behind this revolution in cosmology - from the first notions of an object so large its gravity would trap even light, to the most recent developments in the search for "naked singularities" - the center of a black hole where all known laws of physics break down. Gribbin recounts for us such dramatic stories as how Carl Sagan''s science-fiction search for a plausible method of hyperspace travel led a fellow physicist to make some of the most startling recent advances in relativity theory. Taking readers into new universes and across time itself, Gribbin provides remarkable descriptions of what it would be like for astronauts taking trips through each of these spacetime "holes" - what they would see and feel as they are drawn across "event horizons" and where they would arrive after passing through a singularity." "With a scientist''s knowledge of the facts and a writer''s gift for description, John Gribbin conveys these extraordinary ideas with both excitement and clarity. The result is an intellectual adventure that will take readers to the farthest reaches of today''s science."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Examines global warming as a result of human activities against a broader background of natural climatic processes. British science writer Gribbin explains why the world is getting warmer, what the change in temperature and rainfall patterns will mean for human society, and what can and must be done to slow the pace of these changes. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The author of In Search of Schrodinger''s Cat chronicles the excitement currently surrounding the discoveries about the sun which have been made at an accelerated pace in the last ten years. 25 line drawings.