The Universe: The book of the BBC TV series presented by Professor Brian Cox

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Overall, the tone of the book is engaging, though occasional attempts at being witty fall flat, while the authors sometimes become distracted by tangents resulting in their belabouring their point. This can become frustrating, particularly as you know where it’s headed: the multiverse. Even before I became a philosopher I was wondering about everything—life the universe and whatever else Douglas Adams thought was important when he wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe. As a philosopher, I’ve been able to spend my life scratching the itch of these questions. When I finally figured them out I wrote The Atheist’s Guide to Reality as an introduction to what science tells us besides that there is no god. In H ow History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories I apply much of that to getting to the bottom of why it’s so hard for us, me included, to really absorb the nature of reality. Scientists are increasingly confident that there is life elsewhere in the Universe. But what would that life look like? Seeing Like a State is a book about why it’s impossible for ambitious programs of top-down control to succeed, and why they so often end up with millions of people dead. The world is always more complicated than the maps you make of it, and in a lot of situations, it turns out that complexity matters . You can’t design and build the perfect city. You have to grow it. Until the End of Time is Brian Greene's breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos and our quest to understand it. Greene takes us on a…

Cosmic reads: four great books that explore the Universe we live in Cosmic reads: four great books that explore the Universe we live

Writer Giles Sparrow tells the stories of well-known 'celebrity' stars such as Proxima Centauri, Betelgeuse and our very own Sun, but also of those holding the sky's secrets; supernovae, quasars and dark matter. Through these 21 stars (and 3 imposters) he reveals the impact that astronomy has played on science's understanding of the past, present and future.

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Stargazing does not have to be complicated, reveals Abigail Beall in this beautifully compact guide. It's not a hobby reserved for those who can afford a telescope, nor is it completely inaccessible to city-goers who spend most of their time under a light-polluted sky. Carl Sagan is still one of the most well-known astronomers, renowned for his ability to create wonder and awe in his descriptions of the Universe.

best books about the universe for people who want the - Shepherd The best books about the universe for people who want the -

For more reading recommendations and free samples of new and popular books, sign up to our book club newsletter below. From the world-renowned physicist and bestselling author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, a captivating exploration of deep time and humanity's search for purpose It is a weighty subject, incorporating everything from cosmology and atomic physics to quantum physics and philosophy, but astrophysicists Geraint Lewis and Luke Barnes have done a stellar job in explaining some extremely challenging concepts with style and panache. Cambridge University Press are mostly known for their academic titles, but this is firmly in the popular science mould, akin to the works of authors like Brian Greene or Sean Carroll. Straight from the pen of a scientist working with commercial spaceflight comes a memoir of getting into the air. Kellie Gerardi has worked with NASA, tested technology that would be sent to the International Space Station, and helped develop programmes for future space exploration.

On this cosmic timeline, our human era is spectacular but fleeting. Someday, we know, we will all die. And, we know, so too will the universe itself. This book lists all 88 constellations by size, from Andromeda (the chained maiden) to Vulpecula (the little fox), each beautifully illustrated by artist Hannah Waldron, while Susanna Hislop’s accompanying text goes beyond the usual creation myths to include facts about legendary astronomers and more. Have you ever wondered why we can’t just make the world better? Sure, we’ve made enormous strides in agriculture and medicine over the past few centuries. We can generate electricity and move around the world in a day. We can feed and heal people. But why haven’t we just sat down and figured out the right way to live? Planned it all out on a clean sheet, like an architect. A powerful, and in many insightful, explanation as to why grandiose programs of social reform, not to mention revolution, so often end in tragedy. . . . An important critique of visionary state planning."-Robert Heilbroner, Lingua Franca

The Universe: The book of the BBC TV series presented by Professor The Universe: The book of the BBC TV series presented by

In both time and space, the cosmos is astoundingly vast, and yet is governed by simple, elegant, universal mathematical laws. Humans have always been fascinated by the stars. But why are we so drawn to these celestial objects? Jo Marchant reveals this historical relationship through beautifully told stories, of gods and spirits, mathematicians and physicists. Time is spent examining how the Steady State theory fought for supremacy with the theory of the Big Bang and the expanding Universe. Evidence eventually favoured the latter, but even that camp did not suspect that this expansion is accelerating.Hailed as "a magisterial critique of top-down social planning" by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail-sometimes catastrophically-in grand efforts to engineer their society or their… Award-winning author Sean Carroll brings his extraordinary intellect to bear on the realms of knowledge, the laws of nature and the most profound questions about life, death and our place in it all. The hilarious Dara Ó Briain offers scientific answers to questions such as: how did life begin? How was the Earth created? Do aliens exist? The Art of Urban Astronomy: A Guide to Stargazing Wherever You Are This is by no means a frivolous book, but importantly, you don’t need a degree or to be an astronomy nerd to enjoy it or to wonder at the audacity of life. This is a book for anyone who has ever stared at the night sky and wondered what the grand design was (Sutter says there wasn’t one). As Sutter himself says, Your Place in the Universe is a book not just about physics and science, but also about our home, the Universe, and our human story. It is about how our knowledge and understanding has grown and developed, and how we have decoded and deciphered, faltered and often misunderstood. We may have occasionally got a little lost and gone down the odd blind alley, but Sutter sums up how, ultimately, we still continue to untangle our delightfully chaotic existence in the Universe.