Previously published as A History of the Universe in 21 Stars. 'REVISED AND UPDATED ___ 'A wonderful book about the science, history and mythology of 21 stars (and 3 impostors).' Dr David Whitehouse Look up on a clear evening, and you'll see thousands of stars shining in the night sky, each telling a story of their own. With star maps to help easily identify key celestial bodies, astronomer Giles Sparrow takes 21 stars (and three impostors) to look at what each pinprick of light can tell us about the birth, life and death of our universe. From red giants to supernovae and from stellar cities to our own Sun, The History of Our Universe in 21 Stars shows how the lights we see in the sky can help us unravel the mysteries of the cosmos. 'Beautifully written and extremely accessible ... It's extremely difficult to put down! Gemma Lavender

Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist. Fascinating from first to last—this is a book that has already prompted the attention and admiration of some of the most prominent scientists and mathematicians.

This book is based on the lecture notes of a one-semester course on black hole astrophysics given by the author and is aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in astrophysics. The material included goes beyond that found in classic textbooks and presents details on astrophysical manifestations of black holes. In particular, jet physics and detailed accounts of objects like microquasars, active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, and ultra-luminous X-ray sources are covered, as well as advanced topics like black holes in alternative theories of gravity. The author avoids unnecessary technicalities and to some degree the book is self-contained. The reader will find some basic general relativity tools in Chapter 1. The appendices provide some additional mathematical details that will be useful for further study, and a guide to the bibliography on the subject.

This “delightfully whimsical novel riffs on the premise that ordinary lives stubbornly resist the tidy order that a fiction narrative might impose on them” (Publishers Weekly). Can a story save your life? Meg Carpenter is broke. Her novel is years overdue. Her cell phone is out of minutes. And her moody boyfriend’s only contribution to the household is his sour attitude. So she jumps at the chance to review a pseudoscientific book that promises life everlasting. But who wants to live forever? Consulting cosmology and physics, tarot cards, koans (and riddles and jokes), new-age theories of everything, narrative theory, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and knitting patterns, Meg wends her way through Our Tragic Universe, asking this and many other questions. Does she believe in fairies? In magic? Is she a superbeing? Is she living a storyless story? And what’s the connection between her off-hand suggestion to push a car into a river, a ship in a bottle, a mysterious beast loose on the moor, and the controversial author of The Science of Living Forever? Smart, entrancing, and boiling over with Thomas’s trademark big ideas, Our Tragic Universe is a book about how relationships are created and destroyed, how we can rewrite our futures (if not our histories), and how stories just might save our lives.

A scientist randomly discovers one of the most important findings of all the time. He shares his finding only with one of his old friends and shorty after that disappear. For a period of time nobody, even the scientist himself knows where he is or if he is kidnaped. After going through a series of events finally he realizes that he is no longer on Earth and is in another universe. In the new universe he finds out that his original universe is a baby universe in a bigger one which he names it the mother universe. In the mother universe, which has completely different physical, chemical and biological properties, he first find several living creatures from Earth and other solar systems in the Milky Way Galaxy, and later finds out about the real inhabitants of the mother universe. He stays in the mother universe for a period of time which is equal to sixteen years on Earth and finally request from the scientists in the mother universe to be returned to his own original home, the Earth. During his stay in the mother universe he finds new friends and learns many new scientific data. He realizes that the whole structure of the mother universe is different than his own original universe. The creatures in the mother universe are much more advanced than him. Since the two universes share space in certain parts and overlap, during his stay in the mother universe, in several occasions he and his new friends visit Earth, but cannot communicate with people on Earth, because they are in two different worlds with different laws of physics. Finally, in spite of extreme weak chance, the original inhabitants in the mother universe facilitate his return to Earth. After safe return to Earth he finds out that he has been considered as a dead person and he should prove his identity.

A scientist who has been originally trained as a biologist and has always been interested in life on Earth and outside the universe proposes a project to investigate the presence of a different form of life in the universe. This scientist has fifty years’ experiences in different aspects of life. He also has updated knowledge about our planet, our galaxy, our universe, and other possible universes. He is familiar with the latest findings and improvements in the field of theoretical physics and investigations that had been so far done and had been focused on finding lives in other solar systems. To obtain approval and funds for his project, he contacts one of the highly advanced scientific societies in the United States and presents a series of scientific talks. In his presentations, he states, “Why, out of over two million different species living on Earth, only humans (Homo sapiens) are considered the most advanced one, and why, if we are looking for lives outside our planet, are we always looking for some sort of humanlike creature?” He tries to convince the scientists that there must be billions of other types of beings in our universe and other universes. These different types of lives can be much smaller or much larger than us. They can be much more intelligent and highly advanced creatures when compared with humans on Earth. They may not necessarily need water, moderate temperature, simple energy sources, etc. They may not reproduce the way that we do and may not even die, which is the final chapter in our lives. Finally, he will convince several distinguished scientists to support his project. With the help of several additional young scientists who are experts in different fields of science, in a highly advanced scientific institution, finally they prove that lives could be much simpler and at the same time more advanced than us. By doing extensive research, they finally find creatures that are extremely smaller than us and start communicating with them. Although this book presents a science fiction story, the processes by which the scientists discover these small creatures are completely and purely based on the latest and updated scientific findings, which means the story may become a true story in the coming years.

A peace-loving senator faces a time of war in another thrilling Padmé Amidala adventure from the author of the New York Times best-sellers Queen's Peril and Queen's Shadow! Padmé is adjusting to being a wartime senator during the Clone Wars. Her secret husband, Anakin Skwyalker, is off fighting the war, and excels at being a wartime Jedi. In contrast, when Padmé gets the opportunity to see the casualties on the war-torn front lines, she is horrified. The stakes have never been higher for the galaxy, or for the newly-married couple. Meanwhile, with Padmé on a secret mission, her handmaiden Sabé steps into the role of Senator Amidala, something no handmaiden has done for an extended period of time. While in the Senate, Sabé is equally horrified by the machinations that happen there. She comes face to face with a gut-wrenching decision as she realizes that she cannot fight a war this way, not even for Padmé. And Chancellor Palpatine hovers over it all, manipulating the players to his own ends...

*Shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize* One of the most fascinating scientific detective stories of the last fifty years, an exciting quest for a new form of matter. “A riveting tale of derring-do” (Nature), this book reads like James Gleick’s Chaos combined with an Indiana Jones adventure. When leading Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt began working in the 1980s, scientists thought they knew all the conceivable forms of matter. The Second Kind of Impossible is the story of Steinhardt’s thirty-five-year-long quest to challenge conventional wisdom. It begins with a curious geometric pattern that inspires two theoretical physicists to propose a radically new type of matter—one that raises the possibility of new materials with never before seen properties, but that violates laws set in stone for centuries. Steinhardt dubs this new form of matter “quasicrystal.” The rest of the scientific community calls it simply impossible. The Second Kind of Impossible captures Steinhardt’s scientific odyssey as it unfolds over decades, first to prove viability, and then to pursue his wildest conjecture—that nature made quasicrystals long before humans discovered them. Along the way, his team encounters clandestine collectors, corrupt scientists, secret diaries, international smugglers, and KGB agents. Their quest culminates in a daring expedition to a distant corner of the Earth, in pursuit of tiny fragments of a meteorite forged at the birth of the solar system. Steinhardt’s discoveries chart a new direction in science. They not only change our ideas about patterns and matter, but also reveal new truths about the processes that shaped our solar system. The underlying science is important, simple, and beautiful—and Steinhardt’s firsthand account is “packed with discovery, disappointment, exhilaration, and persistence...This book is a front-row seat to history as it is made” (Nature).

Exploring the often-overlooked history and technological innovations of the world's first true multimedia computer. Long ago, in 1985, personal computers came in two general categories: the friendly, childish game machine used for fun (exemplified by Atari and Commodore products); and the boring, beige adult box used for business (exemplified by products from IBM). The game machines became fascinating technical and artistic platforms that were of limited real-world utility. The IBM products were all utility, with little emphasis on aesthetics and no emphasis on fun. Into this bifurcated computing environment came the Commodore Amiga 1000. This personal computer featured a palette of 4,096 colors, unprecedented animation capabilities, four-channel stereo sound, the capacity to run multiple applications simultaneously, a graphical user interface, and powerful processing potential. It was, Jimmy Maher writes in The Future Was Here, the world's first true multimedia personal computer. Maher argues that the Amiga's capacity to store and display color photographs, manipulate video (giving amateurs access to professional tools), and use recordings of real-world sound were the seeds of the digital media future: digital cameras, Photoshop, MP3 players, and even YouTube, Flickr, and the blogosphere. He examines different facets of the platform—from Deluxe Paint to AmigaOS to Cinemaware—in each chapter, creating a portrait of the platform and the communities of practice that surrounded it. Of course, Maher acknowledges, the Amiga was not perfect: the DOS component of the operating systems was clunky and ill-matched, for example, and crashes often accompanied multitasking attempts. And Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. But for a few years, the Amiga's technical qualities were harnessed by engineers, programmers, artists, and others to push back boundaries and transform the culture of computing.