Book Cover of The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier
Astronomy & Space Science

The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy

Astrophysicist and folklorist Dr. Moiya McTier channels The Milky Way in this approachable and utterly fascinating autobiography of the titular galaxy, detailing what humans have discovered about everything from its formation to its eventual death, and what more there is to learn about this galaxy we call home. […Learn More]

Book cover of Impact: How Rocks from Space Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong by Greg Brennecka
Astronomy & Space Science

Impact: How Rocks from Space Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong

A Short History of Nearly Everything meets Astrophysics for People in a Hurry in this humorous, accessible exploration of how meteorites have helped not only build our planet but steered the evolution of life and human culture.

The Solar System. Dinosaurs. Donkey Kong. What is the missing link? Surprisingly enough, it’s meteorites. They explain our past, constructed our present, and could define our future. […Learn More]

Book cover of How to Die in Space: A Journey Through Dangerous Astrophysical Phenomena by Paul M. Sutter
Astronomy & Space Science

How to Die in Space: A Journey Through Dangerous Astrophysical Phenomena

A brilliant and breathtakingly vivid tour of the universe, describing the physics of the dangerous, the deadly, and the scary in the cosmos.

So you’ve fallen in love with space and now you want to see it for yourself, huh? You want to witness the birth of a star, or visit the black hole at the center of our galaxy? You want to know if there are aliens out there, or how to travel through a wormhole? You want the wonders of the universe revealed before your very eyes? Well stop, because all that will probably kill you […Learn More]

Book cover of What's Eating the Universe?: And Other Cosmic Questions by Paul Davies
Astronomy & Space Science

What’s Eating the Universe?: And Other Cosmic Questions

Combining the latest scientific advances with storytelling skills unmatched in the cosmos, an award-winning astrophysicist and popular writer leads us on a tour of some of the greatest mysteries of our universe.
 
In the constellation of Eridanus, there lurks a cosmic mystery: It’s as if something has taken a huge bite out of the universe. But what is the culprit? The hole in the universe is just one of many puzzles keeping cosmologists busy. […Learn More]

Book cover of How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang by Harry Cliff
Astronomy & Space Science

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang

Experimental physicist and acclaimed science presenter Harry Cliff takes you on an exhilarating search for the most basic building blocks of our universe, and the dramatic quest to unlock their cosmic origins.

Carl Sagan once quipped, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” But finding the ultimate recipe for apple pie means answering some big questions: What is matter really made of? How did it escape annihilation in the fearsome heat of the Big Bang? And will we ever be able to understand the very first moments of our universe? […Learn More]

Book cover of The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time by Julian Barbour
Astronomy & Space Science

The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time

In a universe filled by chaos and disorder, one physicist makes the radical argument that the growth of order drives the passage of time — and shapes the destiny of the universe. Time is among the universe’s greatest mysteries. Why, when most laws of physics allow for it to flow forward and backward, does it only go forward? Physicists have long appealed to the second law of thermodynamics, held to predict the increase of disorder in the universe, to explain this. […Learn More]

Book cover of The Doomsday Calculation: How an Equation that Predicts the Future Is Transforming Everything We Know About Life and the Universe by William Poundstone
Astronomy & Space Science

The Doomsday Calculation: How an Equation that Predicts the Future Is Transforming Everything We Know About Life and the Universe

From the author of Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?, a fascinating look at how an equation that foretells the future is transforming everything we know about life, business, and the universe.

In the 18th century, the British minister and mathematician Thomas Bayes devised a theorem that allowed him to assign probabilities to events that had never happened before. It languished in obscurity for centuries until computers came along and made it easy to crunch the numbers. Now, as the foundation of big data, Bayes’ formula has become a linchpin of the digital economy.
[…Learn More]