Best Selling Books by John Gribbin

Looking back to Alan Turing''s work on the Enigma machine and the first electronic computer, and featuring a new introduction on the recent evolution of quantum computing, author John Gribbin explains how quantum theory developed to make quantum computers work in practice as well as in principle, taking us beyond the arena of theoretical physics to explore the potential for this extraordinary science.

From the bestselling author of Science: A History comes the enthralling story of a revolution that shook the world. Seventeenth-century England was racked by civil war, plague and fire; a world ruled by superstition and ignorance. A series of meetings of ''natural philosophers'' in Oxford and London saw the beginning of a new method of thinking based on proof and experiment. John Gribbin''s gripping, colourful account of this unparalleled time of discovery explores the impact of the Royal Society, culminating with Isaac Newton''s revolutionary description of the universe and Edmund Halley''s prediction of the return of a comet in 1759. This compelling book shows the triumph not as the work of one isolated genius, but of a Fellowship.

A physicist and author of popular-science books offers down-to-earth discussions of string theory, black holes, superfluidity, and other cosmic oddities. Playful engravings and cartoons illustrate these imaginative explanations of the laws of physics and their application to everything from massive stars to miniscule atoms. Suitable for readers of all ages.

Accessible exploration of one of the most exciting areas of scientific inquiry - the nature of light. Following on from his bestseller, SCHRODINGER''S CAT, John 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 ends of the universe. In this way Gribbin introduces the reader to such new developments as quantum cryptography, through which unbreakable codes can be made, and goes on to possible future developments such as the idea that the ¿entanglement'' of quantum particles could be a way to build a STAR TREK style teleportation machine.

In the ultimate guide to the ultimate mystery--the quantum world--an award-winning scientist and a master of popular science writing explains recent breakthroughs and the wondrous possibilities that lie in the future. Illustrations throughout.

Genesis is history on its grandest scale, a brilliantly conceived and achieved chronicle of the evolution of man and the cosmos that adds new and provocative dimensions to our understanding of ourselves and our role in the Universe.

In 1972, when James Lovelock first proposed the Gaia hypothesis--the idea that the Earth is a living organism that maintains conditions suitable for life--he was ridiculed by the scientific establishment. Today Lovelock''s revolutionary insight, though still extremely controversial, is recognized as one of the most creative, provocative, and captivating scientific ideas of our time. James Lovelock tells for the first time the whole story of this maverick scientist''s life and how it served as a unique preparation for the idea of Gaia. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Lovelock himself and unprecedented access to his private papers, John and Mary Gribbin paint an intimate and fascinating portrait of a restless, uniquely gifted freethinker. In a lifetime spanning almost a century, Lovelock has followed a career path that led him from chemistry, to medicine, to engineering, to space science. He worked for the British secret service and contributed to the success of the D-Day landings in World War II. He was a medical experimenter and an accomplished inventor. And he was working with NASA on methods for finding possible life on Mars when he struck upon the idea of Gaia, conceiving of the Earth as a vast, living, self-regulating system. Deftly framed within the context of today''s mounting global-warming crisis, James Lovelock traces the intertwining trajectories of Lovelock''s life and the famous idea it brought forth, which continues to provoke passionate debate about the nature and future of life on our planet.

Studie over het leven en de theorieën van de natuurkundige (1879-1955)

Originally published in 1992 to great acclaim, this updated edition traces the course of Hawking’s life and science, successfully marrying biography and physics to tell the story of a remarkable man. Stephen Hawking is no ordinary scientist. With a career that began over thirty years ago at Cambridge University, he has managed to do more than perhaps any other scientist to broaden our basic understanding of the universe. His theoretical work on black holes and his progress in advancing our knowledge of the origin and nature of the cosmos have been groundbreaking—if not downright revolutionary. Stephen Hawking has also spent much of his adult life confined to a wheelchair, a victim of ALS, a degenerative motor neuron disease. Clearly his physical limitations have done nothing to confine him intellectually. He simply never allowed his illness to hinder his scientific development. In fact, many would argue that his liberation from the routine chores of life has allowed him to focus his efforts more keenly on his science. Hawking certainly would have been remarkable for his cutting edge work in theoretical physics alone. However, he has also managed to popularize science in a way unparalleled by other scientists of his stature. He became a household name, achieving almost cult-like fame, with the release of his best-selling book, A Brief History of Time. Although steeped in the potentially overwhelming complexities of cosmology, he succeeded in selling millions of copies to audiences eager to learn even some of what he has to offer. Science writers White and Gribbin have skillfully painted a portrait of an indefatigable genius and a scientific mind that seemingly knows no bounds. Knitting together clear explanations of Hawking’s science with a detailed personal history that is both balanced as well as sensitive, we come to know—and appreciate—both. As Stephen Hawking’s new book, The Universe in a Nutshell, hits the best-seller lists, it is the ideal time for readers to learn more about this remarkable man and his vast body of accomplishments.

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.

"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