Best Selling Books by John Gribbin

Buddy Holly was killed at 22 when the plane he was travelling in crashed on 3 February 1959. Although this was less than two years after Holly''s first hit record, Don McLean described this as ''the day the music died.'' But Sonny Curtis, Holly''s friend and musical colleague, told us that the music didn''t die, because ''Buddy Holly lives every time you play rock''n''roll.'' Fifty years after Holly''s death, his lasting influence is clear; a musical based on his life seems set to run for longer than his lifetime and artists as diverse as Blink 182 and Bob Dylan call him an inspiration.The Beatles chose That''ll Be the Day by Buddy''s group The Crickets as their first attempt at recording, as well as taking the idea for their name. Clearly, the music didn''t die!John Gribbin, an ardent fan since he was twelve, presents this labour of love written in the spirit of Sonny Curtis'' lyric, as a celebration of Holly''s all too brief life, and as an introduction,for all those not around in 1959, to the man and his astonishing musical legacy. "Not Fade Away" also includes - uniquely - a full and detailed account of every Holly recording session, which any Buddy fan will devour.

Early scientific theories made things seem completely predictable. But the real world is unpredictable, and this book explains why. The reader can find out what chaos has to do with earthquakes and avalanches, the stockmarket, Saturn''s rings, evolution and special offers at the local supermarket.

The Earth does not belong to man alone The Himalayas bury their secrets well. Two skulls unearthed in the cradle of the human race - the remote heights of Kashmir - throw evolutionary theory into chaos. But a far more disturbing secret lies hidden deep in the bleak mountains and snow-swept valleys unseen by human eyes. A few miles from the explosive triangle of tension where Afghanistan and Pakistan border on India the story of the century breaks. And the echoes of the most shattering revelation yet made to man threaten to plunge the world into total war which will turn the cradle of the human race into its final grave.

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.

The theory of evolution by natural selection did not spring fully formed and unprecedented from the brain of Charles Darwin. The idea of evolution had been around, in various guises, since the time of Ancient Greece. And nor did theorizing about evolution stop with what Daniel Dennett called "Darwin’s dangerous idea." In this riveting new book, bestselling science writers John and Mary Gribbin explore the history of the idea of evolution, showing how Darwin''s theory built on what went before and how it was developed in the twentieth century, through an understanding of genetics and the biochemical basis of evolution, into the so-called "modern synthesis" and beyond. Darwin deserves his recognition as the primary proponent of the idea of natural selection, but as the authors show, his contribution was one link in a chain that extends back into antiquity and is still being forged today.

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.

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.

"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.

Charles Darwin was the epitome of the Victorian gentleman amateur scientist, living entirely off inherited wealth and the income from his books. At the same time, however, he was the most professional scientist of his day. Darwin''s life is full of contrast. In his youth, he seemed likely to become a wastrel, yet he became a hard-working and renowned scientist. His family life in a small Kentish village was mostly idyllically happy; but the loss of his favourite daughter, Annie, brought him intense misery that lasted long after her death. Darwin shunned publicity; but he became the most famous scientist of his time, for an idea which shook the foundations of Victorian society. Even today, some people reject his idea - evolution by natural selection - without bothering to find out what Darwin said. But it is one of those great achievements of the human intellect with which everyone should be acquainted.

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.

"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

Is Earth unique or are there similar planets orbiting other stars? Why were two legs better than four in the development of intelligent life on Earth? John Gribbin considers these questions and other topics as he takes a grand tour of concepts that have helped shaped our ideas about the universe.