New Releases by Martin Gardner

This newly updated edition of a well-known work explores a pair of modern science''s most fundamental discoveries: the asymmetric DNA helix and the overthrow of parity (left-right symmetry) in particle physics. Absorbing and thought-provoking, The New Ambidextrous Universe was written by Martin Gardner, one of Dover''s most popular authors,.

In a society begging to be duped, Martin Gardner, the most devastating debunker of scientific fraud and chicanery of our time, ranges here from science and mathematics to literature, philosophy, religion, and mysticism. With keen skepticism, he skewers the fallacies of pseudoscience, from Dr. Bruno Bettelheim''s erroneous theory of autism to the farce of Primal Scream therapy, and he examines the bizarre tangents produced by Freudians and deconstructionists in their critiques of "Little Red Riding Hood." Book jacket.

Relying on the remarkable forces of science and nature, this material offers great ideas for performing illusions, magic tricks, and experiments.

"[Gardner] zaps his targets with laserlike precision and wit."—Entertainment Weekly Martin Gardner is perhaps the wittiest, most devastating unmasker of scientific fraud and intellectual chicanery of our time. Here he muses on topics as diverse as numerology, New Age anthropology, and the late Senator Claiborne Pell''s obsession with UFOs, as he mines Americans'' seemingly inexhaustible appetite for bad science. Gardner''s funny, brilliantly unsettling exposés of reflexology and urine therapy should be required reading for anyone interested in "alternative" medicine. In a world increasingly tilted toward superstition, Did Adam and Eve Have Navels? will give those of us who prize logic and common sense immense solace and inspiration. "Gardner is a national treasure...I wish [this] could be made compulsory reading in every high school—and in Congress."—Arthur C. Clarke "Nobody alive has done more than Gardner to spread the understanding and appreciation of mathematics, and to dispel superstition."— The New Criterion, John Derbyshire

For many decades, Martin Gardner, the Grand Master of mathematical puzzles, has provided the tools and projects to furnish our all-too-sluggish minds with an athletic workout. Gardner''s problems foster an agility of the mind as they entertain. This volume presents a new collection of problems and puzzles not previously published in book form. Martin Gardner has dedicated it to "all the underpaid teachers of mathematics everywhere, who love their subject and are able to communicate that love to their students."

No amateur or math authority can be without this ultimate compendium of classic puzzles, paradoxes, and puzzles from America''s best-loved mathematical expert. 320 line drawings.

A master debunker of scientific fraud and psuedo-science takes on numerology, Freud''s dream theory, reflexology, and the Heaven''s Gate cult, among other assaults on reason and rational thought.

A noted author defends his personal attitudes toward the fundamental issues of classical philosophy, discussing the awesome mystery surrounding science and life and explaining why he considers himself a theist.

This is the first edition of Chesterton''s masterpiece, The Man Who Was Thursday, that explicates and enriches the complete text with extensive footnotes, together with an introductory essay on the metaphysical meaning of Chesterton''s profound allegory. Gardner sees the novel''s anarchists as symbols of our God-given free will, and the mysterious Sunday as representing Nature, with its strange mixture of good and evil when considered as distinct from God, as a mask hiding the transcendental face of the creator. The book also includes a bibliography listing the novel''s many earlier editions and stage dramatizations, as well as numerous illustrations that further illuminate the text.

This book contains scores of intriguing puzzles and paradoxes from Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, whose interests ranged from inventing new games like Arithmetical Croquet to important problems in symbolic logic and propositional calculus. Written by Carroll expert and well-known mathematics author Martin Gardner, this tour through Carroll''s inventions is both fun and informative.

A collection of tricks, stunts, and puzzles that explore the properties of water, air, friction, heat, motion, light, and more.

The definitive work of Martin Gardner''s brilliant, seven-decades-long career, "The Night Is Large" collects 54 of the most significant essays by this popular writer best known for his "Mathematical Games" columns which appeared in "Scientific American" magazine for more than 25 years.

This text contains 54 of Martin Gardner''s most searching and challenging essays, spanning nearly six decades. Issues tackled range from the apparent inexplicability of quantum physics to the eternal question of the existence of God, and an array of subjects are covered, from philosophy, the arts and religion, to mathematics and science.

At a time when popular knowledge of basic science has sunk to a new low and books promoting angels, parapsychology, and bizarre forms of medicine and healing outnumber skeptical books by more than a thousand to one, Americans need a voice of sanity. Weird Water and Fuzzy Logic introduces readers to mind-wrenching probability paradoxes, recent attacks on the Big Bang Theory, and Marianne Williamson''s success promoting The Course of Miracles, which is said to have been channeled by Jesus. Other columns address E-prime, a language that omits all forms of the verb "to be"; Norman Vincent Peale''s beliefs in the paranormal; repressed memory therapy; science blunders by famous writers; the influence of Transcendental Meditation on the career of Doug Henning; a critique of "Klingon" and other artificial languages; and much more.

A book of all sorts of stimulating ideas and feasts for the eyes, hands and brain.

Offers puzzles and problems dealing with logic, fractals, negative numbers, topology, and geometry

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A collection of brain teasers and mathematical puzzles from the pages of Scientific American. Annotation. These clearly and cleverly presented mathematical recreations of paradoxes and paperfolding, Moebius variations and mnemonics both ancient and modern delight and perplex while demonstrating principles of logic, probability, geometry, and other mathematical fields. Martin Gardner has turned a trick as neat as any in the book itself. He has selected a group of diversions which are not only entertaining but mathematically meaningful as well. The result is a work which is rewarding on almost every level of mathematical achievement.

Selections from his monthly column on mathematical recreations in the "Scientific American," with much new material, and comments from Mr. Gardner and his readers.

From coincidences that seem to violate the laws of time and space, to the perplexities of the rubber rope, to the centuries-old delights of tangram play, the puzzles, problems, and paradoxes presented in Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments reveal just how enlightening and entertaining mathematical recreations can be.

"Solving these riddles is not simply a matter of logic and calculation, though these play a role. Luck and inspiration are factors as well, so beginners and experts alike may profitably exercise their wits on Gardner''s problems, whose subjects range from geometry to word play to questions relating to physics and geology. We guarantee that you will solve some of these riddles, be stumped by others, and be amused by almost all of the stories and settings that Gardner has devised to raise these questions." --Back cover.

Playing with mathematical riddles can be an intriguing and fun-filled pastime — as popular science writer Martin Gardner proves in this entertaining collection. Puzzlists need only an elementary knowledge of math and a will to resist looking up the answer before trying to solve a problem. Written in a light and witty style, Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles is a mixture of old and new riddles, grouped into sections that cover a variety of mathematical topics: money, speed, plane and solid geometry, probability, topology, tricky puzzles, and more. The probability section, for example, points out that everything we do, everything that happens around us, obeys the laws of probability; geometry puzzles test our ability to think pictorially and often, in more than one dimension; while topology, among the "youngest and rowdiest branches of modern geometry," offers a glimpse into a strange dimension where properties remain unchanged, no matter how a figure is twisted, stretched, or compressed. Clear and concise comments at the beginning of each section explain the nature and importance of the math needed to solve each puzzle. A carefully explained solution follows each problem. In many cases, all that is needed to solve a puzzle is the ability to think logically and clearly, to be "on the alert for surprising, off-beat angles...that strange hidden factor that everyone else had overlooked." Fully illustrated, this engaging collection will appeal to parents and children, amateur mathematicians, scientists, and students alike, and may, as the author writes, make the reader "want to study the subject in earnest" and explains "some of the inviting paths that wind away from the problems into lusher areas of the mathematical jungle." 65 black-and-white illustrations.

Explains various methods used in cryptography and presents examples to help readers in breaking secret codes

This collection of essays by America''s foremost polymath delves into some of the many fascinating subjects in which Martin Gardner has had an abiding interest. Focusing primarily on literary and philosophical subjects, Order and Surprise is the sequel to the widely acclaimed Science: Good, Bad and Bogus. Some of Gardner''s best essays and reviews are included in this volume, such as: "Why Librarians Dislike Oz""The Strange Case of Robert Maynard Hutchins""H.G. Wells, ''Premature'' Anti-Communist""Orwell''s Nineteen Eighty-Four""Is Nature Ambidextrous?""Beyond Cultural Relativism""The Popperism of Sir Karl""Keeping Up With Einstein"In addition, Gardner has included many of his perceptive reviews of books by and about such authors as Franz Kafka, Thomas Wolfe, John Updike, Vance Packard, Colin Wilson, Lewis Carroll, and many others.In some cases the author has modified the original texts, sometimes restoring passages removed by editors, sometimes adding new footnotes to update the material. In many cases, Gardner has added a postscript that allows him to comment on an article or review. Like the previous anthology, this book is divided into two parts. The first contains articles in chronological order of publication; the second, book reviews in similar order.Order and Surprise represents Gardner at his best - incisive, witty, and urbane.