Science Cosmology

Human life is a staggeringly strange thing. On the surface of a ball of rock falling around a nuclear fireball in the blackness of a vacuum, the laws of nature conspired to create a naked ape that can look up at the stars and wonder where it came from. What is a human being? Objectively, nothing of consequence. Particles of dust in an infinite arena, present for an instant in eternity.

This audiobook explores how the discoveries within the Solar System and of exoplanets far beyond it come together to help us understand the habitability of Earth, and how these findings guide the search for exoplanets that could support life. The author highlights how, within two decades of the discovery of the first planets outside the Solar System in the 1990s, scientists concluded that planets are so common that most stars are orbited by them. The lives of exoplanets and their stars are inextricably interwoven.

Over the past two centuries scientific advances have made it clear that the universe is a story still unfolding. In this thought-provoking book, John F. Haught considers the deeper implications of this discovery. He contends that many others who have written books on life and the universe - including Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Dawkins - have overlooked a crucial aspect of cosmic history: the drama of life's awakening to interiority and religious awareness.

Impact argues that Earth would be a lifeless, inhospitable piece of rock without being fortuitously assaulted with meteorites throughout the history of the planet. These bombardments transformed Earth’s early atmosphere and delivered the complex organic molecules that allowed life to develop on our planet.

In 1959, the Soviet probe Luna 3 took the first photos of the far side of the Moon. Even in their poor resolution, the images stunned scientists: The far side is an enormous mountainous expanse, not the vast lava plains seen from Earth. Subsequent missions have confirmed this in much greater detail. How could this be, and what might it tell us about our own place in the universe? As it turns out, quite a lot. When the Earth Had Two Moons is an astonishing exploration of planet formation and the origins of life by one of the world’s most innovative planetary geologists.

Os grandes mistérios e maravilhas do céu noturno sempre nos fascinaram, intrigaram e divertiram, desde os primeiros passos na Terra. Hoje, continuamos nos esforçando para entender o nosso lugar no cosmos. O século 20 foi palco de importantes e assombrosas descobertas sobre o nosso próprio planeta, o sistema solar, as estrelas e as galáxias. Contudo, ainda buscamos respostas para inúmeras questões, e essa busca nos proporciona uma valiosa compreensão da vastidão e das infinitas possibilidades do espaço universal que ainda estamos por descobrir.

A physicist speeds across space, time, and everything in between showing that our elegant universe from the Higgs boson to antimatter to the most massive group of galaxies is shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven all our recent discoveries about the universe and all the ones to come. Why is the sky dark at night? Is it possible to build a shrink-ray gun? If there is antimatter, can there be antipeople? Why are past, present, and future our only options? Are time and space like a butterfly's wings? No one but Dave Goldberg, the coolest nerd physicist on the planet, could give a hyper-drive tour of the universe like this one.

Recent polls report that 96-percent of Americans believe in God, and 73-percent believe that angels regularly visit Earth. Why is this? Why, despite the rise of science, technology, and secular education, are people turning to religion in greater numbers than ever before? Why do people believe in God at all?

Ragnarok. Armageddon. Doomsday. Since the dawn of time, man has wondered how the world would end. In The Last Three Minutes, Paul Davies reveals the latest theories. Voiced in clear language that makes the cutting-edge science of quarks, neutrinos, wormholes, and metaverses accessible to the layman, The Last Three Minutes treats listeners to a wide range of conjectures about the ultimate fate of the universe.

What is the nature of the material world? How does it work? What is the universe and how was it formed? What is life? Where do we come from and how did we evolve? How and why do we think? What does it mean to be human? How do we know? There are many different versions of our creation story. This book tells the version according to modern science. It is a unique account, starting at the Big Bang and travelling right up to the emergence of humans as conscious intelligent beings, 13.8 billion years later.

We know the universe had a beginning. But what happens at the end of the story? With lively wit and wry humour, astrophysicist Katie Mack takes us on a mind-bending tour through each of the cosmos' possible finales: the Big Crunch, Heat Death, Vacuum Decay, the Big Rip and the Bounce. Guiding us through major concepts in quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory and much more, she describes how small tweaks to our incomplete understanding of reality can result in starkly different futures.

Uma das mentes mais geniais do mundo moderno, Stephen Hawking guia o leitor na busca por respostas a algumas das maiores dúvidas da humanidade: Qual a origem do universo? Ele é infinito? E o tempo? Sempre existiu, ou houve um começo e haverá um fim? Existem outras dimensões além das três espaciais? E o que vai acontecer quando tudo terminar? Com ilustrações criativas e texto lúcido e bem-humorado, Hawking desvenda desde os mistérios da física de partículas até a dinâmica que movimenta centenas de milhões de galáxias por todo o universo.

Redefining what it means to be human: What is our cosmic story? In the last 100 years, science has provided more information on life than in all of recorded history. But what are we to do with that information? Cosmologist Brian Thomas Swimme explains why we need a new cosmic story that explains what we now know about the Universe, and how that story can provide a pathway into the future of a vibrant life.

Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943) was a genius who revolutionized the way the world looks at electricity. In February 1915, Tesla published a short 12-page work titled How Cosmic Forces Shape Our Destinies in the New York American magazine, recreated as an audiobook here. As Tesla explains in this work, "everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside. There is no gap between, no break of continuity, no special and distinguishing vital agent. The same law governs all matter, all the universe is alive."

In Signposts to God, particle physicist Peter Bussey introduces listeners to the mysteries of modern physics and astronomy. Authored in clear, accessible prose, Bussey provides a primer on topics such as the laws of nature, quantum physics, fine-tuning, and current cosmological models. Bussey argues that, far from ruling out a divine creator, modern physics and astronomy present us with compelling signposts to God. The more we know about the cosmos and our presence in it, the more plausible belief in God becomes.

Let us journey, with beloved physicist Carlo Rovelli, into the heart of a black hole. Let us slip beyond its boundary, the horizon, and tumble - on and on - down this crack in the universe. As we plunge, we'll see geometry fold, we'll feel the equations draw tight around us. Eventually, we'll pass it: the remains of a star, deep and dense and falling further far. And then - the bottom. Where time and space end, and the white hole is born.

Once dismissed as a mathematical curiosity, black holes are so strange they almost defy belief. Since their existence was confirmed, research into the nature of black holes has opened up new vistas in physics. In this audiobook, we examine some of the most fascinating discoveries about black hole formation and behavior, the new and evolving research in gravitational wave astronomy, theoretical possibilities such as wormholes, and much more.

In this vibrant, eye-opening tour of milestones in the history of our universe, Chris Impey guides us through space and time, leading us from the familiar sights of the night sky to the dazzlingly strange aftermath of the Big Bang. What if we could look into space and see not only our place in the universe but also how we came to be here? As it happens, we can. Because it takes time for light to travel, we see more and more distant regions of the universe as they were in the successively greater past.

This is an indispensable guide to physics that offers readers an overview of the most popular physics topics written in an accessible, irreverent, and engaging manner while still maintaining a tone of wry skepticism. Even the novice will be able to follow along, as the topics are addressed using plain English and (almost) no equations. Veterans of popular physics will also find their nagging questions addressed, like whether the universe can expand faster than light.

When Stephen Hawking died, he was widely recognized as the world's best physicist, and even its smartest person. He was neither. In Hawking Hawking, science journalist Charles Seife explores how Stephen Hawking came to be thought of as humanity's greatest genius. Hawking spent his career grappling with deep questions in physics, but his renown didn't rest on his science. He was a master of self-promotion, hosting parties for time travelers, declaring victory over problems he had not solved, and wooing billionaires.