Böcker av Paul Halpern

A respected physics professor and author breaks down the great debate over the Big Bang and the continuing quest to understand the fate of the universe. Today, the Big Bang is so entrenched in our understanding of the cosmos that to doubt it would seem crazy. But as Paul Halpern shows in Flashes of Creation, just decades ago its mere mention caused sparks to fly. At the center of the debate were Russian American physicist George Gamow and British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. Gamow insisted that a fiery explosion explained how the elements of the universe were created. Attacking the idea as half-baked, Hoyle countered that the universe was engaged in a never-ending process of creation. The battle was fierce. In the end, Gamow turned out to be right -- mostly -- and Hoyle, despite his many achievements, is remembered for giving the theory the silliest possible name: "The Big Bang." Halpern captures the brilliance of both thinkers and reminds us that even those proved wrong have much to teach us about boldness, imagination, and the universe itself.

"We are obsessed with the multiverse. From blockbuster movies Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Everything, Everywhere, All at Once to television's The Man in the High Castle and Rick and Morty, the idea that there could be an infinite number of universes holding an infinite number of possibilities captivates us. And this fascination is not new - the fascination with these repetitions dates back to the philosophers of ancient Greece. In The Allure of the Multiverse, physicist Paul Halpern examines the theory of the universe we can't seem to let go; in an infinite universe, finite components are bound to repeat their patterns again and again. Halpern traces the multiverse from the ancient Greek debate over cosmic building blocks, to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's imagined eternal repetition of all events and lives in time, to Albert Einstein's special and general theories of relativity opening the door to the fourth dimension (another way of enlarging reality). All these ideas together culminated in Princeton graduate student Hugh Everett's 'Many Words Interpretation,' in which all possibilities of existence simultaneously exist. That imaginative idea led to numerous other multiverse notions, including the idea that the universe might be a collection of 'bubble universes,' each inflated from the primordial stuff of the cosmos. Yet the prospect of such a maddening labyrinth of parallel realities has led other researchers to propose alternatives, such as bouncing universes in multiple dimensions, that are every bit as perplexing. An epic through physics' history, The Allure of the Multiverse explores one of physics' most controversial - yet most persistent - ideas"

A comparative overview of common images of the universe from world art and folklore and their similarities to our current scientific understanding.

From Aristotle's Physics to quantum teleportation, the story of the pursuit of causes that happen faster than the speed of light

Post-First World War, the Mediterranean Fleet found itself in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Sea of Marmora, the Black Sea and the Adriatic. The collapse of the Ottoman, Russian and Habsburg empires created a vacuum of power in which different factions struggled for control.

The story of the unlikely friendship between the two physicists who fundamentally recast the notion of time and history.

Following the end of the First World War the Mediterranean Fleet found itself heavily involved in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Sea of Marmora, the Black Sea and to a lesser extent, the Adriatic. This title shows the Mediterranean Fleet back to preparation for a major war, applying the lessons of World War One.

An amazing journey throughout the universe in a search for other planets and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

A guide to the myriad possibilities for cosmic apocalypse.