Quantum physics is strange. It tells us that a particle can be in two places at once. Indeed, that particle is also a wave, and everything in the quantum world can be described entirely in terms of waves, or entirely in terms of particles, whichever you prefer. All of this was clear by the end of the 1920s. But to the great distress of many physicists, let alone ordinary mortals, nobody has ever been able to come up with a common sense explanation of what is going on. Physicists have sought 'quanta of solace' in a variety of more or less convincing interpretations. Popular science master John Gribbin takes us on a ... |
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Unlocking the mysteries of all 118 elements. Every element has character, be it volatile, aloof, gregarious or enigmatic. They also have incredible stories of how they came to be, how they were discovered and how their qualities have been harnessed to make everything we have in the world. Dr Ben Still takes you through all the groups, revealing the fascinating circumstances of their discoveries and explaining their characteristics and behaviour, often delving inside the atom to explain their structure in a way easily accessible to everyone. Insightful illustrations help you to understand even the most complex-looking ... |
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And why nearly everything you know about them is wrong. In A Brief History of Black Holes, award-winning University of Oxford researcher Dr Becky Smethurst charts five hundred years of scientific breakthroughs in astronomy and astrophysics. Right now, you are orbiting a black hole. The Earth orbits the Sun, and the Sun orbits the centre of the Milky Way: a supermassive black hole, the strangest and most misunderstood phenomenon in the galaxy. In this cosmic tale of discovery, Dr Becky Smethurst takes us from the earliest observations of the universe and the collapse of massive stars, to the iconic first photographs of a ... |
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Finding balance in the age of indulgence. This book is about pleasure. It's also about pain. Most important, it's about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We're living in a time of unprecedented access to high reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting... The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all ... |
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The ultimate bitesize study guide. All the core national curriculum maths topics in one book, an accessible, and indispensable guide for students, parents, and educators. Covering topics from probability to statistics, algebra to geometry, this study guide is what every young, budding mathematician needs to succeed in maths - both at home and in school. This maths book is the perfect support for coursework, homework, and exam revision. Inside students will find: key concepts are shown in visual form and summarised to just one page; important aspects of each topic explained with step-by-step instructions and diagrams; ... |
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What is an imaginary number? Can two parallel lines ever meet? How can maths help us predict the future? Charting the development of maths around the world from Babylon to Bletchley Park, this book explores big questions like these and explains how the answers help us understand everything from patterns in nature to artificial intelligence. Written in clear English, The Maths Book is packed with short, pithy explanations that cut through the jargon, step-by-step diagrams that untangle knotty theories, memorable quotes, and witty illustrations that play with our ideas about numbers. This diverse and inclusive account of ... |
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Big ideas simply explained. Discover the key architectural concepts behind the world's most incredible buildings and structures. The Architecture Book goes beyond other architecture books to analyse not just buildings themselves, but the ideas and principles that make each of the featured structures key to the history and evolution of our built environment. From ancient and classical architecture through Medieval, Gothic, and Renaissance buildings, the explosion of Baroque and Rococo, and the 19th-century battle of the styles, to the emergence of modernism, postmodernism, and the glittering skyscrapers of the 20th ... |
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A magisterial cultural history of the Atlantic Ocean before Columbus, ranging from the early shaping of the continents and the emergence of homo sapiens to the story of shipbuilding, navigation, maritime exploration, slavery, and nascent European imperialism. A dazzling and ambitious history of the pre-Columbian Atlantic seas, Ocean is a story that begins with the formation of the mid-Atlantic ridge some 200 million years ago and ends with the Castilian conquest of the Canary Islands in the fifteenth century, providing a template for the methods used by the Spanish in their colonization of the New World. John Haywood ... |
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The amazing true story of an astronomical breakthrough. Award-winning investigative journalist Anna Crowley Redding presents the riveting true story of one of the most inspiring scientific breakthroughs of our lifetime the Event Horizon Telescope team's reveal of the first image of a super massive black hole. In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope team unveiled the first ever image of a super massive black hole. This inspiring scientific breakthrough took years of hard work, innovative thinking, and a level of global cooperation never seen before. A multi-national team of scientists, lead by Dr. Shep Doeleman ... |
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How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift and your own soul can help you change your life. Show yourself who's in charge using the original art of persuasion, backed by contemporary pop culture examples that make transforming your habits and achieving goals easy, even fun-from the New York Times bestselling author of Thank You for Arguing. Rhetoric once sat at the center of elite education. Alexander the Great, Shakespeare, and Martin Luther King, Jr., used it to build empires, write deathless literature, and inspire democracies. Now it will help you to take leadership over yourself; not through pop psychology or empty ... |
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The ultimate bitesize study guide. A fantastic aid for coursework, homework, and test revision, this completely comprehensive guide to Key Stages 3 and 4, and the entire GCSE curriculum, makes chemistry crystal clear and will have you exam-ready in no time. Each topic is fully illustrated to support the information, make the facts crystal clear and bring the science to life. A large central image explains the idea visually and each topic is summed up on a single page, helping children to quickly get up to speed and really understand how chemistry works. Information boxes explain the theory with the help of simple ... |
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Every night, above our heads, a drama of epic proportions is playing out. Diamond planets, zombie stars, black holes heavier than a billion Suns. The cast of characters is extraordinary, and each one has its own incredible story to tell. We once thought of our Earth as unique, but we have now discovered thousands of alien planets, and that’s barely a fraction of the worlds that are out there. And there are more stars in the Universe than grains of sand on every planet in the Solar System. But amid all this vastness, the Milky Way Galaxy, our Sun and the Earth are home to the only known life in the Universe - at least for ... |