Recounts the virtual missions of the Mars Society space pioneer team, who while waiting for new technological advances in the space program, replicated and simulated the real-life challenges of exploring Mars on the harshest terrains on Earth. Reprint.

In this brilliant exploration of our cosmic environment, the renowned particle physicist andNew York Times bestselling author of Warped Passages and Knocking on Heaven’s Dooruses her research into dark matter to illuminate the startling connections between the furthest reaches of space and life here on Earth. Sixty-six million years ago, an object the size of a city descended from space to crash into Earth, creating a devastating cataclysm that killed off the dinosaurs, along with three-quarters of the other species on the planet. What was its origin? InDark Matter and the Dinosaurs, Lisa Randall proposes it was a comet that was dislodged from its orbit as the Solar System passed through a disk of dark matter embedded in the Milky Way. In a sense, it might have been dark matter that killed the dinosaurs. Working through the background and consequences of this proposal, Randall shares with us the latest findings—established and speculative—regarding the nature and role of dark matter and the origin of the Universe, our galaxy, our Solar System, and life, along with the process by which scientists explore new concepts. In Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, Randall tells a breathtaking story that weaves together the cosmos’ history and our own, illuminating the deep relationships that are critical to our world and the astonishing beauty inherent in the most familiar things.

The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.

The Quantum Universe brings together two authors on a brilliantly ambitious mission to show that everyone can understand the deepest questions of science. But just what is quantum physics? How does it help us understand the universe? Where does it leave Newton and Einstein? And how - for all its apparently counter-intuitive ideas - can we be sure that the theory is good? The bizarre behaviour of the atoms and energy that make up the universe has lead to some woolly pronouncements on the nature of all interconnectedness - but Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw reveal the simple and understandable theories that allow for concrete, yet astonishing, predictions about the world around us. From entangled twins to the incredible double-slit experiment, The Quantum Universe will give every reader the most up-to-date picture of that amazing subatomic world, where thousands of years of physics must be rewritten completely.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? What is the nature of reality? Is the apparent “grand design” of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion—or does science offer another explanation? In this startling and lavishly illustrated book, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present the most recent scientific thinking about these and other abiding mysteries of the universe, in nontechnical language marked by brilliance and simplicity. According to quantum theory, the cosmos does not have just a single existence or history. The authors explain that we ourselves are the product of quantum fluctuations in the early universe, and show how quantum theory predicts the “multiverse”—the idea that ours is just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing, each with different laws of nature. They conclude with a riveting assessment of M-theory, an explanation of the laws governing our universe that is currently the only viable candidate for a “theory of everything”: the unified theory that Einstein was looking for, which, if confirmed, would represent the ultimate triumph of human reason.

Documents the recent efforts of scientists to explain the 96 percent of the universe not comprised of known matter, drawing on interviews with leading figures to describe the rivalries, collaborations and discoveries that are redefining current understandings.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to find yourself strapped to a giant rocket that’s about to go from zero to 17,500 miles per hour? Or to look back on Earth from outer space and see the surprisingly precise line between day and night? Or to stand in front of the Hubble Space Telescope, wondering if the emergency repair you’re about to make will inadvertently ruin humankind’s chance to unlock the universe’s secrets? Mike Massimino has been there, and in Spaceman he puts you inside the suit, with all the zip and buoyancy of life in microgravity. Massimino’s childhood space dreams were born the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. Growing up in a working-class Long Island family, he catapulted himself to Columbia and then MIT, only to flunk his first doctoral exam and be rejected three times by NASA before making it through the final round of astronaut selection. Taking us through the surreal wonder and beauty of his first spacewalk, the tragedy of losing friends in the Columbia shuttle accident, and the development of his enduring love for the Hubble Telescope—which he and his fellow astronauts were tasked with saving on his final mission—Massimino has written an ode to never giving up and the power of teamwork to make anything possible. Spaceman invites us into a rare, wonderful world where science meets the most thrilling adventure, revealing just what having “the right stuff” really means.

Mars is back. Suddenly everyone – from Elon Musk to Ridley Scott to Donald Trump – is talking about going to the Red Planet.When the Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon in 1969, many people imagined Mars would be next. However, NASA’s Viking 1, which landed in 1976, was just a robot. The much-anticipated crewed mission failed to materialise, defeated by a combination of technological and political challenges.Four decades after Viking and almost half a century after Apollo, technology has improved beyond recognition – and politics has changed just as much. As private ventures like SpaceX seize centre stage from NASA, Mars has undergone a seismic shift – no longer just about science, it’s become the prime destination for future human expansion and colonisation.But what’s it really like on Mars, and why should anyone want to go there? How do you get there and what are the risks? Astrophysicist and science writer Andrew May answers all these questions and more, as he traces the history of our fascination with the Red Planet.

Recounts the story of the fifty-year-search by top scientists for the "missing" planet Vulcan and Albert Einstein's remarkable proof of the Theory of Relativity, a theory that ended the search for the hypothetical planet.

Einstein's theory of general relativity opens the door for the study of other possible universes—and weird universes at that. The Book of Universes gives us a stunning tour of these potential universes, introducing us to the brilliant physicists and mathematicians who first revealed these startling possibilities. John D. Barrow then explains the latest insights that physics and astronomy have to offer about our own universe, showing how they lead to the concept of the “multiverse