A Brief History of Time for the 21st Century
MEDIA REVIEWS
At the heart of our galaxy lies a monster so deadly it can bend space,throwing vast jets of radiation millions of light years out into the cosmos. Its kind were the very first inhabitants of the universe,the black holes.
Today,across the universe,at the heart of every galaxy,and dotted throughout,mature black holes are creating chaos. And in a quiet part of the universe,the Swift satellite has picked up evidence of a gruesome death caused by one of these dark powers. High energy X-ray flares shooting out from deep within the Draco constellation are thought to be the dying cries of a white dwarf star being ripped apart by the intense tides of a supermassive black hole - heating it to millions of degrees as it is shredded at the event horizon.
They have the power to wipe out any of the universe's other inhabitants,but no one has ever seen a black hole itself die. But 1.8 billion light years away,the LIGO instruments have recently detected something that could be the closest a black hole gets to death. Gravitational waves given off as two enormous black holes merge together. And now scientists think that these gravitational waves could be evidence of two black holes connecting to form a wormhole - a link through space and time. It seems outlandish,but today's physicists are daring to think the unthinkable - that black holes could connect us to another universe.
At their very heart,black holes are also where Einstein's Theory of General Relativity is stretched in almost unimaginable ways,revealing black holes as the key to our understanding of the fundamentals of our universe and perhaps all other universes.
Join Professors Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw in exploring our universe's most mysterious inhabitants,how they are formed,why they are essential components of every galaxy,including our own,and what secrets they still hold,waiting to be discovered.
Publisher: HarperCollins PublishersISBN: 9780008350758Number of pages: 288Weight: 550 gDimensions: 240 x 159 x 28 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'An AMAZING thing to read. So SATISFYING,I REALLY RECOMMEND reading this book...FASCINATING'Jeremy Vine
'FASCINATING... a MIND BOGGLING new book'Afternoon Edition with Nihal Arthanayake,BBC Radio
'There are few better than Cox at turning tricksy,potentially dense subjects into captivating "edutainment"for the masses - be it in BBC documentaries,live shows or books. Not for nothing did Sir David Attenborough once proclaim: "If I had a torch I would hand it to Brian Cox."'Guy Kelly,Daily Telegraph
'A spellbinding cosmic exploration that resists collapsing under the weight of jargon.'Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Professors Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw
'They have blazed a clear trail into forbidding territory,from the mathematical structure of space-time all the way to atom bombs,astrophysics and the origin of mass.'New Scientist
'Inspirational'Buzz Aldrin
'A scientific match made in heaven'Observer
'Cox and Forshaw stand together at the cutting edge of their discipline...Despite their elevated status,both men remain tiggerishly excitable about their subject'Financial Times
'Mindblowing'Sunday Times
'I can think of no one,Stephen Hawking included,who more perfectly combines authority,knowledge,passion,clarity,and powers of elucidation than Brian Cox.'Stephen Fry,2009
'Admirably shies away from dumbing down'Economist
'They do a great job of bringing a difficult subject to life'The Times
'If you're not a physicist (or not yet a physicist) and you want to understand what Einstein and relativity theory are all about,you would do well to read this book. The writing is clear,sparkling in places,and totally without vanity...(A) delightful little book'Huffington Post
'Readers will enjoy this engaging,ambitious and creative tour of our quantum universe'Guardian
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