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List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £4.26
Author:
Michael Talbot
By HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
 Amazing!, 2008-03-20
Your brain is a hologram. The cosmos is a hologram. Your body is a hologram. Your mind is a hologram. Dreams are holograms. The world you perceive around you is a hologram. There is an underlying order to everything from which reality is projected. This implicate order is also known as 'the zero point energy field'. It's like a piece of holographic film on which the universe is printed. Each part contains the whole. This book is a must read for anyone trying to do anything parapsychological, whether it's psychokenisis, remote viewing, spiritual healing, or predicting the future, what you are dealing with is a hologram. As an amature music recording artist, the part I found most interesting was the bit about using holography to create 3-D surround sound through a standard pair of earphones! do an internet search for 'cetera holophony algorithm'. This book has something for everyone in it.
List Price: £15.99
Our Price: £10.02
Author:
Colin Burgess, Francis French
By University of Nebraska Press
Great book!, 2008-02-20
I have now read both 'Into that Silent Sea' and ' In the Shadow of the Moon'. Undoubtedly the pair represent an opus magnum, especially as they are given added authority by the comments of the participants in the early attempts to conquer space. The detailed accounts of the flights and the biographies of the crews are clearly the result of deep research by the authors over, it seems, a period of decades. I must presume that those readers, who know an infinite amount about the subject more than I do, will identify and vouch for the authenticity of the data, which I am completely unable to attempt. The two volumes are therefore a historical landmark for future generations similar to our seeking sources of the current affairs in the time of the Venerable Bede.
Until now the names that have been mentioned to me in the past have meant as much to me as the characters in the books by Tolkein, no book or film of whom I have ever read or seen. I now, however, have two volumes of carefully compiled references, to which I can turn to mitigate my almost complete ignorance of the space race. I must confess, for people of my vintage and background, it is not easy simply to pick up either volume and readily comprehend the intricate demands on the creators of the spacecraft and on the crews. For those among you who have a deep knowledge of the subject, the resolving of the technical problems and the remarkable courage of the crews will be a constant fascination, of which you will undoubtedly always wish to recall.
Within my orbit of knowledge, I can honestly comment that the books are very well and clearly written and the subject matter has been compiled in a most orderly manner. At no time did I have to wonder how the next aspect followed on from the former; so even a complete novice to the material as myself could follow the trend, objectives and development of the technical programme and the building of the physical capabilities, experience and knowledge of the crews.
In short I heartily congratulate the authors on their dedicated research and your concentrated application to write two profoundly authentic volumes of the space programmes over a most critical early period of eight years.
List Price: £20.99
Our Price: £10.06
Author:
Guy Consolmagno, Dan M. Davis
By Cambridge University Press
The Novice Stargazer's Bible, 2008-03-06
Ask any amateur astronomer what the first book they would recommend to a novice, and the majority will tell you this very book.
Written in a style that is user friendly yet not patronising, it carefully details the highlights of the night sky (by season), giving ratings for each target. All the information on how to find that elusive nebula or galaxy etc is here, along with realistic sketched views through the scope (and finderscope) from a 'normal' viewing site.
Rather than showing each target as a HST or large observatory scope photograph, leading to frustration from the novice, this book is refreshingly honest at what the back garden stargazer will see.
Along with the catalogue of targets (with excellent descriptions of what you are looking at), there is plenty of information on how to set up scopes, what equipment to use and other general advice needed for the novice/amateur astronomer.
I've yet to see a book that covers amateur observations so well.
List Price: £20.00
Our Price: £5.50
Author:
Stephen William Hawking
By Bantam Press
The Universe in a Nutshell attempts to address the relative difficulty of Hawking's first foray into popular science, A Brief History of Time. While this sold in its millions, few readers got past the first few chapters. Helpfully, this new work is full of beautifully prepared colour illustrations and decorations, and has a "tree-like" structure, so that readers can skip from chapter to chapter without losing the thread. In 200 highly illustrated pages, Hawking is pushing the frontiers of popular physics beyond relativity and quantum theory, past superstring theory and imaginary time, into a dizzying new world of M-theory and branes. It's a colossal venture--one Hawking is uniquely qualified to undertake--but it is crammed into far too small a space. When you consider the other rather good tomes being written on the nature of consciousness these days, the decision to limit The Universe in a Nutshell to the dictates of publishing rather than to the natural parameters of the material is an unfortunate one. Worse, Hawking tries to paper over the complexity of his field. He rushes over the very concepts he should be helping us understand, only to belabour sim...
Universe in a Nutshell review, 2005-01-14
I think this book has a broad appeal for all readers that have an interest in science. When I first bought the book I was worried thet it would be too complicated because my area of expertise is law not science, but it is explained in an interesting and simple way with illustrations and minimal use of maths! Not only will you get an idea of the science behind this book but it will also leave you with philisophical thoughts about the universe and the mysteries that are incomprehensable and yet to be solved.
List Price: £17.95
Our Price: £9.91
Author:
H This
By Columbia University Press
Fascinating and inspiring, 2008-03-12
This is very interesting book covering a wide range of topics on the subject of flavour, taste and smell perception as well as the application of basic science to food and drink technology. I was particularly interested in the recent research into the physiology of taste perception, which until recently was the poor cousin of that of the sense of smell. There is a fair bit of chemistry, biochemistry and physics to take in to get full value from the book so I think this book would appeal most to those not only interested in food and cooking but also with some scientific knowledge. The last section of the book focuses on how the physico-chemical properties of ingredients like eggs or fats can be manipulated into creating novel recipes for foods. One can see where the likes of the innovative chef Heston Blumenthal got his inspiration.
List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £4.56
Author:
Michio Kaku
By Penguin Books Ltd
accessible, 2008-01-10
a GENUINELY accessible book, written in layman's (or layperson's as it must be these days) terms. the logic of the format flows easily and the topics covered are fascinating, highly speculative but also logically probable. a book to come back to again.
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £3.00
Author:
Simon Singh
By HarperPerennial
Big Bang, 2008-06-14
I LOVE this book! Never have I started a review like this, but boy do I love this book. I read a LOT of books and this one had me gripped from the first page and kept me engrossed and stimulated the whole way through. Singh manages to explain complex ideas and theories in such a way that they are rendered clear and coherent and allow you to understand the difficult themes surrounding cosmology and the big bang theory. This book starts by looking at Copernicus, Galileo, Newton etc and showing how their ideas lead to modern cosmology research and development, it explores the development of telescopes and other measuring apparatus (more interesting than it sounds!) and how discoveries were made about galaxies millions of km's away from earth. It looks at opposing theories and the controversies surrounding them and how each theory gained ground and was either disproved or confirmed. This book is littered with anecdotes and humorous asides that add to the enjoyment of reading, as well as increasing your understanding. You also get a real feel for the excitement of discovery and of the various protagonists of the various theories and debates. At the end of each chapter you get a wonderfully illustrated and condensed summary that allows you to solidify the knowledge gained before going on to the next chapter, as well as allowing you to go back to this book and refreshing your memory. It has loads of clear tables and illustrations to explain particular points and various photos to compliment the text. Rarely have I enjoyed a book as much as this in the past few years and i've loved the sense of wonder and trains of thought it has lead me on. I could gush about this book for ages (as you may be able to tell!) but needless to say it comes HIGHLY recommended indeed.
List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £3.18
Author:
Marcus Chown
By Faber and Faber
Thanks for inspiring me again, 2008-06-10
I am a part-time physics student and last week finished doing my exams. So, you can imagine, I was sick to death of physics. But a friend urged me to read this book and, against my better judgment, I did. And I'm so glad I did. I couldn't put it down. It's all the fun stuff that wasn't in my course. It's reminded me of why I did physics in the first place. Thanks Mr. Chown for inspiring me again!
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £0.01
Author:
Andrew Smith
By Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Doesn't every product appeal to a different market?, 2008-02-05
This book appealed to me straight away, dealing with a subject that I have long been fascinated in- Man landing on the moon- but that I have not yet had the inclination to wonder about any further than the fact that this amazing event happened 5 years before I was born (my wife would debate this latter point, but anyway. . .)
Therefore I would have to say that, with the added concept of interviewing the last remaining humans to have walked upon another celestial body (literally a dying breed), I enjoyed this book like no other I have read in a long time.
The writers style is relaxed, he injects just enough technical detail into his writing to make you want to find out more and I think it was great to have his own experiences linked to the unfolding story of Mankinds greatest achievement.
Overall, a triumph. The wife even read it after me. . .
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £3.64
Author:
Paul Davies
By Penguin Books Ltd
 THE GOD HYPOTHESIS explained the "Goldilocks Effect" First!, 2007-12-30
My name is Dr. Michael A Corey, and I have been a huge fan of Paul Davies' work for many years. He has influenced my various books more than any other single individual, so I find it very interesting that he has adopted the "Goldilocks Principle" that I first used in my earlier book THE GOD HYPOTHESIS: DISCOVERING DESIGN IN OUR "JUST RIGHT" GOLDILOCKS UNIVERSE. I actually saw him briefly at a conference at Harvard back in 2001 and I gave him a copy of THE GOD HYPOTHESIS, which has Goldilocks on the cover eating her porridge. So in one sense I am quite flattered that he liked my analogy enough to use it in his own book. I also find it remarkable that Amazon is bundling my book with his, because they both use the Goldilocks Principle to make their respective cases. However, Davies comes to a decidedly different conclusion that I do. He prefers to explain why the many foundational parameters of our universe are "just right" by resorting to a large (or perhaps infinite) number of other alternative universes that we cannot see or otherwise scientifically detect with our best cosmological instruments. This isn't science at all, unfortunately, because these other universes cannot ever be seen or measured in any way. They are just the only way that a non-theistic explanation can be devised for our "just right" universe, because if there are a huge number of other universes, then it might be possible that we just happened to evolve in the one universe that just accidentally happened to be supportive of carbon based life. But this just seems a little too "ad hoc" for me, because massive physical coincidences like this, where tens of thousands of blind physical forces nevertheless all work together cooperatively like an orchestra to make life possible on this planet. The odds of this happening by chance have been calculated by Roger Penrose to be astronomically remote, which in fact makes it statistically impossible. THE GOD HYPOTHESIS is inherently far superior to the many universes approach, not just because it is far simpler overall, but also because it makes the most sense from an abductive point of view, since it truly seems to be the best and most appropriate explanation for the known facts. What's more, ALL of history's greatest thinkers on this topic, from Aristotle to Plato to ALL of the founding fathers of modern science, ALL believed that God created the universe deliberately so that intelligent life could arise here. Who in the world wants to go against Plato, Aristotle, Newton, Boyle, the Providential Evolutionists of the 18th century, and even Charles Darwin, who based his entire theory of evolution on the prior existence of God? Indeed, the Templeton Prize-winning astronomer John Barrow has repeatedly pointed out that science was only able to flourish in those societies that believed in a single divine Law-Giver, because this belief gave them the necessary reason to believe in the independent existence of natural laws that could be discovered and understood by human beings. In conclusion, then, while I love all of Paul Davies' works on the topic of cosmology, I think that "The Goldilocks Enigma" comes to the wrong conclusion, and a simple reading of THE GOD HYPOTHESIS will explain how and why the most rational and logical explanation for our "just right" universe is theistic in nature.
Dr. Michael A. Corey
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