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List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £5.19
Author:
Dare A. Wells
By Schaum's Outlines
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 Schaum, Lagrangian Dynamics, 2009-08-29
A Schaum is a Schaum is a Schaum! Does what it says on the box, and very good value too.
List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £7.74
Author:
Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee
By Springer
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A compulsory reading, 2009-07-29
An enticing, accessible book on how and why life has evolved on our planet, and why complex life might be a rare exception in our cosmos. It should be a compulsory reading for teenagers in high school ... and also for politicians. It may help them appreciate the true value of life and what is relevant for our survival.
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £3.10
Author:
Richard P. Feynman
By Vintage
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A typical little gem from Feynman, 2002-06-15
In his usual style, Feynman teaches us not only Newtonian and Keplerian orbital mechanics, but he does it in a new and amusing manner. Most importantly, in the broader view, he reinforces one of his greates tlessons of his teaching career - there's no single "right way" to prove, demonstrate or teach something. We all (nearly all ?) learn orbital mechanics through calculus. It's not a visual nor intuitive way of doing it, and it's a hard slog. Feynman's (actually it's probably Newton's) method does it through simple plane geometry that the ancient Greeks would understand.The authors are to be congratulated on dusting off these lecture notes and presenting them so well packaged. They're well presented, accessible, and given just the right amount of background context. Feynman fans will like this book anyway, but it's also a good taster for Feynman's style that any child studying GCSE applied maths or mechanics could understand.
List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £12.13
Author:
Mitchell Begelman, Martin Rees
By Cambridge University Press
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Please create an audio adaptation ..., 1999-06-01
To the publisher I would appreciate it if the publisher could produce an audio adaptation of this book. I would love to listen to this while I drive to work and to let my 16 month old son listen to it as a bedtime story. Arnold D Veness
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £2.29
Author:
Peter Coles
By Oxford Paperbacks
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Stunning, 2009-03-26
This is an outrageously well-written and FUN book covering the biggest topic it is possible to imagine (in our physical world, at least).
The VSI format is well-established and the publishers choose their writers carefully. I am not a cosmologist so I have no idea where Peter Coles stands in any sort of pecking order of those specialists, but he is the perfect choice to make this (potentially) difficult topic easily accessible to anyone willing to engage with it. Technical terms and jargon are ruthlessly eschewed in favour of transparent clear writing. The sheer wonder involved in considering the Universe we inhabit is effortlessly painted, without ever losing a sense of playfulness and humility (i.e. there are a lot of things even the best cosmologists do not understand, but we are trying our best).
I can assure potential readers that this is ACCESSIBLE and FUN. Bravo to Peter and all concerned!
As a rider, an excellent companion volume for those with their appetite whetted by this book - do not fail to read "Galaxies: A Very Short Introduction" by John Gribbin. John is of course a well-known general science writer but he was an astrophysicist (or some such) first. A great book.
List Price: £12.99
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Author:
Michael Benson
By Abradale Books
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Beautiful :), 2009-10-19
This book is amazing, the pictures of the planets with the moons over them, are my faverite.
The pictures are clear, bright and stunning. Worth every penney :)
List Price: £33.00
Our Price: £22.59
By Cambridge University Press
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Astrobiology 2010, 2010-05-31
Excellent textbook for self-study, it does not require a deep biology knowledge.
Though it has been published before the most recent planetary missions (i.e. Cassini and Phoenix Mars Lander), it provides a wide background for interpreting their results.
A useful text to understand astrobiology, both in the solar system and in the exoplanets research field.
Author:
Stephen Hawking
By New York: Bantam 1988.
Enjoyable read, 2010-02-25
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, its very well written and Stephen Hawking does his best to explain things to the layman. I think its suitable for anyone who has an interest in the subject. I especially enjoyed the chapters on Black Holes. I did find the last two chapters a bit difficult, so perhaps the general reader ought to buy his "Briefer History of Time" which I understand is an updated and easier to follow version. There are some very good illustrations in the later book too.
List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £4.14
Author:
Brian Greene
By Potter Style
Icarus at the Edge of Time, 2009-11-30
Absolutely brilliant book with superb pictures from the Hubbel telescope. The story is very easy to understand for youngsters and should be an essential reading for those wanting to learn about Black Holes in their Science lessons
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £2.29
Author:
John Gribbin
By OUP Oxford
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Enlightening, 2010-05-03
It's almost impossible not to be overawed by galaxies. As these pages tell us, the largest of them (giant ellipticals) contain more than a trillion stars spread over hundreds of kiloparsecs (1 kpc = 1000 x 3.25 light years). The most distant galaxies detected so far (using Hubble Ultra Deep Field) have shown up in a minute patch of sky that appears blank to other telescopes. Yet this patch, from an area about one thirteen billionth of the sky, contains over 10,000 galaxies, whose light started its journey towards us over 13 billion years ago. (How these proto-galaxies manage to emit light suggesting this immense distance/time when only 800 million years old is one of many questions you will probably ask yourself while reading. Most are answered in this book.) Future astronomers, looking beyond these primitive galaxies and using the next generation of telescopes, expect (and hope) to see ... nothing, for they'll then be looking at the 'dark age' between the Big Bang and the time when galaxies started forming. Such science is truly awe-inspiring.
Modern cosmology began only in the 1920s, when Edwin Hubble made his two major discoveries (that independent galaxies exist outside our Milky Way and that there is a precise relationship between a galaxy's redshift and its distance). But cosmologists have managed to cover a lot of ground (and space) in the succeeding 80 years or so. It is to Gribbin's great credit that he manages to convey the essence of this progress in so succinct and accessible a manner - there aren't any equations in sight to vex the more mathematically challenged. For most general readers, the basic principles of cosmology are challenging enough already. But for those who know Gribbin's other books, they'll probably find the going easier here than in, say, Shrödinger's Cat.
My only quibble concerns sequencing. After explaining how astronomers use the Doppler effect to calculate how stars are moving through space, Gribbin continues in a seemingly contradictory fashion: 'but the cosmological redshift is not caused by motion through space and is not a Doppler effect.' We have to wait 20 pages or so for the riddle to be resolved. Similarly, one of the graphs uses the Omega symbol several pages before explaining its significance. But such things aside, this is a superb introduction to a mind-changing subject. As in the better VSIs, non-specialists are helped by a straightforward Glossary which explains, for example, the difference between Galaxy and galaxy, and Universe and universe, usages which professionals take for granted but which could easily confuse the general reader. An outstanding introduction to the subject.
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