26 Science
73766 ASTRO PACK by Robin Scagell
A great value pack which contains all you need to start the fascinating hobby of astronomy. It contains ‘The Night Sky Through Your Telescope’ paperback with helpful advice on setting up and using any telescope and with a list of objects to look at including galaxies, nebulae and supernova remnants. 160pp with colour photos. There is a ‘Star Finder’ month-by- month guide to the night sky by John Woodruff and Will Tirion with star chart showing the position of stars, constellations and other celestial objects for each month of the year in both northerly and southerly directions plus location table for the four planets we can see with the naked eye. Includes photos, 64pp in paperback. Next is the Star Chart which is a fold-out map highlighting navigation stars, star clusters and nebulae, variable stars, constellations and double stars and a text explaining how to use the chart throughout the year at any latitude. And last but not least the ‘Planisphere’, 42 degrees North, a large circle measuring 11½” in diameter for both beginners and advanced observers. Presented in closeable wallet 33 x 30cm.
ONLY £8
73073 FATE OF THE SPECIES: Why the Human Race May Cause Its Own Extinction and
How we can Stop It by Fred Guterl Are we really approaching a new ice age, global warming, nuclear winter or worldwide drought? Will our immune systems be overwhelmed by so-called super- bugs or will the disappearance of numerous species cripple the biosphere? Technology helped to get us into a mess, but it is the only thing that can help us to survive it. From machines to synthetic biology, from reverse genetics that create a deadly flu virus to the possibility of human extinction, and from ecosystems to climate change. 209 pages. £18.99 NOW £6
73110 CYCLES OF TIME: An Extraordinary
New View of the Universe by Roger Penrose The author, Professor Sir Roger Penrose, has received numerous prizes and awards, one of them with Stephen Hawking for their joint contribution to our understanding of the universe. Here, the professor develops a completely new perspective on cosmology, providing a quite unexpected answer to the often-asked question ‘What came before the Big Bang?’ The two key ideas underlying this novel proposal are a penetrating analysis of the Second Law of thermodynamics, according to which the ‘randomness’ of our world is continually increasing, and a thorough examination of the light-cone geometry of space-time. Penrose is able to combine these two central themes to show how the expected ultimate fate of our accelerating, expanding universe can actually be reinterpreted as the Big Bang of a new one. On the way, many other basic ingredients are introduced and their roles discussed in detail. Various standard and non-standard cosmological models are presented, as is the fundamental and ubiquitous role of the cosmic microwave background. Also crucial to the discussion are the huge black holes lying in galactic centres, and their eventual disappearance via the mysterious process of Hawking evaporation. Yes, it is difficult, but the professor has a lovely chatty style that we are sure will win you over. 288 pages illustrated in b/w with 21 mathematical appendices. $28.95 NOW £8
73118 PUSHING THE LIMITS: New
Adventures in Engineering by Henry Petroski
Here are the stories of significant and daring enterprises. Among these achievements are Philadelphia’s landmark Benjamin Franklin Bridge, London’s incomparable Tower Bridge and China’s ambitious Three Gorges Dam Project. But pushing the limits of technology does not come without risk. Also chronicled are great technological disasters, such as the 1928 failure of California’s St Francis Dam, the 1999 tragedy of the Texas A&M Bonfire, and the September l l collapse of New York’s World Trade Center towers. 288 roughcut pages, illus. $25 NOW £5
71629 DISCARDED SCIENCE: Ideas that
Seemed Good at the Time by John Grant Contains research from the fields of medicine, geology, biology, chemistry and many more. Galileo, for instance, was hounded for proposing that the earth was not the centre of the universe with all the other planets revolving around it. In a feast of curiosities, here are bizarre conclusions about alchemy, homunculi, evolution, aliens and lost worlds, not to mention so-called ‘facts’ which turn out to be nothing but the prejudices of the scientists themselves. 336 pages, illus. £9.99 NOW £3
73365 MAP OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM: 600 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
by the Great American Puzzle Factory A giant 2 foot by 3 foot sized 600 piece jigsaw puzzle with the golden Sun at its centre and all the major planets orbiting it and a very, very busy solar system depicted with timelines, events and information about the planets. See side panels for more information and includes fun illustrations of famous spacecraft like Skylab I, Apollo 11 and Magi, dinosaurs indulging in their favourite game of bite-chat, asteroids going BOOOOM!!! and the consequences of pollution. Includes fun facts and charts on the solar system and mass and diameter of Mercury, Venus, the Earth etc. Ages 6to adult.
ONLY £7
73670 VIROLUTION: The Most Important Evolutionary Book Since Dawkins’ Selfish Gene by Frank Ryan
The unveiling of the entire human genome on 12 February 2001 laid bare for the first time the core of humanity. Of our 20,000 genes, we have only a third more than a fruit fly and just a few more than a nematode worm. Not only that, but of those 20,000 genes, 2,578 and 2,031 are shared with that fruit fly and nematode respectively, demonstrating a common ancestry. But what really took the researchers aback were the large fragments of genetic material derived directly from viruses, evidence for the extraordinary role of viruses in the evolution of life on earth and their vital involvement in a huge range of essential biological processes. How did these chunks of viral DNA get incorporated and replicated into our chromosomes, and what are the implications? In this compelling and often rather disturbing guide to this new field of study, Dr Ryan shows the probable mechanisms of genetic incorporation and the amazing range of implications that have thus arisen for the study of evolution and especially many common serious diseases, such as cancer, the autoimmune diseases, multiple sclerosis and mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Ryan keeps things understandable for the layman and writes fluently and with great enthusiasm. 400pp of cutting edge stuff in paperback.
£12.99 NOW £4
72780 PROGRAMMING THE UNIVERSE by Seth Lloyd
Subtitled ‘A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos’ here is a book concerning every computer which needs a programme, the set of instructions that tells it what patterns to create. The history of the Universe consists of a sequence of information- processing revolutions, each of which builds on the previous one. The current revolution in electronic computing arises out of the invention of language and of logic. Building on recent breakthroughs in quantum computation, Seth Lloyd shows that the Universe itself is a gigantic computer. 222pp. £18.99 NOW £3.50
71511 SMOKING EARS AND SCREAMING TEETH: A Celebration of Scientific Eccentricity and Self-Experimentation by Trevor Norton
This fascinating, hilarious and scary book about self- experimenters and other creative scientists starts with the 18th century brothers John and William Hunter who pioneered the dissection of cadavers rather than allowing surgeons to make their first cut on a living patient. In 1943 Edgar Pask trialled four different types of resuscitation by allowing himself to be anaesthetised to the point of respiratory arrest, while Ray Damadian, inventor of the MRI scanner, did not know whether the human body could withstand the massive magnetic field so tested it himself (it could). 404pp. $24.95 NOW £3
71521 THE FELLOWSHIP: Gilbert, Bacon, Harvey, Wren by John Gribbin
The master of popular science writing describes to us how the Royal Society developed in this story of scientific revolution involving Gilbert, Bacon, Harvey, Wren and Newton. 17th century England was wracked by civil war, plague and fire, a world ruled by superstition and ignorance. But then a series of meetings of ‘Natural Philosophers’ in Oxford and London saw the beginning of a new method of thinking based on proof and experiment. At the heart of this renaissance were the founding fathers of modern Western science - the Royal Society. Diagrams. 336pp in paperback. $15.95 NOW £2.50
72031 STEPPING STONES TO THE STARS: The Story of Manned Space Flight by Terry C Treadwell
The author begins with a fascinating short history of the evolution of the rocket and then goes on to detail the first manned flights by both the Americans and the Russians. The earliest manned rocket flight is said to have taken place in 1933 on the island of Rugen in the Baltic. The exciting account continues from Yuri Gagarin’s becoming the first person in space, through Neil Armstrong’s ‘giant leap for mankind’ to the very first space stations, Skylab, Salyut and Mir. 220 paperback pages. Archive photos. £16.99 NOW £2
72182 GENIUS OF BRITAIN: The Scientists Who Changed the World by Robert Uhlig
In a magnificent volume, with contributions from some of the greatest names of today, including Richard Dawkins evolutionary biologist, James Dyson dynamic inventor, designer and engineer, David Attenborough naturalist and veteran broadcaster, Robert Winston the pioneer of IVF, and the physicists Jim Al-Khalili and Kathy Sykes, it encompasses the heart-stopping story of people who pushed the boundaries. 340 pages with colour and b/w archive photos, tree of Famous Scientists and Key Dates. £20 NOW £4.75
72291 A FORCE OF NATURE by Richard Reeves
Ernest Rutherford was born in colonial New Zealand. His work oversees revolutionised modern physics and among his discoveries were the orbital structure of the atom and the concept of the ‘half-life’ of radioactive materials. This led to a massive re-evaluation of the age of the Earth, previously judged to be just 100 million years old. He and the young men working under him were the first to split the atom unlocking tremendous forces which as Rutherford himself predicted would bring us the atomic bomb. He was awarded a Nobel Prize and made Baron Rutherford by the Queen, was a great humanist and teacher. Under his boisterous direction, a new generation of remarkable physicists emerged from the famous Cavendish Laboratory. Here is a ruddy, genial man and a pivotal figure in scientific history. 207pp in paperback, illus. Remainder mark. $14.95 NOW £5.50
73514 WHY? Answers to Everyday Scientific Questions by Joel Levy
Why are men bigger than women? The question is unexpectedly hard to answer. Why does time go forward? The answer, of course, lies in the second law of
thermodynamics, and the author’s explanation is admirably comprehensible. Why is blood red, why is the sea blue, why are plants
green? The scientific explanations to these questions are straightforward, but there are other conundrums here which are more a matter of interpretation and there is no right answer. Why do we get old? Like many of these questions, the process can be described in scientific terms but we have no idea beyond that of why it happens in the first place. 192pp, drawings, diagrams. £9.99 NOW £4
72321 MOON 3-D: The Lunar Surface Comes to Life by Jim Bell
NASA scientist Jim Bell turns his attention to the Moon, our nearest celestial neighbour, second only in importance to ourselves to the sun. The enormous number of consecutive images taken on the lunar surface, when treated to some clever digital image processing, can be combined to produce stereo images and 3-D pictures, and that is what Bell and his team treat us to here. While the 3-D and 2-D images are indeed breathtaking, Dr. Bell’s extraordinary knowledge of the moon and the many missions to explore its surface makes his commentary just as fascinating. 3-D “glasses” are built into the front cover of the book. Guaranteed to knock your moon-boots off! 148pp. £14.99 NOW £6
73267 THE JOY OF X: A Guided Tour of Mathematics from One to Infinity by Steven Strogatz
Maths is at the heart of everything and this readable book shows you how that can be. Numbers are a shorthand and they also have a life of their own, obeying laws which cannot be revised or reversed. “Location, location, location” makes
a comparable point using the cumbersome example of Roman numerals, and negative relationships are illustrated by a series of diagrams representing the run- up to World War I. “Change” lives up to its name by being a potentially life-transforming section. In the next chapter calculus is applied to the question of whether a pair of lovers - call them Romeo and Juliet - will love or hate each other over a given cycle. Under “Data” we learn what standard deviation means, crucial in interpreting any set of figures. Many of the 30 chapters started life as a weekly column in the New York Times. 316pp.
£20 NOW £6
72343 Q & A: Cosmic Conundrums and Everyday Mysteries of Science by Robert Matthews
Why can we not tickle ourselves? Why are 90% of us right-handed? How much less do you weigh at the equator compared to at home? How do cats purr? Why do all the planets in our solar system orbit anticlockwise around the sun? How do we know that every fingerprint is unique? What would happen if you fell into a black hole? These are just a few of the baffling, intriguing and often downright odd questions sent over the years by Sunday Telegraph readers to scientist Robert Matthews for his weekly Q&A column. Some 300-odd here. 237pp paperback.
£8.99 NOW £4.50
73094 BLIP, PING AND BUZZ: Making Sense of Radar and Sonar by Mark Denny
Weaving history with basic science, the author deftly reveals, to curious readers, technology buffs and experts alike, the world of radar and sonar. He begins with an early history of the Chain Home radar system used during World War II, then uses diagrams and formulae to show how electromagnetic and sound waves are transmitted, received and converted into images, allowing you literally to see in the dark. There is a fascinating section on bioacoustic echolocation, with a focus on the superior sonar systems of bats and whales, and we can confidently say that you will be entranced. 274 pages with diagrams, line drawings and photos, technical notes and glossary. £21.50 NOW £7
72646 THE DISCOVERY OF JEANNE BARET: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe by Glynis Ridley
The mesmerising account of an intrepid, intelligent woman, who battled against 18th century male prejudice to live the life she wanted. Now, our author reveals all, including the newly discovered notebook, written in Baret’s own hand, that proves her scientific acumen, recording the thousands of specimens she collected, most famously the vine bougainvillea. Jeanne Baret was the mistress of an eminent botanist. When her lover was appointed as ship’s naturalist, she disguised herself as a teenage boy and signed on as his assistant. 288 pages. $25 NOW £4.50
71471 101 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT EINSTEIN
by Cynthia Phillips and Shana Priwer Albert Einstein worked to develop hearing aids or that a student actually spotted a mistake in one of his papers? The book makes comparisons with his contemporaries like the Wright Brothers, Edison, Bauhaus, Fermi, his letters to Freud, his law of gravitation, the history of E=MC2, the curvature of space-time, time travel and worm holes, the Nazi Party and how his anti-nuclear work continued. 244pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £2
73337 BOOK OF THE MOON by Rick Stroud
When Rick Stroud was young he and his brother converted the garden shed into a moon rocket and every weekend they donned their cardboard helmets, sealed the airlock door and began the countdown. Today the moon presents a moral challenge as humankind is planning to go there again to exploit its resources. The book is organised thematically, starting with facts and figures, and including Astronomers, Gods and Myths, Astronauts, Cosmonauts and Lunar Exploration, Magic, Medicine, Werewolves and Science. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union is narrated in detail with a timeline, then a few pages later we see a 17th century etching of an astrologer selling his soul to the devil. 368pp, numerous illus, colour.
$27 NOW £6
71959 SEED OF KNOWLEDGE STONE OF PLENTY: Understanding the Lost Technology of the Ancient Megalith-Builders
by John Burke and Kaj Halberg Generations of archaeologists have puzzled over the question of why our pre-industrial ancestors invested huge amounts of labour and time to erect enormous creations of stone and earth such as pyramids, henges and mounds. According to the evidence cited here, megaliths are always built on ground where certain natural electromagnetic energies are concentrated and can be tapped to produce more food. Corn seeds, for example, placed on one of the oldest Meso-American pyramids, grew dramatically better, particularly if placed there on days of high electric energy. 255 pages, illus in colour.
£26 NOW £4.50
72808 MAPPING THE UNIVERSE: The Interactive History of Astronomy by Professor Paul Murdin OBE,
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society Includes facsimiles of Galileo’s notes and sketches made in 1610 during his first detailed observations of the planet Jupiter and four of Jupiter’s moons, Sir Isaac Newton’s own drawing, made in 1668, of his first reflecting telescope design, and William Herschel’s notes recording the moment in 1781 when he first saw the planet Uranus. We see how astronomers have always used the newest, most advanced technology of their time to analyse the trace messages of light and other radiations sent by distant heavenly bodies to our own planet. Nearly half a century ago now, humankind left the first footprints on the surface of the Moon and, today, it is possible to send spacecraft to the nearest of the planets as proxies for human explorers. 124 pages 27cm x 30.5cm, amazing colour photos. £30 NOW £8.50
72628 PRESENT AT THE CREATION: The Story of Cern and the Large Hadron Collider by Amir Aczel
Will the hidden dimensions posited by string theory be revealed? Will we at last identify the nature of the dark matter that makes up more than 90% of the cosmos? And will the Higgs Boson confirm at last the Standard Model of particles and their interactions that is among the great theoretical achievements of 20th century physics? The Large Hadron Collider is the biggest and by far the most powerful machine ever built. The collider is now crashing protons at record energy levels never before created by scientists. After accelerating the beams to 99.9999991% of the speed of light, it collides the protons head-on, annihilating them in a flash of energy. Within the LHC’s detectors, scientists hope to see empirical confirmation of key theories in physics and cosmology. Here it is seen through the eyes and words of the men and women who conceived and built CERN and the LHC. 271 pages, colour. $25.99 NOW £6
SCOTTISH INTEREST
O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent. - Robert Burns
74251 SCOTTISH MISCELLANY by Jim Hewitson
Jim Hewitson has been a journalist, lobster fisherman, gypsy, author, graveyard grass-cutter, broadcaster and light labourer and many things about Scotland still astound him. Here is a broth of off-cuts from the past, contemporary attitudes, outlandish lists, absurd tables, historical and hysterical trivia and off-the-wall observations. Gems
include a step-by-step guide to raising the clans (fiery cross included), auld Scots tricks to turn yourself invisible or turn yourself into a hare, how Rabbie Burns was ordered to ca’ canny wi’ the satire, how to build your own Scottish anthem and a bizarre array of couthy anecdotes and unlikely yarns. Great fun in 192pp with illus.
£9.99 NOW £4
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