Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838-1926), the author of more than fifty books on classics, theology, history, and Shakespeare, was headmaster of the City of London School and one of the leading educators of his time. Thomas Banchoff is professor emeritus of mathematics at Brown University and author of Beyond the Third Dimension. In 1884, Edwin Abbott Abbott wrote a mathematical adventure set in a two-dimensional plane world, populated by a hierarchical...

Provides an introduction to QED (quantum electrodynamics), that part of quantum field theory describing the interactions of light with charged particles. Using everyday language, spatial concepts, visualizations, and his renowned "Feynman diagrams" instead of advanced mathematics, the author communicates both the substance and spirit of QED to the layperson.

Sixty-five million years ago, a comet or asteroid larger than Mt. Everest slammed into the Earth, causing an explosion equivalent to the detonation of a hundred million hydrogen bombs. Vaporized impactor and debris from the impact site were blasted out through the atmosphere, falling back to Earth all around the globe. Terrible environmental disasters ensued, including a giant tsunami, continent-scale wildfires, darkness, and cold, followed by sweltering...

"Robert Kirshner, takes readers inside a research team on the quest that led them to an extraordinary cosmological discovery : the expansion of the universe is accelerating under the influence of a dark energy that makes space itself expand. In addition to sharing the story of this discovery, Kirshner brings the science up-to-date in a new epilogue. He explains how the idea of an accelerating universe - once a daring interpretation of sketchy data...

In It's About Time, N. David Mermin asserts that relativity ought to be an important part of everyone's education-after all, it is largely about time, a subject with which all are familiar. The book reveals that some of our most intuitive notions about time are shockingly wrong, and that the real nature of time discovered by Einstein can be rigorously explained without advanced mathematics. This readable exposition of the nature of time as addressed...

Julian Havil is a retired former master at Winchester College, England, where he taught mathematics for thirty-three years. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Oxford University. Freeman Dyson is professor emeritus of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is the author of several books, including Disturbing the Universe and Origins of Life. Among the many constants that appear in mathematics, π, e, and i are the most...

"Winner of the 2006 Book Award in Science, Phi Beta Kappa" William F. Ruddiman is a paleoclimatologist and professor emeritus at the University of Virginia. The impact on climate from 200 years of industrial development is an everyday fact of life, but did humankind's active involvement in climate change really begin with the industrial revolution, as commonly believed? Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum has sparked lively scientific debate since it...

"Honorable Mention for the 1994 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Mathematics, Association of American Publishers" Eli Maor is the author of Beautiful Geometry (with Eugen Jost), Venus in Transit, Trigonometric Delights, To Infinity and Beyond, and The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4,000-Year History (all Princeton). The interest earned on a bank account, the arrangement of seeds in a sunflower, and the shape of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis...