Washoe County Library System

"Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? In...

Along with Caltech physicist Mlodinow (The Drunkard's Walk), University of Cambridge cosmologist Hawking (A Brief History of Time) deftly mixes cutting-edge physics to answer three key questions-- Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why this particular set of laws and not some other?-- and explains that scientists are approaching what is called "M-theory," a collection of overlapping theories (including string theory) that...

Here is the book that brought the mystical implications of subatomic physics to popular consciousness for the very first time-way back in 1975. This special edition celebrates the thirty-fifth anniversary of this early Shambhala best seller that has gone on to become a classic. It includes a new preface by the author, in which he reflects on the further discoveries and developments that have occurred in the years since the book's original publication....

The "Ask a Physicist" columnist for io9.com explains how space, time, and everything in between are shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven recent discoveries about the universe.

An exploration of the theory of hyperspace by a professor of theoretical physics discusses the superstring theory and the concept of a jigsaw-puzzle universe.

Accurate enough to satisfy an expert, yet simple enough for baby, this book explores the basics of particle physics and chemistry and#x2013; quarks, protons, neutrons, atoms and molecules and#x2013; and ties it all to baby's world. Beautiful, visually stimulating illustrations complement age-appropriate language to encourage baby's sense of wonder. Parents and caregivers may learn a thing or two, as well!

How math helps us solve the universe's deepest mysteries. You must be able to test any physical theory in the real world. To most physicists, this is obvious. But since the 1980s, experimental physics has yielded vanishingly little insight into the fundamental physics of the universe. Meanwhile, some physicists have begun to probe the universe not with proton beams, but with pure math. They're less concerned with testable theories than with the drive...

Presenting portraits of many central figures in modern physics, including Stephen Hawking and Leonard Susskind, this eye-opening critique of modern theoretical physics provides the latest ideas about the nature of physical reality while clearly distinguishing between fact and fantasy.