CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson has been loaned out to a CDF platoon tasked with secretly removing an unauthorized colony of humans on an alien world. Colonial Ambassador Abumwe has been ordered to participate in final negotiations with an alien race the Union hopes to make allies. Wilson and Abumwes missions are fated to crossand in doing so, place both missions at risk of failure. Views: 204
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher. Views: 200
From the international bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible and Physics of the Future
This is the story of a quest: to find a Theory of Everything. Einstein dedicated his life to seeking this elusive Holy Grail, a single, revolutionary 'god equation' which would tie all the forces in the universe together, yet never found it. Some of the greatest minds in physics took up the search, from Stephen Hawking to Brian Greene. None have yet succeeded.
In The God Equation, renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku takes the reader on a mind-bending ride through the twists and turns of this epic journey: a mystery that has fascinated him for most of his life. He guides us through the key debates in modern physics, from Newton's law of gravity via relativity and quantum mechanics to the latest developments in string theory. It is a tale of dazzling breakthroughs and crushing dead ends, illuminated by Kaku's clarity, storytelling flair and infectious enthusiasm.
The object of the quest is now within sight: we are closer than ever to achieving the most ambitious undertaking in the history of science. If successful, the Theory of Everything could simultaneously unlock the deepest mysteries of space and time, and fulfil that most ancient and basic of human desires - to understand the meaning of our lives. Views: 199
Thyron is a flora peda telepathis from the planet, Sapphira. His world is occupied by his species of telepathic walking plants as well as a race of pygmies who worship them as gods. Encounters with humans generally don't end well. Face it, humans are omnivorous and plants a popular source of nourishment. Attempt this on Sapphira, however, and the food chain is likely to change rather quickly.This short story is a prequel to "The Star Trails Tetralogy" which features Thyron, a flora peda telepathis from the planet, Sapphira. His naterra, or home world, is occupied by his species of telepathic walking plants as well as a race of cannibalistic pygmies who recognize their botanical intelligence as superior to their own and thus worship them as gods. The two diverse species have a synergistic relationship in which Thyron and others of his kind provide technical assistance to the natives in their interstellar forays for food in return for protection, albeit primitive. Encounters with humans generally don't end well. Face it, humans are omnivorous and plants a popular source of nourishment. Attempt this on Sapphira, however, and the food chain is likely to change rather quickly. If you've read "Beyond the Hidden Sky" you've already met the Sapphirans as well as Thyron and experienced his botanical wisdom. This short story comprises his adventures prior to his appearance in "The Star Trails Tetralogy." Views: 196
A family is decimated in the aftermath of a terrible crime and no voice is raised in protest. Can a town that prides itself on its sense of community survive without the promise of justice? In Sugar Town, a teen-aged girl, an epileptic boy, an alcoholic murderer and a spirit-seeking outsider, drawn together by a curiously enabling piece of space debris, show the way to redemption.Sugar Town is a place that conceals a shameful deed. More than a decade ago, a series of terrible crimes was committed against a single family and, through resolute inaction, all were left unresolved. Among the very few people in town who know nothing of the crimes are, ironically, the victims. The story's thirteen year old narrator, Ruth, knows only that, once upon a time, her grandmother suffered a violent and fatal attack in her home, her mother suicided and her father, a minister, abandoned his Australian home and family to start a mission in New Guinea. What remains of her family is herself, her piously intense 24 year old sister who suffers from repressed memory syndrome and her eleven year old brother who, with recently diagnosed late-onset occipital epilepsy, has become prone to periodic hallucinations. When Ruth discovers letters that hint at a community-wide deception, she begins to ask questions, in the process drawing strange allies to her. One is an old man who, though a peripheral witness to the original crimes, now sees the world through an alcoholic fug. Another is an eccentric young woman, an 'outsider', whose presence in the rural town is in itself a mystery. As their questions begin to bite, new crimes are committed, apparently in defence of past decisions; but consciences are prodded as well, and the townsfolk begin a painful process of self-disclosure. Only then is it found that some truths really are too painful or too extraordinary to be spoken. Views: 195
THINK YOU KNOW THE SAS?THINK AGAIN...From no.1 bestselling SAS hero Chris Ryan, comes MANHUNTER: the first book in an explosive new series featuring Josh Bowman, a battle-worn Regiment soldier hand-picked to join a shadowy unit within the SAS.*Now available to pre-order in hardback, eBook and audiobook*_________________When foreign governments act like gangsters, a new kind of SAS is needed . . .In London, assassins carry out a deadly chemical weapons attack at the royal wedding. All the signs point to a Kremlin-sanctioned hit. Their victim: a notorious mobster.'The Cell' is a shadowy unit within the SAS, dedicated to fighting global organised crime. In a world where the Russian government is the real mob, it's the job of the Cell to defend British interests at home and abroad. Only the elite are selected; only the very best will survive. For SAS staff sergeant Josh Bowman, whose young family was brutally murdered by an... Views: 193
Like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, this is a fascinating voyage into a strange and wonderful land, a provocative meditation on communication, biology, adaptation, and culture. In Seeing Voices, Oliver Sacks turns his attention to the subject of deafness, and the result is a deeply felt portrait of a minority struggling for recognition and respect — a minority with its own rich, sometimes astonishing, culture and unique visual language, an extraordinary mode of communication that tells us much about the basis of language in hearing people as well. Seeing Voices is, as Studs Terkel has written, "an exquisite, as well as revelatory, work."
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 193
Cosmos, the widely acclaimed book and television series by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, was about where we are in the vastness of space and time. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is an exploration of who we are. How were we shaped by life's adventure on this planet, by a mysterious past that we are only just beginning to piece together? "We humans are like a newborn baby left on a doorstep, " they write, "with no note explaining who it is, where it came from, what hereditary cargo of attributes and disabilities it might be carrying, or who its antecedents might be." This book is one version of the orphan's file. Sagan and Druyan take us back to the birth of the Sun and its planets and the first stirrings of life; to the origins of traits central to our current predicament: sex and violence, love and altruism, hierarchy, consciousness, language, technology, and morality. Many thoughtful people fear that our problems have become too big for us, that we are for reasons at the heart of human nature unable to deal with them, that we have lost our way. How did we get into this mess? How can we get out? Why are we so quick to mistrust those different from ourselves, so given to unquestioning obedience to authority? What is male and female? Why are we so anxious to distance ourselves from the other animals? What obligations, if any, do we owe to them? Is there something within us that condemns us to selfishness and violence? When Sagan and Druyan first undertook this exploration it was "almost with a sense of dread. We found instead reason for hope." This book presents important ideas with the clarity for which the authors are famous. Daring, passionate, with a breathtaking sweep. Shadows is a quest for a new perspective - one that integrates the insights of science into a vision of where we came from, who we are, and what our fate might be. Views: 189
Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers presented in attractive, accessible paperback editions.
“It is Dr. Sacks’s gift that he has found a way to enlarge our experience and understanding of what the human is.” —*The Wall Street Journal
Dubbed “the poet laureate of medicine” by The New York Times,* Oliver Sacks is a practicing neurologist and a mesmerizing storyteller. His empathetic accounts of his patients’s lives—and wrily observed narratives of his own—convey both the extreme borderlands of human experience and the miracles of ordinary seeing, speaking, hearing, thinking, and feeling.
Vintage Sacks includes the introduction and case study “Rose R.” from Awakenings (the book that inspired the Oscar-nominated movie), as well as “A Deaf World” from Seeing Voices; “The Visions of Hildegard” from Migraine; excerpts from “Island Hopping” and “Pingelap” from The Island of the Colorblind; “A Surgeon’s Life” from An Anthropologist on Mars; and two chapters from Sacks’s acclaimed memoir Uncle Tungsten.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 187
Imagine a mechanism that would end all wars and bloodshed. A machine that can create a virtual world where conflicts seem to be fought, but no one dies. Dr. Leo\'s Dueling Machine is just that. But when a warrior from the Kerak Empire finds a way to circumvent the machine, actually killing his opponents, the results are devastating. His secret knowledge of the machine could lead to actual, not virtual, war. Dr. Leo and his assistant must work quickly to discover what Kerak knows. Their lives, their planet, and the preservation of peace depend on it. Views: 186
VOLUME #2 IN A STERLING COLLECTION OF STORIES FROM LEGENDARY HARD SCIENCE FICTION MASTER BEN BOVA. Selected stories from Bova's amazing career at the center of science fiction and space advocacy. He is the creator of the New York Times best-selling Grand Tour science fiction series, a six time Hugo award winner, and past president of the National Space Society.
Volume #2 of 3 of the very best of Ben Bova, a grandmaster of science fiction storytelling. These stories span the five decades of Bova's incandescent career.
Here are tales of star-faring adventure, peril, and drama. Here are journeys into the mind-bending landscapes of virtual worlds and alternate realities. Here you'll also find stories of humanity's astounding future on Earth, on Mars and in the Solar System beyond—stories that always get the science right. And Bova's gathering of deeply realized, totally human characters are the heroic, brave, tricky, sometimes dastardly engineers, astronauts, corporate magnates, politicians, and scientists who will make these futures possible—and those who often find that the problems of tomorrow are always linked to human values, and human failings, that are as timeless as the stars.
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
About the award-winning stories and novels of Ben Bova:“Technically accurate and absorbing. . .”— Kirkus
“[Bova is] the science fiction author who will have the greatest effect on the world.”—Ray Bradbury
“A masterful storyteller”— Vector
“Gives a good read while turning your eyes to what might be in the not so distant future, just like Clarke and Asimov used to do so well.”— SFX
About Mars, Inc. , by Ben Bova.:“. . .perfectly enjoyable as an SF book (could Bova write anything that wasn’t enjoyable?), Mars, Inc. has that torn-from-the-headline vibe that’s obviously intended for a larger audience. . . . the bottom line? Mars, Inc. has inspiration, excitement, thrills, romance, a dash of satire—and is a good, fun read . . . .”— Analog
“The Hugo winner returns to his most popular subject: the quest for Mars.”— Publishers Weekly
“. . . escapist fantasy for rocket scientists and space engineers, those dreaming of these kinds of missions. Yet Bova’s story is rigorously realistic. . . . a fun read showing you do not need car chases or shootouts to deliver a fast-paced and exciting story.”— Daily News of Galveston County
Ben Bova has written more than one hundred twenty futuristic novels and nonfiction books, and has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space age. President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, Bova received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, "for fueling mankind's imagination regarding the wonders of outer space." His 2006 novel Titan received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. In 2008 he won the Robert A. Heinlein Award "for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature." Bova is a frequent commentator on radio and television and a widely-popular lecturer. His articles, opinion pieces and reviews have appeared in Scientific American, Nature, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal , and many other newspapers and magazines. Earlier, he was an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry. Bova has taught science fiction at Harvard University and at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, where he has also directed film courses. Bova currently lives in Florida. Views: 186
