The Copernicus Complex

Download The Copernicus Complex PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 1846147131
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (461 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Copernicus Complex by : Caleb Scharf

Download or read book The Copernicus Complex written by Caleb Scharf and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-09-04 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though the concept of "the universe" suggests the containment of everything, the latest ideas in cosmology hint that our universe may be just one of a multitude of others-a single slice of an infinity of parallel realities. In The Copernicus Complex, the renowned astrophysicist and author Caleb Scharf takes us on a cosmic adventure like no other, from tiny microbes within the Earth to distant exoplanets and beyond, asserting that the age-old Copernican principle is in need of updating. As Scharf argues, when Copernicus proposed that the Earth was not the fixed point at the center of the known universe (and therefore we are not unique), he set in motion a colossal scientific juggernaut, forever changing our vision of nature. But the principle has never been entirely true-we do live at a particular time, in a particular location, under particular circumstances. To solve this conundrum we must put aside our Copernican worldview and embrace the possibility that we are in a delicate balance between mediocrity and significance, order and chaos. Weaving together cutting-edge science and classic storytelling, historical accounts and speculations on what the future holds, The Copernicus Complex presents a compelling argument for what our true cosmic status is, and proposes a way forward for the ultimate quest: to determine life's abundance not just across this universe but across all realities.

The Ascent of Information

Download The Ascent of Information PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0593087259
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (93 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Ascent of Information by : Caleb Scharf

Download or read book The Ascent of Information written by Caleb Scharf and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Full of fascinating insights drawn from an impressive range of disciplines, The Ascent of Information casts the familiar and the foreign in a dramatic new light.” —Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe Your information has a life of its own, and it’s using you to get what it wants. One of the most peculiar and possibly unique features of humans is the vast amount of information we carry outside our biological selves. But in our rush to build the infrastructure for the 20 quintillion bits we create every day, we’ve failed to ask exactly why we’re expending ever-increasing amounts of energy, resources, and human effort to maintain all this data. Drawing on deep ideas and frontier thinking in evolutionary biology, computer science, information theory, and astrobiology, Caleb Scharf argues that information is, in a very real sense, alive. All the data we create—all of our emails, tweets, selfies, A.I.-generated text and funny cat videos—amounts to an aggregate lifeform. It has goals and needs. It can control our behavior and influence our well-being. And it’s an organism that has evolved right alongside us. This symbiotic relationship with information offers a startling new lens for looking at the world. Data isn’t just something we produce; it’s the reason we exist. This powerful idea has the potential to upend the way we think about our technology, our role as humans, and the fundamental nature of life. The Ascent of Information offers a humbling vision of a universe built of and for information. Scharf explores how our relationship with data will affect our ongoing evolution as a species. Understanding this relationship will be crucial to preventing our data from becoming more of a burden than an asset, and to preserving the possibility of a human future.

The Copernican Revolution

Download The Copernican Revolution PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674171039
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (71 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Copernican Revolution by : Thomas S. Kuhn

Download or read book The Copernican Revolution written by Thomas S. Kuhn and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1957 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the Copernican Revolution, focusing on the significance of the plurality of the revolution which encompassed not only mathematical astronomy, but also conceptual changes in cosmology, physics, philosophy, and religion.

Rare Earth

Download Rare Earth PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0387218483
Total Pages : 359 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (872 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rare Earth by : Peter D. Ward

Download or read book Rare Earth written by Peter D. Ward and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet, or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.

Doctor Copernicus

Download Doctor Copernicus PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 030781713X
Total Pages : 326 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (78 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Doctor Copernicus by : John Banville

Download or read book Doctor Copernicus written by John Banville and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-03-14 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea comes a novel set in sixteenth-century Europe about an obscure cleric who is preparing a theory that will shatter the medieval view of the universe—while being haunted by his malevolent brother and threatened by the conspiracies raging around him and his ideas. Sixteenth-century Europe is teeming with change and controversy: wars are being waged by princes and bishops and the repercussions of Luther are being felt through a convulsing Germany. In a remote corner of Poland a modest canon is practicing medicine and studying the heavens, preparing a theory that will shatter the medieval view of the universe. In this astonishing work of historical imagination, John Banville offers a vivid portrait of a man of painful reticence. For, in a world that is equal parts splendor and barbarism, an obscure cleric who seeks “the secret music of the universe” poses a most devastating threat.

Copernicus' Secret

Download Copernicus' Secret PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 074328951X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Copernicus' Secret by : Jack Repcheck

Download or read book Copernicus' Secret written by Jack Repcheck and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-12-04 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicolaus Copernicus gave the world perhaps the most important scientific insight of the modern age, the theory that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. He was also the first to proclaim that the earth rotates on its axis once every twenty-four hours. His theory was truly radical: during his lifetime nearly everyone believed that a perfectly still earth rested in the middle of the cosmos, where all the heavenly bodies revolved around it. One of the transcendent geniuses of the early Renaissance, Copernicus was also a flawed and conflicted person. A cleric who lived during the tumultuous years of the early Reformation, he may have been sympathetic to the teachings of the Lutherans. Although he had taken a vow of celibacy, he kept at least one mistress. Supremely confident intellectually, he hesitated to disseminate his work among other scholars. It fact, he kept his astronomical work a secret, revealing it to only a few intimates, and the manuscript containing his revolutionary theory, which he refined for at least twenty years, remained "hidden among my things." It is unlikely that Copernicus' masterwork would ever have been published if not for a young mathematics professor named Georg Joachim Rheticus. He had heard of Copernicus' ideas, and with his imagination on fire he journeyed hundreds of miles to a land where, as a Lutheran, he was forbidden to travel. Rheticus' meeting with Copernicus in a small cathedral town in northern Poland proved to be one of the most important encounters in history. Copernicus' Secretrecreates the life and world of the scientific genius whose work revolutionized astronomy and altered our understanding of our place in the world. It tells the surprising, little-known story behind the dawn of the scientific age.

The Zoomable Universe

Download The Zoomable Universe PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 0374279748
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (742 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Zoomable Universe by : Caleb Scharf

Download or read book The Zoomable Universe written by Caleb Scharf and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic, full-color visual journey through all scales of the universe In The Zoomable Universe, the award-winning astrobiologist Caleb Scharf and the acclaimed artist Ron Miller take us on an epic tour through all known scales of reality, from the largest possible magnitude to the smallest. Drawing on cutting-edge science, they begin at the limits of the observable universe, a scale spanning 10^27 meters—about 93 billion light-years. And they end in the subatomic realm, at 10^-35 meters, where the fabric of space-time itself confounds all known rules of physics. In between are galaxies, stars and planets, oceans and continents, plants and animals, microorganisms, atoms, and much, much more. Stops along the way—all enlivened by Scharf’s sparkling prose and his original insights into the nature of our universe—include the brilliant core of the Milky Way, the surface of a rogue planet, the back of an elephant, and a sea of jostling quarks. The Zoomable Universe is packed with more than 100 original illustrations and infographics that will captivate readers of every age. It is a whimsical celebration of discovery, a testament to our astounding ability to see beyond our own vantage point and chart a course from the farthest reaches of the cosmos to its subatomic depths—in short, a must-have for the shelves of all explorers.

Gravity's Engines

Download Gravity's Engines PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0374114129
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (741 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Gravity's Engines by : Caleb Scharf

Download or read book Gravity's Engines written by Caleb Scharf and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a sweeping tour of fantastic physics and cosmic history, a view of the most fearsome places in the universe that finally asks what it will take to see the event horizon of a black hole.

The Privileged Planet

Download The Privileged Planet PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Regnery Gateway
ISBN 13 : 1684510775
Total Pages : 466 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (845 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Privileged Planet by : Guillermo Gonzalez

Download or read book The Privileged Planet written by Guillermo Gonzalez and published by Regnery Gateway. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Earth. The Final Frontier Contrary to popular belief, Earth is not an insignificant blip on the universe’s radar. Our world proves anything but average in Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards’ The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery. But what exactly does Earth bring to the table? How does it prove its worth among numerous planets and constellations in the vastness of the Milky Way? In The Privileged Planet, you’ll learn about the world’s life-sustaining capabilities, water and its miraculous makeup, protection by the planetary giants, and how our planet came into existence in the first place.

Extrasolar Planets and Astrobiology

Download Extrasolar Planets and Astrobiology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Science Books
ISBN 13 : 9781891389559
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (895 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Extrasolar Planets and Astrobiology by : Caleb A. Scharf

Download or read book Extrasolar Planets and Astrobiology written by Caleb A. Scharf and published by University Science Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book: Provides extensive grounding in key issues of astrophysics, chemistry, biology and geophysics; over 150 images and illustrations; exercises for each chapter, ranging from straightforward calculation problems to more far-ranging research-oriented exercises; an online component for users that includes new exercises and a continually updated blog of late-breaking scientific news items, fully cross referenced with the book; and extensive bibliographies for each chapter."--BOOK JACKET.

The Copernicus Complex

Download The Copernicus Complex PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 0374709467
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Copernicus Complex by : Caleb Scharf

Download or read book The Copernicus Complex written by Caleb Scharf and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longlisted for the 2015 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Short-listed for Physics World's Book of the Year The Sunday Times (UK) Best Science Book of 2014 A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Science Book of Fall 2014 An NBC News Top Science and Tech Book of 2014 A Politics & Prose 2014 Staff Pick In the sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus dared to go against the establishment by proposing that Earth rotates around the Sun. Having demoted Earth from its unique position in the cosmos to one of mediocrity, Copernicus set in motion a revolution in scientific thought. This perspective has influenced our thinking for centuries. However, recent evidence challenges the Copernican Principle, hinting that we do in fact live in a special place, at a special time, as the product of a chain of unlikely events. But can we be significant if the Sun is still just one of a billion trillion stars in the observable universe? And what if our universe is just one of a multitude of others-a single slice of an infinity of parallel realities? In The Copernicus Complex, the renowned astrophysicist Caleb Scharf takes us on a scientific adventure, from tiny microbes within the Earth to distant exoplanets, probability theory, and beyond, arguing that there is a solution to this contradiction, a third way of viewing our place in the cosmos, if we weigh the evidence properly. As Scharf explains, we do occupy an unusual time in a 14-billion-year-old universe, in a somewhat unusual type of solar system surrounded by an ocean of unimaginable planetary diversity: hot Jupiters with orbits of less than a day, planet-size rocks spinning around dead stars, and a wealth of alien super-Earths. Yet life here is built from the most common chemistry in the universe, and we are a snapshot taken from billions of years of biological evolution. Bringing us to the cutting edge of scientific discovery, Scharf shows how the answers to fundamental questions of existence will come from embracing the peculiarity of our circumstance without denying the Copernican vision. With characteristic verve, Scharf uses the latest scientific findings to reconsider where we stand in the balance between cosmic significance and mediocrity, order and chaos. Presenting a compelling and bold view of our true status, The Copernicus Complex proposes a way forward in the ultimate quest: determining life's abundance, not just across this universe but across all realities.

The Copernican Question

Download The Copernican Question PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520355695
Total Pages : 702 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (23 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Copernican Question by : Robert Westman

Download or read book The Copernican Question written by Robert Westman and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 702 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus publicly defended his hypothesis that the earth is a planet and the sun a body resting near the center of a finite universe. But why did Copernicus make this bold proposal? And why did it matter? The Copernican Question reframes this pivotal moment in the history of science, centering the story on a conflict over the credibility of astrology that erupted in Italy just as Copernicus arrived in 1496. Copernicus engendered enormous resistance when he sought to protect astrology by reconstituting its astronomical foundations. Robert S. Westman shows that efforts to answer the astrological skeptics became a crucial unifying theme of the early modern scientific movement. His interpretation of this long sixteenth century, from the 1490s to the 1610s, offers a new framework for understanding the great transformations in natural philosophy in the century that followed.

Poison Fruit

Download Poison Fruit PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0698158636
Total Pages : 446 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (981 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Poison Fruit by : Jacqueline Carey

Download or read book Poison Fruit written by Jacqueline Carey and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hot-as-Hel series with the “Sookie Stackhouse type of vibe” (Paranormal Haven) is back—but this time the paranormal Midwestern town of Pemkowet is feeling a frost in the air and the residents are frozen in fear.... The Pemkowet Visitors Bureau has always promoted paranormal tourism—even if it has downplayed the risks (hobgoblins are unpredictable). It helps that the town is presided over by Daisy Johanssen, who as Hel’s liaison is authorized by the Norse goddess of the dead to keep Pemkowet under control. Normally, that’s easier to do in the winter, when bracing temperatures keep folks indoors. But a new predator is on the prowl, and this one thrives on nightmares. Daisy is on her trail and working intimately with her partner and sometime lover from the Pemkowet PD, sexy yet unavailable werewolf Cody Fairfax. But even as the creature is racking up innocent victims, a greater danger looms on Pewkowet’s horizon. As a result of a recent ghost uprising, an unknown adversary—represented by a hell-spawn lawyer with fiery powers of persuasion—has instigated a lawsuit against the town. If Pemkowet loses, Hel’s sovereignty will be jeopardized, and the fate of the eldritch community will be at stake. The only one who can prevent it is Daisy—but she’s going to have to confront her own worst nightmare to do it.

The Copernicus Complex

Download The Copernicus Complex PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0374129215
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (741 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Copernicus Complex by : Caleb Scharf

Download or read book The Copernicus Complex written by Caleb Scharf and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From microcosm to cosmos -- The Copernicus Complex -- The ten-billion-year spree -- Neighbors -- A grand illusion -- Sugar and spice -- Hunters of the cosmic plain -- There's something about here -- (In)Significance.

New Heavens and a New Earth

Download New Heavens and a New Earth PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : OUP USA
ISBN 13 : 0199754799
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis New Heavens and a New Earth by : Jeremy Brown

Download or read book New Heavens and a New Earth written by Jeremy Brown and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2013-06-13 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jeremy Brown offers the first major study of the Jewish reception of the Copernican revolution, examining four hundred years of Jewish writings on the Copernican model. Brown shows the ways in which Jews ignored, rejected, or accepted the Copernican model, and the theological and societal underpinnings of their choices.

Finding Our Place in the Solar System

Download Finding Our Place in the Solar System PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107182298
Total Pages : 397 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (71 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Finding Our Place in the Solar System by : Todd Timberlake

Download or read book Finding Our Place in the Solar System written by Todd Timberlake and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-28 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Details the science behind the Copernican Revolution, the transition from the Earth-centered cosmos to a modern understanding of planetary orbits.

How Nature Works

Download How Nature Works PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1475754264
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (757 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis How Nature Works by : Per Bak

Download or read book How Nature Works written by Per Bak and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Self-organized criticality, the spontaneous development of systems to a critical state, is the first general theory of complex systems with a firm mathematical basis. This theory describes how many seemingly desperate aspects of the world, from stock market crashes to mass extinctions, avalanches to solar flares, all share a set of simple, easily described properties. "...a'must read'...Bak writes with such ease and lucidity, and his ideas are so intriguing...essential reading for those interested in complex systems...it will reward a sufficiently skeptical reader." -NATURE "...presents the theory (self-organized criticality) in a form easily absorbed by the non-mathematically inclined reader." -BOSTON BOOK REVIEW "I picture Bak as a kind of scientific musketeer; flamboyant, touchy, full of swagger and ready to join every fray... His book is written with panache. The style is brisk, the content stimulating. I recommend it as a bracing experience." -NEW SCIENTIST