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...

Now anyone with an interest in the physical sciences can master physics -- without formal training or drowning in a sea of complicated formulas and equations. In Physics Demystified best-selling author Stan Gibilisco offers a fun, effective, and totally painless way to learn the fundamentals and general concepts of physics. With Physics Demystified you master the subject one simple step at a time -- at your own speed. Unlike most books on physics,...

"A contrarian scientist wrestles with the big questions that modern physics raises, and what physics says about the human condition Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation. On the other hand, the idea that...

"Quantum mechanics gives us a picture of the world that is so radically counterintuitive that it has changed our perspective on reality itself, raising profound questions about concepts such as cause and effect, measurement, and information. Despite its seemingly mysterious nature, quantum mechanics has a broad range of applications in fields such as chemistry, computer science, and cryptography. Quantum Mechanics gives you the logical tools to grasp...

"Music is an outlet for self-expression. It has the power to influence your feelings, connect you to others and break down barriers ... And believe it or not, it's science -- a LOT of science! The tunes that move us are a blend of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, plus passion and emotion. In this book, you'll find out when humans began making music, the early history of recording and playing back, how things we use every day like...

The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk--a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate--became the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional...