A luminous guide to how the radical new science of counterfactuals can reveal the full scope of our universe There is a vast class of properties, which science has so far neglected, that relate not only to what is true - the actual - but to what could be true: the counterfactual. This is the science of can and can't. A pioneer in the field, Chiara Marletto explores the extraord...(展开全部)

From a young British scientist, a groundbreaking exploration of a radically different approach to physics There is a vast class of things that science has so far almost entirely neglected. They are central to the understanding of physical reality both at an everyday level and at the level of the most fundamental phenomena in physics, yet have traditionally been assumed to be im...(展开全部)

In 2000, Tom Zoellner purchased a diamond engagement ring and proposed. His girlfriend said "Yes" and then suddenly, walked out of his life and made Tom the owner of a used engagement ring. Instead of hitting the self-help shelves of his local bookstore, he hit the road travelling to diamond mines in Africa, Canada, India, Brazil, and Russia to discover the true worth of this s...(展开全部)

For decades after identifying the structure of DNA, scientists focused only on genes, the regions of the genome that contain codes for the production of proteins. Other regions that make up 98% of the human genome were dismissed as "junk," sequences that serve no purpose. Yet recently researchers have discovered variations and modulations in this junk DNA that underwrite a numb...(展开全部)

For decades after the identification of the structure of DNA, scientists focused only on genes, the regions of the genome that contain codes for the production of proteins. Other regions that make up 98 percent of the human genome were dismissed as "junk," sequences that serve no purpose. But researchers have recently discovered variations and modulations in this junk DNA that ...(展开全部)

For decades, 98 per cent of our DNA was written off as 'junk' on the grounds that it did not code for proteins. From rare genetic diseases to Down's Syndrome, from viral infections to the ageing process, only now are the effects and the vital functions of these junk regions beginning to emerge. Scientists' rapidly growing knowledge of this often controversial field has already ...(展开全部)

In Impossibility, John D. Barrow--one of our most elegant and accomplished science writers--argues convincingly that there are limits to human discovery, that there are things that are ultimately unknowable, undoable, or unreachable. Barrow first examines the limits of the human mind: our brain evolved to meet the demands of our immediate environment, and much that lies outside...(展开全部)

Barrow, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Sussex, has written a very engaging and even playful book. He attempts to show how certain "laws" governing "Nature" help us to separate the possible from the impossible....Barrow's book enjoyable, informative, and thought provoking.