Physics & Astronomy

Every branch of knowledge seeks to provide an account of—something: the past, the present, the mind, culture, institutions, social and physical phenomena.

Making even the most enigmatic scientific ideas accessible and captivating, quantum physicist, New York Times bestselling author, and BBC host Jim Al‑Khalili offers a fascinating and illuminating look at why physics matters to everyone.

Shining a light on the most profound insights revealed by modern physics, Jim Al‑Khalili invites us all to understand what this crucially important science tells us about the universe and the nature of reality itself.

Human beings are naturally visual creatures. Our eyes, capable of counting single photons, have been optimized over evolutionary time to the very limits of the laws of physics.

Over the past century, cosmologists have pieced together a remarkably detailed picture of our universe and its history, spanning from the first seconds that followed the Big Bang up to the present.

Nano Comes to Life opens a window onto the nanoscale—the infinitesimal realm of proteins and DNA where physics and cellular and molecular biology meet—and introduces readers to the rapidly evolving nanotechnologies that are allowing us to manipulate the very building blocks of life.

Not long ago, I read an article in Scientific American about the power of words and how language shapes the brain. The article, written by a young Japanese postdoc in neuroscience, begins by invoking the Japanese word, kotodama, which can be translated to mean, literally, “word spirit.”