Brian Clegg

How did we come to understand the force that binds the universe together? In Gravity, Brian Clegg offers a succinct history of gravity from the perspectives of great thinkers including Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Einstein and today’s leading scientists. He explores theories of general relativity, quantum mechanics and our attempts to link the two, as well as time travel, black holes, string theory and why gravity only works at the speed of light. Gravity is anything but simple, but Brian Clegg has written the most accessible book yet on the subject - the perfect introduction to a complicated theory.

A pop science look at time travel technology, from Einstein to Ronald Mallett to present day experiments. Forget fiction: time travel is real. In How to Build a Time Machine, Brian Clegg provides an understanding of what time is and how it can be manipulated. He explores the fascinating world of physics and the remarkable possibilities of real time travel that emerge from quantum entanglement, superluminal speeds, neutron star cylinders and wormholes in space. With the fascinating paradoxes of time travel echoing in our minds will we realize that travel into the future might never be possible? Or will we realize there is no limit on what can be achieved, and take on this ultimate challenge? Only time will tell.

There is no physical law to prevent time travel nothing in physics to say it is impossible. So who is to say it can't be done? In Build Your Own Time Machine, acclaimed science writer Brian Clegg takes inspiration from his childhood heroes, Doctor Who and H. G. Wells, to explain the nature of time. How do we understand it and why measure it the way we do? How did the theories of one man change the way time was perceived by the world? Why wouldn't H. G. Wells's time machine have worked? And what would we need to do to make a real one? Build Your Own Time Machine explores the amazing possibilities of quantum entanglement, superluminal speeds, neutron star cylinders and wormholes in space. Brian Clegg applies the most famous of Einstein's theories, special and general relativity, to explain the real science of time travel and discover how possible it really is.

Climate change is upon us. Make no mistake: disasters such as Hurricane Katrina are the tip of a rapidly melting iceberg. This title includes: where to live to minimize the impact of climate change; how to get drinkable water when the taps run dry; what to eat to stay alive in town and country; and, essential survival equipment to keep ready.

Infinity is a profoundly counter-intuitive and brain-twisting subject that has inspired some great thinkers - and provoked and shocked others.The ancient Greeks were so horrified by the implications of an endless number that they drowned the man who gave away the secret. And a German mathematician was driven mad by the repercussions of his discovery of transfinite numbers.Brian Clegg and Oliver Pugh's brilliant graphic tour of infinity features a cast of characters ranging from Archimedes and Pythagoras to al-Khwarizmi, Fibonacci, Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Cantor, Venn, Gödel and Mandelbrot, and shows how infinity has challenged the finest minds of science and mathematics. Prepare to enter a world of paradox.

The perfect companion to any flight - a guide to the science on view from your window seat. There are few times when science is so immediate as when you're in a plane. Your life is in the hands of the scientists and engineers who enable tons of metal and plastic to hurtle through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour. Inflight Science shows how you stay alive up there - but that's only the beginning. Brian Clegg explains the ever changing view, whether it's crop circles or clouds, mountains or river deltas, and describes simple experiments to show how a wing provides lift, or what happens if you try to open a door in midair (don't!). On a plane you'll experience the impact of relativity, the power of natural radiation and the effect of altitude on the boiling point of tea. Among the many things you'll learn is why the sky is blue, the cause of thunderstorms and the impact of volcanic ash in an enjoyable tour of mid-air science. Every moment of your journey is an opportunity to experience science in action: Inflight Science will be your guide.

Looking after 'The Environment' should be straightforward - no-one wants to destroy the world. And yet in every 'green' area we are either failing to take the essential steps to prevent destruction of the planet or are being deceived - often by ourselves. By using the scalpel of eco-logic it is possible to open up the reality beneath the layers of confusion and deception, turn recognized situations inside out, identify hidden agendas in the so-called Experts, and come up with real solutions to our green problems.Examining issues such as Climate Change Sceptics, Celebrity greens and the charity gig bandwagon, 'Fair' trade, Organics, Renewable energy, Recycling, Carbon offsets, Sustainability and much more, ECO-LOGIC is a book to shake up the green movement and give it a new impetus.

The phenomenon that Einstein thought too spooky and strange to be true What is entanglement? It's a connection between quantum particles, the building blocks of the universe. Once two particles are entangled, a change to one of them is reflected---instantly---in the other, be they in the same lab or light-years apart. So counterintuitive is this phenomenon and its implications that Einstein himself called it spooky and thought that it would lead to the downfall of quantum theory. Yet scientists have since discovered that quantum entanglement, the God Effect, was one of Einstein's few---and perhaps one of his greatest---mistakes. What does it mean? The possibilities offered by a fuller understanding of the nature of entanglement read like something out of science fiction: communications devices that could span the stars, codes that cannot be broken, computers that dwarf today's machines in speed and power, teleportation, and more. In The God Effect, veteran science writer Brian Clegg has written an exceptionally readable and fascinating (and equation-free) account of entanglement, its history, and its application. Fans of Brian Greene and Amir Aczel and those interested in the marvelous possibilities coming down the quantum physics road will find much to marvel, illuminate, and delight.

The fully updated 2nd edition of this critically acclaimed book covers the exciting developments in light science of the past five years. Light Years is an engaging survey of everything we know of the universe's most enigmatic phenomenon and the remarkable people who have been captivated by it.

Eadweard Muybridge's extraordinary personal story has all the ingredients of drama. He was born in the English suburbs, and set out to seek adventure and fortune in the American Wild West. While visiting Europe his coach overturned, and he was treated for a fractured skull. It was at this time that photography grew. Muybridge became a pioneering innovator, who not only invented new methods of photography, but devised 'a flying studio' which enabled him to develop his pictures in the field.He was betrayed by his wife, and risked everything by killing her lover. Muybridge's work is iconic, the picture of the moving horse, which proved how it lifted its four feet off the ground simultaneously, known throughout the world. His distinctive stop-motion pictures of men, women, boxers, wrestlers, racehorses, elephants and camels frozen in time, captured in the act of moving, fighting, galloping, living, have become some of the most famous images in the history of photography and science.

Are you stuck in a rut? Short of inspiration? Looking for a study guide that’s a break from the norm?This innovative book will give you the tools and techniques you need to work a bit of creative magic into every aspect of your studying.Clegg’s easy-to-read, entertaining book will show you: what the whole creativity business is about why you need to bother with it clever methods to stimulate your brain into action how to come up with a mass of ideas at a moment’s noticeMind stretches and mental workouts will enable you to take effective notes and to absorb and structure information in a way that can easily be recalled.Studying Creatively, the study guide with a difference, will show you how to change your environment to make creative study more effective, it will help you work on your presentation skills - there’s no point having great ideas if you can’t put them across.Good ideas are essential for any student who wants to do well. This invaluable guide, suitable for students from ages fifteen to twenty-one, empowers you with the tools you need to work creatively.

Are you stuck in a rut? Short of inspiration? Looking for a study guide that’s a break from the norm?This innovative book will give you the tools and techniques you need to work a bit of creative magic into every aspect of your studying.Clegg’s easy-to-read, entertaining book will show you: what the whole creativity business is about why you need to bother with it clever methods to stimulate your brain into action how to come up with a mass of ideas at a moment’s noticeMind stretches and mental workouts will enable you to take effective notes and to absorb and structure information in a way that can easily be recalled.Studying Creatively, the study guide with a difference, will show you how to change your environment to make creative study more effective, it will help you work on your presentation skills - there’s no point having great ideas if you can’t put them across.Good ideas are essential for any student who wants to do well. This invaluable guide, suitable for students from ages fifteen to twenty-one, empowers you with the tools you need to work creatively.

Science is rightly a fundamental part of primary school education, but that doesn’t make it easy to teach - especially for teachers without a science background. This straight talking book from an experienced science writer and communicator looks at how to make the most of it and give primary school children a good grounding in the topic. Getting Science sets out to engage the sense of wonder. The science in this book is not for the children, but for the adults who have to explain it. Starting with a whirlwind tour of the great milestones of modern science, Getting Science goes on to take each of the main curriculum topics and give it a new twist. It provides the information needed to understand the key topics better and be able to put them across with enthusiasm and energy.This book will help teachers to get children excited by science, to understand science rather than just answer questions. Getting Science makes science fun, approachable and comprehensible to those who just don’t get it.

Anyone can type a few keywords into a search engine. But that’s only the beginning. With Studying Using the Web you can find the right material, check its authenticity, transform it into your own original work and keep up-to-date on essential topics. The book is about how to find the right information, and making the most of it. It shows you how to:know what to look for make the best use of search facilities gather pictures, sounds and more make use of the human side of the internet learn how to test information with a trust CSI kit collect and structure your information effectively make text your own keep up to date. You could stay jogging round the information track. But think how much better you could do with the right technology and skills to harness a leading-edge study machine. Move into the study fast track now.

Anyone can type a few keywords into a search engine. But that’s only the beginning. With Studying Using the Web you can find the right material, check its authenticity, transform it into your own original work and keep up-to-date on essential topics. The book is about how to find the right information, and making the most of it. It shows you how to:know what to look for make the best use of search facilities gather pictures, sounds and more make use of the human side of the internet learn how to test information with a trust CSI kit collect and structure your information effectively make text your own keep up to date. You could stay jogging round the information track. But think how much better you could do with the right technology and skills to harness a leading-edge study machine. Move into the study fast track now.

'Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the street to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.' Douglas Adams, Hitch-hiker's Guide to the GalaxyWe human beings have trouble with infinity - yet infinity is a surprisingly human subject. Philosophers and mathematicians have gone mad contemplating its nature and complexity - yet it is a concept routinely used by schoolchildren. Exploring the infinite is a journey into paradox. Here is a quantity that turns arithmetic on its head, making it feasible that 1 = 0. Here is a concept that enables us to cram as many extra guests as we like into an already full hotel. Most bizarrely of all, it is quite easy to show that there must be something bigger than infinity - when it surely should be the biggest thing that could possibly be. Brian Clegg takes us on a fascinating tour of that borderland between the extremely large and the ultimate that takes us from Archimedes, counting the grains of sand that would fill the universe, to the latest theories on the physical reality of the infinite. Full of unexpected delights, whether St Augustine contemplating the nature of creation, Newton and Leibniz battling over ownership of calculus, or Cantor struggling to publicise his vision of the transfinite, infinity's fascination is in the way it brings together the everyday and the extraordinary, prosaic daily life and the esoteric.Whether your interest in infinity is mathematical, philosophical, spiritual or just plain curious, this accessible book offers a stimulating and entertaining read.

PRAISE FOR LIGHT YEARS AND TIME TRAVEL""This immensely likeable work of pop science traces 'man's enduring fascination with light, ' from Aristotle's plans for a death ray (burning enemy ships with a giant array of mirrors) to a recent experiment that seems to have sent Mozart's 40th Symphony faster than light, and thus back through time. Clegg is very good at explaining the bizarre properties of light.""-The Guardian""A fascinating book on a fascinating subject. It brings together all aspects of light in an unusual and compelling manner.""-Sir Patrick Moore""Light's properties often seem mysterious to the point of being unfathomable. Yet in this extraordinary book, Brian Clegg manages to explain them through the lives of those so fixated with light that they have shaped our perception of it. . . . Clegg's accessible writing style manages to encapsulate the lives of light's disciples with humorous and interesting anecdotes . . . quite awesome ""-New Scientist

PRAISE FOR LIGHT YEARS AND TIME TRAVEL""This immensely likeable work of pop science traces 'man's enduring fascination with light, ' from Aristotle's plans for a death ray (burning enemy ships with a giant array of mirrors) to a recent experiment that seems to have sent Mozart's 40th Symphony faster than light, and thus back through time. Clegg is very good at explaining the bizarre properties of light.""-The Guardian""A fascinating book on a fascinating subject. It brings together all aspects of light in an unusual and compelling manner.""-Sir Patrick Moore""Light's properties often seem mysterious to the point of being unfathomable. Yet in this extraordinary book, Brian Clegg manages to explain them through the lives of those so fixated with light that they have shaped our perception of it. . . . Clegg's accessible writing style manages to encapsulate the lives of light's disciples with humorous and interesting anecdotes . . . quite awesome ""-New Scientist

Whatever is needed, from in-depth research material for a report or academic paper, to the telephone number of a company on the other side of the world or what is showing at the local cinema, this guide aims to help readers find the answer on the internet, faster and more easily.