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.
We have long understood black holes to be the points at which the universe as we know it comes to an end - mysterious chasms so destructive and unforgiving that not even light can escape their deadly power. Recent research, however, has led to a cascade of new discoveries that have revealed an entirely new, and crucially important, side to black holes. Super-sized versions, often billions of times more massive than the Sun, lurk in every galaxy in the universe. And these chasms don't just vacuum up everything around them; they also spit out huge clouds of matter and energy. In Gravity's Engines, renowned astrophysicist Caleb Scharf reveals how these giant black holes profoundly rearrange the cosmos that surrounds them, controlling the number of stars in the galaxies and, in turn, the entire universe. With lucidity and elegance, Scharf traces the two hundred year history of our attempts to discover the nature of black holes, from an English academic turned clergyman in the late 1700's who first identified these 'dark stars' to Einstein and the great revolutions of relativity and quantum mechanics. Engaging with our deepest questions about our origins, he takes us on an intimate journey through our endlessly colourful universe, revealing how the cosmic capacity for life is ultimately governed by - and perhaps could not exist without - black holes.
Winner of the 1974 National Book Award "The most profound and accomplished American novel since the end of World War II." - The New Republic “A screaming comes across the sky. . .” A few months after the Germans’ secret V-2 rocket bombs begin falling on London, British Intelligence discovers that a map of the city pinpointing the sexual conquests of one Lieutenant Tyrone Slothrop, U.S. Army, corresponds identically to a map showing the V-2 impact sites. The implications of this discovery will launch Slothrop on an amazing journey across war-torn Europe, fleeing an international cabal of military-industrial superpowers, in search of the mysterious Rocket 00000.
A hard-SF cli-fi saga set against the background of the birth of the solar system. Filled to the brim with big ideas and breathtaking worldbuilding In the year 2570, a sleeper will wake . . . In the mid-21st century, the Kernel, a strange object on a five-hundred-year-orbit, is detected coming from high above the plane of the solar system. Could it be an alien artefact? In the middle of climate-change crises, there is no mood for space-exploration stunts - but Reid Malenfant, elderly, once a shuttle pilot and frustrated would-be asteroid miner, decides to go take a look anyway. Nothing more is heard of him. But his ex-wife, Emma Stoney, sets up a trust fund to search for him the next time the Kernel returns . . . By 2570 Earth is transformed. A mere billion people are supported by advanced technology on a world that is almost indistinguishable from the natural, with recovered forests, oceans, ice caps. It is not an age for expansion; there are only small science bases beyond the Earth. But this is a world you would want to live in: a Star Trek without the stars. After 500 years the Kernel returns, and a descendant of Stoney, who Malenfant will call Emma II, mounts a mission to see what became of Malenfant. She finds him still alive, cryo-preserved . . . His culture-shock encounter with a conservative future is entertaining . . . But the Kernel itself turns out to be attached to a kind of wormhole, through which Malenfant and Emma II, exploring further, plummet back in time, across five billion years . . . Readers are blown away by World Engines: Destroyer: 'The book quickly becomes epic in a massive, yet thoroughly believable way, precisely because the story is grounded in all of these well-realised characters' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'It is a really good Cli-Fi but not only ecological . . . It touches on very many different topics that are very much in our future' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'It's a great sci-fi novel, well written and gripping. I loved the amazing world building, the fleshed out cast of characters and the plot' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'This is a complex book with a lot going on . . . Suffice to say this was a fantastic read with a great story, good characters & a world that I would very much like to come back to' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'The large scale is always where Baxter is so exciting and passionate and it pays off in spades in the final act. Worth your time to read and enjoy' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'If you love your science fiction hard, look no further than Stephen Baxter to find your fix. He was literally a rocket scientist. His work is always grounded in science' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
An Introduction to Gravity Modification, Second Edition is the result of a 12-year (1999-2011) study into the theoretical and technological feasibility of gravity modification, that presents the new physics of forces by replacing relativistic, quantum and string theories with process models. Gravity, electromagnetism and mechanical forces are unified by Ni fields, and obey a common equation g = (tau)c DEGREES2. Gravity modification is defined as the modification of the strength and direction of the gravitational acceleration without the use of mass as the primary source of this modification, in local space time. It consists of field modulation and field vectoring. Field modulation is the ability to attenuate or amplify a force field. Field vectoring is the ability to change the direction of this force field . This book reaches out to a wider audience, and not just to the theoretical physicist; to engineers and technologist who have the funding to experiment; just as Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson experimented with the Holmdel Horn Antenna and discovered the microwave background radiation. The mathematics is easier than that taught in theoretical physics and therefore accessible to a wider audience such as these engineers and technolog
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
The first Priscilla Hutchins novel from Jack McDevitt, hailed by Stephen King as “the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.” Humans call them the Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues on distant planets in the galaxy. Each relic is different. Each inscription defies translation. Yet all are heartbreakingly beautiful. And for planet Earth, on the brink of disaster, they may hold the only key to survival for the entire human race.
In the tradition of The Anti-Gravity Handbook and the Time-Travel Handbook comes this all-new compilation of material on anti-gravity, free energy, flying saucers and Tesla technology. With plenty of technical drawings and explanations, this suppressed technology will change the world in ways we can only dream of. Chapters on anti-gravity mercury gyros, the motionless electromagnet generator patent, the Tesla pyramid engine, anti-gravity patents, rare photos of the machines in flight, and tons more. The book that finally blows the lid on suppressed technology and anti-gravity! Heavily illustrated.
On behalf of the Program Committee, it is our pleasure to present the p- ceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection Systems (RAID 2010), which took place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, during September 15-17, 2010. As in the past, the symposium brought together leading researchers and practitioners from academia, government, and industry to discuss intrusion detection research and practice. There were eight technical sessionspresentingfullresearchpapersonnetworkprotection,highperformance, malwaredetectionanddefense(2 sessions),evaluation,forensics,anomalydet- tion and access protection, and Web security. Furthermore, there was a poster session presenting emerging research areas and case studies. The RAID 2010 Program Committee received 102 full-paper submissions from all over the world. All submissions were carefully reviewed by independent reviewers on the basis of technical quality, topic, space, and overallbalance. The ?naldecisiontookplaceataProgramCommitteemeetingheldduringMay19-20 inOakland,California,where24paperswereeventuallyselectedforpresentation at the conference and publication in the proceedings. As a continued feature, the symposium later also accepted 15 poster presentations reporting early-stage research,demonstrationof applications,orcasestudies. The authorsof accepted posters were also o?ered the opportunity to have an extended abstract of their work included in the proceedings.