View all Writers' Gallery
Gödel's Proof Review
Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems shook the foundations of formal logic and mathematics, but its meaning remained elusive even to experts for years. Today, however, there's an easier way to see how Gödel discovered his theorems.
Einstein's Dreams Review
Einstein's Dreams takes the reader on a journey through different conceptions of time. What if time stood still? What if time slowed down on the highest mountain peaks? Find out why this modern classic is a must-read for those looking to dabble in physics, philosophy, or psychology.
How To Teach Relativity to Your Dog
Everyone’s heard of Einstein, and most know of E=mc2; but did you know that gravity bends light? Do you understand how energy can be transformed to matter? And can you explain why clocks run slower the faster they move? A century after Einstein proved these facts and more, they continue to boggle the mind. In his book, Orzel explains one of the cornerstones of modern physics in everyday language and down-to-Earth imagery, through a series of imaginary conversations with his lovable mutt, Emmy.
Feynman
Richard Feynman is one of the most brilliant and fascinating physicists of the twentieth century. He picked locks for fun at the Manhattan Project, reinvented quantum physics and investigated the space shuttle Challenger tragedy. Author Jim Ottaviani and artist Leland Myrick collaborated to create the graphic novel "Feynman" about his life. In this excerpt, Feynman shares the groundwork of quantum electrodynamics with students in New Zealand. Excerpted with permission from the publisher, First Second Books.
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
See how Emmy the dog formulates the existence of cheesy bunnies in the backyard. She will teach you how to predict the existence of your wildest fantasies and bring them to the yard.
Warning: you might also learn some quantum physics too.
The Fifth Postulate
Many mathematicians since the time of Euclid attempted to solve a seemingly simple problem about parallel lines without success. Yet the success of their failures would reveal a whole new geometry and description of space and time.
The Manga Guide to Physics
In The Manga Guide to Physics, you'll follow alongside Megumi as she learns about the physics of everyday objects like roller skates, slingshots, braking cars, and tennis serves!
Insatiable Birdie
Can a book inspire you as a child to grow up and solve one of the most famous mysteries of mathematics? Come take a peek inside Physics for Entertainment to find out. Originally published over seventy years ago in Russia, this classic book answers many fascinating questions that one might not even think are physics questions. “Can an invisible man see? Why are all cats grey when the candles are out?” The excerpt below explains the habits or our beloved drinking bird toy.
Death From the Skies
"The Universe is trying to kill you. It's nothing personal. It's trying to kill me too" Astronomer, Phil Plait, describes how everything from asteroids to gamma ray burst would end impact the Earth.
The Education of T.C. MITS --What Modern Mathematics Means to You
How will I use math and physics in the real world? Lillian Lieber answers this age old question in this recently re-released classic. She describes how math and physics function as a democracy in a triumph of good over evil.
Physics for Future Presidents --the Science Behind the Headlines
What does the president need to know about Physics? As president you will need to make decisions that require thinking like a physicist.
The Cosmic Zoom
Most of the scientists and inventors we met started out believing that they had made a great discovery overlooked by everyone else. It never pays to underestimate the human capacity for self-deception.
The Citizen-Scientist's Obligation to Stand Up for Standards
Empirical constraints that may otherwise guide sensible policy making seem to be evaporating.
The Beginning…
This story is about the universe, and unfortunately there are no data for the Very Beginning. None, zero.
Spaceship Neutrino
Solar neutrinos stream through us constantly, raining down on us by day and up through the Earth by night.
Odds Are Stacked When Science Tries to Debate Pseudoscience
I agreed to participate in a debate for a Florida radio program that specialized in alien visits and U.F.O. sightings. . . I should have known better.
Into the Future
If we are fortunate and wise enough to go on as a species for many millennia, I am tempted to think the twentieth century will be remembered as something special in science, the century in which many of the mysteries of Earth, life, and the cosmos were understood for the first time.
In Search of Beauty
My colleagues and I in fundamental physics are the intellectual descendants of Albert Einstein; we like to think that we too search for beauty.
How the Universe Got Its Spots
The story of Dr. Levin's research in the form of letters to her mother. They contain an intriguing blend of science and personal anecdote.
Hidden Symmetry
Most of us who are unfortunate enough to remember what life was like when we were thirteen years old will recall that one of the predominant influences that shaped our lives at that age was the unrelenting coercion of peer pressure.
Einstein's Relativity and Everyday Life
What good is fundamental physics to the person on the street? This is the perennial question posed to physicists by their non-science friends, by students in the humanities and social sciences, and by politicians looking to justify spending tax dollars on basic science.
Einstein's Legacy
Would the world now be different if Albert Einstein had never lived? Could we ask the same question with regard to Claude Monet or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
Celebrating the Poetry of Imagination Without Boundaries
There is poetry in physics discoveries that is worth celebrating, even if one is not a cosmologist.
ATOM: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond
It is difficult today to fully appreciate how recent is the notion that atoms are real physical entities, and not mere mathematical or philosophical constructs.
A Mind Can Be Open Without Being Empty: Thoughts on the Skepticism of Scientists
Is the scientific community really closed to ideas from the lonely genius? Do the historical stories of Galileo and Wegener really show that we are willing to listen only to our own?
The Map is Not the Territory*
My uncle Karl had no sense of direction. Armed with an elaborate set of instructions and a street map of downtown Montreal, he would gamely set off on an errand, and we children would gleefully brace ourselves for the next development.
Cosmic Evolution
Simply defined, cosmic evolution is the study of change--the vast number of developmental and generative changes that have accumulated during all time and across all space, from big bang to humankind.
Chess and the Laws of Physics
Discovering the laws of physics is like trying to learn the laws of chess merely by observing chess games.
Beauty of Trajectory
"Ignoring air resistance, cannon balls move along parabolas," we learn in school, but the truth is more intriguing.
A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down
A few years ago I had occasion to engage my father-in-law, a retired academician, on the subject of the collective nature of physical law.
String Training
String theory’s view of the fundamental nature of matter differs significantly from that of traditional particle physics.
The Cosmic Landscape
It is gradually becoming accepted, by many theoretical physicists, that the Laws of Physics may not only be variable but are almost always deadly.
Rabbits Feet and Lucky Tattoos
What can a kicker or punter do to improve his accuracy? Unlike linemen, who are a deliberative, logical, and pensive group given to quiet self-introspection, these guys, as a class, are as superstitious as all get-out.
