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The edge of physics : a journey to Earth's extremes to unlock the secrets of the universe / Anil Ananthaswamy
by Ananthaswamy, Anil
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
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Galway, Ireland
3 Copies Available from This Seller
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About This Item
Boston, Md. : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. First Edition. Hardback. An exceptional copy; fine in an equally fine dw, now mylar-sleeved. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Literally as new.; 8vo 8"" - 9"" tall; 322 pages; Physical desc. : 322 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. Subjects: Physics - Popular works. Quantum theory - Popular works. Relativity (Physics) - Popular works. Summary: Ananthaswamy weaves together stories about the people and places at the heart of today's research in physics, while beautifully explaining the problems that scientists are trying to solve. In so doing, he provides a unique portrait of the universe and our quest to understand it.
Synopsis
In this deeply original book, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy sets out in search of the telescopes and detectors that promise to answer the biggest questions in modern cosmology. Why is the universe expanding at an ever faster rate? What is the nature of the "dark matter" that makes up almost a quarter of the universe? Why does the universe appear fine-tuned for life? Are there others besides our own? Ananthaswamy soon finds himself at the ends of the earth—in remote and sometimes dangerous places. Take the Atacama Desert in the Chilean Andes, one of the coldest, driest places on the planet, where not even a blade of grass can survive. Its spectacularly clear skies and dry atmosphere allow astronomers to gather brilliant images of galaxies billions of light-years away. Ananthaswamy takes us inside the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope on Mount Paranal, where four massive domes open to the sky each night "like dragons waking up." He also takes us deep inside an abandoned iron mine in Minnesota, where half-mile-thick rock shields physicists as they hunt for elusive dark matter particles. And to the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, where engineers are drilling 1.5 miles into the clearest ice on the planet. They’re building the world’s largest neutrino detector, which could finally help reconcile quantum physics with Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The stories of the people who work at these and other dramatic research sites—from Lake Baikal in Siberia to the Indian Astronomical Observatory in the Himalayas to the subterranean lair of the Large Hadron Collider—make for a compelling new portrait of the universe and our quest to understand it. An atmospheric, engaging, and illuminating read, The Edge of Physics depicts science as a human process, bringing cosmology back down to earth in the most vivid terms.
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Details
- Bookseller
- MW Books Ltd.
(IE)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 180743
- Title
- The edge of physics : a journey to Earth's extremes to unlock the secrets of the universe / Anil Ananthaswamy
- Author
- Ananthaswamy, Anil
- Format/Binding
- Hardback
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 3
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Boston, Md. : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Date Published
- 2010
Terms of Sale
MW Books Ltd.
Returns accepted within 10 days of receipt if you are unsatisfied with either our description of, or the book itself.
About the Seller
MW Books Ltd.
Biblio member since 2005
Galway
About MW Books Ltd.
MW Books is an academic and antiquarian bookshop with a large stock in core areas such as Early Travel & Exploration, Nineteenth Century Literature, Early Political Economy, Labour and Social History, and Asian and Colonial History. Please don't hesitate to contact us with your questions or comments regarding any item listed.
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- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
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