Brian Greene: The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos

Brian Greene (born February 9, 1963) is an American theoretical physicist and one of the best-known string theorists. He has been a professor at Columbia University since 1996. Greene has worked on mirror symmetry, relating two different Calabi-Yau manifolds (concretely, relating the conifold to one of its orbifolds). He also described the flop transition, a mild form of topology change, showing that topology in string theory can change at the conifold point. He has become known to a wider audience through his books for the general public, The Elegant Universe, Icarus at the Edge of Time and The Fabric of the Cosmos, and a related PBS television special. Source: Wikipedia.





Official product description for the book: From the best-selling author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos comes his most expansive and accessible book to date—a book that takes on the grandest question: Is ours the only universe? There was a time when “universe” meant all there is. Everything. Yet, in recent years discoveries in physics and cosmology have led a number of scientists to conclude that our universe may be one among many. With crystal-clear prose and inspired use of analogy, Brian Greene shows how a range of different “multiverse” proposals emerges from theories developed to explain the most refined observations of both subatomic particles and the dark depths of space: a multiverse in which you have an infinite number of doppelgängers, each reading this sentence in a distant universe; a multiverse comprising a vast ocean of bubble universes, of which ours is but one; a multiverse that endlessly cycles through time, or one that might be hovering millimeters away yet remains invisible; another in which every possibility allowed by quantum physics is brought to life. Or, perhaps strangest of all, a multiverse made purely of math. Greene, one of our foremost physicists and science writers, takes us on a captivating exploration of these parallel worlds and reveals how much of reality’s true nature may be deeply hidden within them. And, with his unrivaled ability to make the most challenging of material accessible and entertaining, Greene tackles the core question: How can fundamental science progress if great swaths of reality lie beyond our reach? Sparked by Greene’s trademark wit and precision, The Hidden Reality is at once a far-reaching survey of cutting-edge physics and a remarkable journey to the very edge of reality—a journey grounded firmly in science and limited only by our imagination.

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Mike Brown: How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

Michael E. Brown (born June 5, 1965) has been a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 2003. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), notably the dwarf planet Eris, the only known TNO more massive than Pluto. He has humorously referred to himself as the man who killed Pluto. Source: Wikipedia. The book and author was recently the subject of a recent NPR show. On Weekend Edition Sunday, this was said about the book and author: Astronomer Mike Brown didn't mean to kill Pluto — or so he claims. Brown says the ex-ninth planet was just collateral damage in his search for the 10th. The story of that search — and the subsequent demotion of Pluto that raised the ire of elementary school students everywhere — is in his new book, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. You can download the podcast to that NPR show here.

Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow: The Grand Design

In December of 2010, the Lincoln Journal Star wrote this about the book and authors: "Scientists," in the words of "The Grand Design" authors Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, "have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge." This book is their attempt to give some answers in this quest for knowledge based on recent discoveries and theory. What they are seeking are the laws that govern the universe. Ultimately this knowledge would lead to a unified "theory of everything" that physicists, including Einstein, have sought for years. In the authors' view, this theory of everything is best described by M-theory, which is a model of string theory, basically that all particles are connected by vibrating strings. Read the rest of that review here.

John M. Logsdon: John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology)

The Dallas Morning News recently mentioned John M. Logsdon this way:

The Rockwall Republican, the longest-serving Texan in Congress , will finally ascend next year to the plum position that most lawmakers never get to enjoy: committee chairman. The oldest member of Congress will chair the most future-looking panel of them all, the House Science and Technology Committee. The committee's agenda is highly technical but central to building a competitive economy and skilled workforce. Its jurisdiction includes scientific research and education, space exploration, clean energy innovation and climate change research. Hall said that Elon Musk, the founder of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and other major space contractors would be asked to testify before his committee. SpaceX successfully launched its first test capsule last week from Cape Canaveral in Florida. John M. Logsdon, a space policy expert at George Washington University, said Hall's committee also will have to monitor NASA's progress on a deep-space rocket and crew capsule that must be built by 2016. "I can say with a fair degree of assurance that NASA is finding it technically and financially difficult to meet some of the targets in the authorization bill," Logsdon said. "I would expect him to raise some of the questions to NASA about how they are planning on going forward," he said.

You can read that full length article, here.

"Voyager 1 Spacecraft Heads For The Outer Limits" from NPR's All Things Considered

The Voyager 1 spacecraft is moving through the very outer boundary of our solar system, and moving into interstellar space. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 accomplished its initial goals of exploring the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, and is continuing to send back interesting data. NPR's Melissa Block talks to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium about the spacecraft and the outer limits of our sun's influence. [...] Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson directs the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He's also author of the book "The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet."

Download the NPR All Things Considered podcast for this show, here. Read the transcript for the show here. See also: Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet, NOVA - Origins, The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist

Celebrating Carl Sagan And 'Cosmos' from NPR: Science Friday Podcast

The television series Cosmos, which first aired 30 years ago this week, made a celebrity of science communicator Carl Sagan. In this archival 1994 Science Friday interview, Sagan discusses his book The Pale Blue Dot and shares his thoughts on manned space exploration.

Download the rebroadcast and podcast of this old Sagan interview, here. See also: Cosmos, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

What Are The Challenges Of 'Trailblazing Mars'? from NPR Podcast Science Friday

What grows best in Martian soil? How do you get oxygen out of thin air? Pat Duggins, author of Trailblazing Mars: NASA’s Next Giant Leap, talks about the questions NASA will face if it sends astronauts to the Red Planet and how to choose the right people for the job.

Download the podcast here. See also: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the VoidPacking for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet

The Grand Design of Physics from KERA's Think Podcast

[2010-09-28 12:00:00] Is the search for a unified theory a misguided effort? We'll talk this hour with physicist and science writer Leonard Mlodinow, co-author with Stephen Hawking of the new book "The Grand Design" (Bantam, 2010).

Download the podcast here. See also: The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Vintage), Euclid's Window : The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace, Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life

Stephen Hawking's "The Grand Design" from On Point with Tom Ashbrook Podcast

Physicist Stephen Hawking and Cal Tech colleague Leonard Mlodinow weigh in on science, the ultimate questions, and God. Their new book is "The Grand Design."

Download the podcast here. The National Post also had this to say, about the book (read that article, here):

Aztecs would tell of the Lady of the Skirt of Snakes, Phoenicians about the Zophashamin, and Jews and Christians about the one true God—Jehovah. But there is one unfortunate group—the children of atheistic materialists—that has no creation myth to call its own. When an inquisitive tyke asks who created the sun, the animals, and mankind, their materialist parents can only tell them to read a book by Carl Sagan or Richard Dawkins. But what sort of story are they likely to find? Should they be told, as famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking claims in his recent book The Grand Design that “the universe… create[d] itself from nothing”?

See also: Illustrated Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe, The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe, New Theories of Everything, The Theory of Almost Everything: The Standard Model, the Unsung Triumph of Modern Physics

The Black Hole War from KQED's Forum by forum@kqed.org (KQED Public Radio)

The Black Hole War -- Physicists Leonard Susskind and Stephen Hawking have disagreed vehemently on the fundamental nature of black holes. Susskind's new book "The Black Hole War" is his version of that dispute, and he joins us for a discussion in studio. Susskind is Felix Bloch professor of physics at Stanford University. His other books include "The Cosmic Landscape."

Listen to the podcast here, download the podcast file here. See also: The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design