San Antonio College Library

The "Ask a Physicist" columnist for io9.com explains how space, time, and everything in between are shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven recent discoveries about the universe.

Physicist Brian Greene discusses the historical quest for a grand unified theory in physics which will reconcile quantum physics and general relativity, and considers the possibility that superstring theory may bring an end to that search.

Cosmologist Lee Smolin offers a startling new theory of the universe that is at once elegant, comprehensive, and radically different from anything proposed before. In The Life of the Cosmos, Smolin cuts the Gordian knot of cosmology with a simple, powerful idea: "The underlying structure of our world," he writes, "is to be found in the logic of evolution." Today's physicists have overturned Newton's view of the universe, yet they continue to cling...

"In The Infinite Cosmos Joseph Silk takes the reader on a tour of the universe, past, present, and future, showing how the very latest observations and theories are unlocking clues about its origin and structure. X-ray, radio, and high-energy views of space are revealing fossil radiation left over from the big bang and providing us with unprecedented views of the most distant reaches of the universe. Theories from the frontiers of current research...

"This book brings together fundamental scientific, philosophical, and religious issues in cosmology, raising thought-provoking questions. In every age people have pitied the universes of their ancestors, convinced that they have at last discovered the ultimate truth. Do we now stand at the threshold of knowing everything, or will our latest model, like all the rest, be pitied by our descendants?"--BOOK JACKET.

"At long last, a theory has emerged that addresses the foundation of reality logically, rationally, empirically, and completely--Null Physics. The universe it reveals doesn't rely on unknowable precursors in the ancient, untestable past. The universe it reveals won't collapse or grow old and die. Null Physics tells us why the universe exists, how the universe exists, and why it is the way it is."--Page 2 of cover.

From the primeval fire and the first big bang that generated both space and time, the universe has been moving gradually toward disintegration. One day it will come to stardom - the ultimate catastrophe. The sun will burn out, the galaxies will turn into giant graveyards, and space-time will be overwhelmed as black holes swallow up whole stars and star systems and coalesce to form superholes. Without the use of complex formulas or symbols Paul Davies...

This book provides an extensive survey of all the physics necessary to understand the current developments in the field of fundamental cosmology, as well as an overview of the observational data and methods. It will help students to get into research by providing definitions and main techniques and ideas discussed today. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 summarises the fundamentals in theoretical physics needed in cosmology (general relativity,...