Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is cosmology consultant for NEW SCIENTIST. His books include WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD, QUANTUM THEORY CANNOT HURT YOU and WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KELVIN, which was shortlisted for the 2010 Royal Society Book Prize. He is also the author of the app SOLAR SYSTEM FOR iPAD, which won THE BOOKSELLER Digital Innovation of the Year award. Marcus was a regular guest on the BBC4 comedy-science show, IT'S ONLY A THEORY, and Channel 4's SUNDAY BRUNCH. He has spoken at a variety of events, including the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Sydney Writers Festival, the National Theatre and Wilderness Festival. And he has also performed stand-up comedy at a variety of venues from an upturned inflatable cow on London's South Bank to a glass-bottomed boat in a shark tank at the Brighton Sealife Centre.
'Entertaining and at times mind-boggling guide to the weakest of
nature's fundamental forces, which also controls the fate of the
universe'
*The Times*
'Chown is good company. He tells his story clearly and sets out the
key ideas without recourse to jargon and intimidating mathematics .
. . "There has never been a better time to study gravity,"
Arkani-Hamed insists, and Chown's eminently readable book helps us
understand why'
*Guardian*
'Marcus Chown is one of the UK's best writers on physics and
astronomy - it's excellent to see him back on what he does best . .
. no one has covered the topic with such a light touch and joie de
vivre as Chown . . . It gives what I think is the best introduction
to string theory at this basic descriptive level I've ever seen . .
. a very readable exploration of humanity's gradual realisation of
what gravity was about with all of Chown's usual sparkle . . . a
delight'
*popularscience.co.uk*
'"Everyone thinks it sucks but in most of the Universe it blows."
That aphoristic introduction hints at the genial wit and scientific
flair that await in Marcus Chown's primer on gravity, which traces
the historic arc of our understanding of the force. He shows how
Isaac Newton's 1687 Principia - which distilled fundamental laws
from the complexity of the cosmos - helps to explain phenomena such
as tides. He analyses Albert Einstein's reformulation of gravity as
warped space-time. And he gazes into the weird realm of quantum
theory - and the "undiscovered country" of the next big
questions'
*Nature*
'Compact and accessible while remaining comprehensive. A welcome
addition to anyone's popular science library, written in a relaxed
style and full of relevant quotations'
*BBC Sky at Night Magazine*
'A readable romp through the history of cosmology and its possible
future, all tied together through the story of how we have
understood gravity . . . Chown is excellent on bringing out the
temporary nature of theories, as well as the messy business of
refining them'
*thebookbag.co.uk*
'An accessible history of the most well known but least understood
force'
*Big Issue North*
'Mind-bogglingly brilliant'
*www.booklore.co.uk*
'[Chown's] chapter on the tides, from the water in the River Severn
to the squeezing and stretching of Jupiter's moon Io, is lovely . .
. One of the nicest explanations I've read of the fact that objects
of different mass fall at the same rate . . . We end with the
current attempt to reconcile gravity and quantum theory, and a
surprisingly accessible and enjoyable discussion of string theory
and multidimensional space . . . Enjoyably, Chown's book doesn't
give the sense that "physics is broken" I've come across elsewhere;
it's more that we're on the cusp of an exciting step change in our
understanding'
*THES*
The "detective mystery" aspect of the subject [is] certainly
something Chown captures to perfection
*FORTEAN TIMES*
A helter-skelter tour through the lives and discoveries of people
who helped us understand gravity .. fascinating facts ... he gives
us the clearest explanation I have yet read of Einstein's principle
of relativity ... this book taught me science and science history
in an engaging fashion ... Chown's style carries the reader along
in the quest to understand gravity and I recommend it ...
entertaining science history
*ASTRONOMY NOW*
Timely, accessible and peppered with quotes from Douglas Adams and
Terry Pratchett, this history of
something we all feel but still cannot quite grasp has an admirably
light touch
*THE SUNDAY TIMES 'Science Book of the Year'*
Timely and accessible, this history of something we all feel but
still cannot quite grasp has an admirably light touch.
*The Sunday Times (Culture)*
Chown's fascinating guide to the force of gravity follows its story
from Newton to the as yet undiscovered quantum theory of gravity -
the holy grail of 21st-century physics. He concludes that the
greatest questions in science (Where did the universe come from?
What are space and time?) are tantalisingly close to being
answered
*DAILY MAIL 'Must Read'*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |