Bøger af Brian Clegg

The mysterious phenomena that could unlock the secrets of the universe.

Brian Clegg was always fascinated by Isaac Asimov's classic Foundation series of books, in which the future is predicted using sophisticated mathematical modelling of human psychology and behaviour.Only much later did he realise that Asimov's 'psychohistory' had a real-world equivalent: game theory.Originating in the study of probabilistic gambling games that depend on a random source - the throw of a dice or the toss of a coin - game theory soon came to be applied to human interactions: essentially, what was the best strategy to win, whatever you were doing? Its mathematical techniques have been applied, with varying degrees of wisdom, to fields such as economics, evolution, and questions such as how to win a nuclear war.Clegg delves into game theory's colourful history and significant findings, and shows what we can all learn from this oft-misunderstood field of study.

"How patterns--from diagrams of spacetime to particle trails revealed by supercolliders--offer clues to the fundamental workings of the physical world."--Provided by publisher.

A fascinating and up-to-date tour of the workings of the universe that suggest the possibility of journeying back and forth through time.

Everyone has an interest in the weather, whether it's to check the prospects for a day out or to know when best to harvest a crop. The Earth's weather systems also provide some of the most dramatic forces of nature, from the vast release of energy in a lightning flash to the devastating impact of tornadoes and hurricanes.For centuries, our only real guide to future weather was folklore, but with the introduction of the first weather forecasts and maps in Victorian times, attempts were made to give some warning of the weather to come. Until relatively recently, these forecasts could be wildly inaccurate - think of Michael Fish's denial that there was a storm on the way the night before the UK's great storm of 1987. This was due to the mathematically chaotic nature of weather systems, first discovered in the 1960s, understanding of which would transform forecasting from the 1990s and mean that meteorologists became amongst the foremost users of supercomputers.

He froze. It was the girl's voice again. The one he'd heard when the pain had struck. Clear and urgent, deep inside his head. _That click was a Heckler and Koch MP7 personal defence weapon. It fires 950 armour piercing rounds per minute. The sound you heard was the safety catch coming off._ No! It was talking rubbish. Mum and dad were outside, they'd come back for him. There was no killer with a machine gun behind his bedroom door. How could there be? The voice in his head was a stupid figment of his imagination. It was just stress, after that terrible pain. He could ignore it. All he had to do was open the door. Mum and dad would be there, smiling at him. _Davy, open that door and you are dead._ He doesn't know it yet, but fourteen-year-old Davy Taylor is about to have the worst day of his life. With a journalist for a father and a scientist mother, family life has always been nomadic: France, South America and now, London. Coming home from school, he collapses in the street. More pain than he'd ever thought possible... a brain haemorrhage? Is he dying? He staggers home. Surely his parents can help? But they're gone. The flat's empty. He's alone. And then the voice in his head starts talking. Davy finds himself facing a powerful underground group who have lived for hundreds of years-and want to see him dead. The future of human existence is in the balance...

"An exploration of the transformative ways in which nature has inspired the technological advancement of humankind. Biomimetics literally means emulating biology and in a broader sense the term covers technological advances where the original inspiration came from nature"--

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Michael O'Mara Books Limited.

According to a recent survey, the most popular question about science from the general public was: what came before the Big Bang? We all know on some level what the Big Bang is, but we don't know how it became the accepted theory, or how we might know what came before. In "Before the Big Bang," Brian Clegg (the critically acclaimed author of "Upgrade Me "and "The God Effect") explores the history of this remarkable concept. From the earliest creation myths, through Hershel's realization that the Milky Way was one of many galaxies, to on-going debates about Black Holes, this is an incredible look at the origins of the universe and the many theories that led to the acceptance of the Big Bang. But in classic scientist fashion Clegg challenges the notion of the "Big Bang" itself, and raises the deep philosophical question of why we might want to rethink the origin of the universe. This is popular science at its best, exploratory, controversial, and utterly engrossing.

"Trying to understand a system with multiple interacting components - the weather, for example, or the human body, or the stock market - means dealing with two factors: chaos and complexity. If we don't understand these two essential subjects, we can't understand the real world"--Back cover.

An exploration of the terrifying threats to our world that fill today's headlines: from global warming epidemic to the threat of nuclear weapons and the risk posed by the leading edge devices like the Large Hadron Collider. Armageddon Science by Brian Clegg is everything you want to know about potential man-made disaster. Climate change. Nuclear devastation. Bio-hazards. The Large Hadron Collider. What do these things have in common? They all have the potential to end our world. Every great scientific creation of man is balanced by an equal amount of danger-as there's no progress without risk. Armageddon Science is an authoritative look at the real "mad science" at work today, that recklessly puts life on Earth at risk for the pursuit of knowledge and personal gain. This book explores the reality of the dangers that science poses to the human race, from the classic fear of nuclear destruction to the latest possibilities for annihilation. Combining the science behind those threats with an understanding of the real people responsible as well as providing an assessment of the likelihood of the end of the world, this isn't a disaster movie, it's Armageddon Science.

The breakthroughs that have had the most transformative practical impacts, from thermodynamics to the Internet.Physics informs our understanding of how the world works - but more than that, key breakthroughs in physics have transformed everyday life. We journey back to ten separate days in history to understand how particular breakthroughs were achieved, meet the individuals responsible and see how each breakthrough has influenced our lives.It is a unique selection. Focusing on practical impact means there is no room for Stephen Hawking's work on black holes, or the discovery of the Higgs boson. Instead we have the relatively little-known Rudolf Clausius (thermodynamics) and Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (superconductivity), while Albert Einstein is included not for his theories of relativity but for the short paper that gave us E=mc2 (nuclear fission). Later chapters feature transistors, LEDs and the Internet.

The ultimate non-technical guide to the fast-developing world of quantum computing Computer technology has improved exponentially over the last 50 years. But the headroom for bigger and better electronic solutions is running out. Our best hope is to engage the power of quantum physics. 'Quantum algorithms' had already been written long before hardware was built. These would enable, for example, a quantum computer to exponentially speed up an information search, or to crack the mathematical trick behind internet security. However, making a quantum computer is incredibly difficult. Despite hundreds of laboratories around the world working on them, we are only just seeing them come close to 'supremacy' where they can outperform a traditional computer. In this approachable introduction, Brian Clegg explains algorithms and their quantum counterparts, explores the physical building blocks and quantum weirdness necessary to make a quantum computer, and uncovers the capabilities of the current generation of machines.

This set contains three brilliant Introducing Graphic Guides on mind-blowing ideas that have revolutionised our view of how the universe works - Infinity, Consciousness and Stephen Hawking.

Tackling some of the most common scientific myths still believed today, Brian Clegg blows these widely held misconceptions about the workings of our world out of the water in this engaging and entertaining book.