Eight Improbable Possibilities
eBook - ePub

Eight Improbable Possibilities

The Mystery of the Moon, and Other Implausible Scientific Truths

  1. 160 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Eight Improbable Possibilities

The Mystery of the Moon, and Other Implausible Scientific Truths

About this book

A mind-warping excursion into the wildly improbable truths of science.Echoing Sherlock Holmes' famous dictum, John Gribbin tells us: 'Onceyou have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, is certainlypossible, in the light of present scientific knowledge.' With that in mind, in his sequel to the hugely popularSix Impossible ThingsandSeven Pillars of Science, Gribbin turns his attention to some of the mind-bendingly improbable truths of science. For example: We know that the Universe had a beginning, and when it was – and also that the expansion of the Universe is speeding up. We can detect ripples in spacethat are one ten-thousandth the width of a proton, made by colliding black holes billions of light years from Earth.And, most importantly from our perspective, all complex life on Earth today is descended from a single cell– butwithout the stabilising influence of the Moon, life forms like us could never have evolved.

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Yes, you can access Eight Improbable Possibilities by John Gribbin in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Physical Sciences & Astronomy & Astrophysics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Icon Books
Year
2021
Print ISBN
9781785787355
eBook ISBN
9781785787362
Topic
Physical Sciences
Subtopic
Astronomy & Astrophysics

Table of contents

  1. Praise for Six Impossible Things
  2. Praise for Seven Pillars of Science
  3. Title Page
  4. Contents
  5. About the Author
  6. Dedication
  7. Acknowledgements
  8. List of Illustrations
  9. Epigraph
  10. PREFACE: What Do We Know?
  11. IMPROBABILITY 1: The Mystery of the Moon
  12. IMPROBABILITY 2: The Universe Had a Beginning, and We Know When it Was
  13. IMPROBABILITY 3: The Expansion of the Universe is Speeding Up
  14. IMPROBABILITY 4: We Can Detect Ripples in Space Made by Colliding Black Holes
  15. IMPROBABILITY 5: Newton, the Bishop, the Bucket, and the Universe
  16. IMPROBABILITY 6: Simple Laws Make Complicated Things, or Little Things Mean a Lot
  17. IMPROBABILITY 7: All Complex Life on Earth Today is Descended From a Single Cell
  18. IMPROBABILITY 8: Ice Age Rhythms and Human Evolution: People of the Ice
  19. Further Reading
  20. Also by John Gribbin
  21. Copyright
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