Summaries | Headlines

Coldest Lab In Chicago To Simulate Hot Physics Of Early Universe, Explore Futuristic World Of Quantum Computing (February 24, 2007) -- Cheng Chin will make a vacuum chamber in his laboratory the coldest place in Chicago in order to simulate the impossibly hot conditions that followed the big bang during the earliest moments of the ... > full story

Cosmic Lighthouses: Astrophysicists Explain Differences In Brightness Of Supernova Explosions (February 23, 2007) -- Supernovae stand out in the sky like cosmic lighthouses. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and at the National Astronomical Institute of Italy have now found a way to use these ... > full story

Spitzer Seeks Out Milky Way Dark Matter (February 22, 2007) -- Our Milky Way galaxy is heavier than it looks, and it's not too much ice cream, or cookies, that is responsible for the extra weight -- it's "dark matter." Dark matter is one of the greatest ... > full story

Universe Offers 'Eternal Feast,' Cosmologist Says (February 22, 2007) -- There is no such thing as a free lunch, some say, but they would be wrong. In fact, the entirety of the universe defies them. According to Stanford physics Professor Andrei Linde, one of the ... > full story

Integral Expands Our View Of The Gamma-ray Sky (February 21, 2007) -- Integral's latest survey of the gamma-ray universe continues to change the way astronomers think of the high-energy cosmos. With over seventy percent of the sky now observed by Integral, astronomers ... > full story

Origin Of Darkest Galaxies In The Universe Elucidated (February 17, 2007) -- Stelios Kazantzidis, a researcher at Stanford University's Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), and collaborators have developed an elegant explanation for how galaxies ... > full story

Introducing The 'Coolest' Spacecraft In The Universe (February 12, 2007) -- The European Space Agency's Planck mission, which will study the conditions present in our universe shortly after the Big Bang, is reaching an important milestone with the integration of instruments ... > full story

Universe Contains More Calcium Than Expected (February 6, 2007) -- The universe contains one-and-a-half times more calcium than previously assumed. This conclusion was drawn by astronomers of the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, after observations with ... > full story

Endless Universe Made Possible By New Model (January 31, 2007) -- A new cosmological model demonstrates the universe can endlessly expand and contract, providing a rival to Big Bang theories and solving a thorny modern physics problem, according to University of ... > full story

Gravitational Wave Background (January 31, 2007) -- In the standard model of cosmology, the early universe underwent a period of fantastic growth. This inflationary phase, after only a trillionth of a second, concluded with a violent conversion of ... > full story

James Webb Space Telescope's 'Spine' Passes Health Tests (January 30, 2007) -- The "spine" of the James Webb Space Telescope, called the backplane, is in great health for space, according to scientists and engineers. Recent tests show that the backplane, which supports the big ... > full story

NASA Helps Space Telescope Camera 'Squint' For A Better View Of Galaxies (January 26, 2007) -- NASA engineers and scientists have created something that will give better information about far away galaxies. This new creation, which will be in a future space telescope, is so tiny that it's the ... > full story

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Programming the Universe : A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos
Is the universe actually a giant quantum computer? According to Seth Lloyd—Professor of Quantum-Mechanical Engineering at MIT and originator of the first technologically feasible design for a ... > read more

Universe
Continuing in the bestselling tradition of Animal and Earth, DK brings you Universe - a truly definitive guide that takes you on a tour from the Solar System to the farthest limits of ... > read more

Horizons : Exploring the Universe (with TheSky CD-ROM, AceAstronomy, and Virtual Astronomy Labs)
This newly revised and updated Ninth Edition of HORIZONS shows students their place in the universe ? not just their location, but also their role as planet dwellers in an evolving universe. ... > read more

The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
If Albert Einstein were alive, he would have a copy of The Road to Reality on his bookshelf. So would Isaac Newton. This may be the most complete mathematical explanation of the universe yet ... > read more

Modern Cosmology
Modern Cosmology begins with an introduction to the smooth, homogeneous universe described by a Friedman-Robertson-Walker metric, including careful treatments of dark energy, big bang ... > read more

A Brief History of Time : The Updated and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition
Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists ... > read more

Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe, Fourth Edition
Astronomy Today 4/e (ISBN 0-13-091542-4) is the more comprehensive text by this: proven team of authors. This twenty-eight chapter text begins with the foundations of the history of science and ... > read more

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
There is an ill-concealed skeleton in the closet of physics: "As they are currently formulated, general relativity and quantum mechanics cannot both be right." Each is exceedingly accurate in its ... > read more

Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes
As Charles Seife reveals in this energetic new book, information theory, once the province of philosophers and linguists, has emerged as the crucial science of our time, shedding new light on the ... > read more

What the Bleep Do We Know!?™ : Discovering the Endless Possibilities for Altering Your Everyday Reality
Gravity sometimes doesn't work. Some things are both waves and particles. . .at the same time. Electrons simply disappear . . . all the time.If the universe is this wild and unpredictable, so ... > read more