Janna Levin ist Professorin für Physik und Astronomie, deren Forschung sich hauptsächlich auf das frühe Universum, Chaos und Schwarze Löcher konzentriert. Sie verbindet auf meisterhafte Weise komplexe wissenschaftliche Konzepte mit fesselnder Prosa und macht das Universum einem breiten Publikum zugänglich. Ihr Schreiben zeichnet sich durch eine einzigartige Mischung aus persönlichen Reflexionen und gründlicher wissenschaftlicher Untersuchung aus, wobei sie oft epistolare Formate und lebendige Bilder verwendet, um die tiefsten Geheimnisse des Universums zu erforschen. Levins unverwechselbare Stimme lädt die Leser auf eine Reise durch die Weiten des Weltraums und die Feinheiten des Geistes ein.
"Is the universe infinite or just really big? With this question, cosmologist Janna Levin announces the central theme of this book, which established her as one of the most direct, unorthodox, and creative voices in contemporary science. As Levin sets out to determine how big "really big" may be, she offers a rare intimate look at the daily life of an innovative physicist, complete with jet lag and the tensions between personal relationships and the extreme demands of scientific exploration."--
From the acclaimed author of Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space--an authoritative, wholly accessible, fascinating guide to the most challenging phenomena of contemporary science, which is now the anchor of our understanding of the cosmos. Throughout her career, astrophysicist Janna Levin has focused, alongside her research, on making the science she studies not just accessible, but, perhaps more important, intriguing to the nonscientist. And that is what she has done again here, helping us to understand the black hole: perhaps the most opaque theoretical construct ever imagined by physicists. She explains how their existence came to be proven decades after they were first predicted in Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity. And she explores the ways in which what we know about them has changed our most basic understanding of the galaxy, the universe, the whole expanse of reality that we inhabit. Lively, engaging and utterly unique, Black Hole Survival Guide is not just informative. It is as well, a wonderful read from first to last
In a saga of genius, madness, and seminal scientific accomplishment, a physicist obsessed with logician Kurt Gödel and mathematician Alan Turing chronicles the lives of both men in parallel narratives that reveal each man's great achievements and sorry deaths. Reprint.
"In 1916, Einstein became the first to predict the existence of gravitational waves: sounds without a material medium generated by the unfathomably energy-producing collision of black holes. Now, Janna Levin, herself an astrophysicist, recounts the story of the search, over the last fifty years, for these elusive waves--a quest that has culminated in the creation of the most expensive project ever funded by the National Science Foundation ($1 billion-plus). She makes clear the how the waves are created in the cosmic collision of black holes, and why the waves can never be detected by telescope. And, most revealingly, she delves into the lives and fates of the four scientists currently engaged in--and obsessed with--discerning this soundtrack of the universe's history. Levin's account of the surprises, disappointments, achievements, and risks of this unfolding story provides us with a uniquely compelling and intimate portrait of the people and processes of modern science"--
How do you take the perfect photograph? What goes into capturing a fleeting moment before it vanishes forever, and turning it into a memorable photo? The Magic Moment showcases a collection of awe-inspiring nature-based images where everything came together perfectly. They're taken by some of the world's finest photographers, who explain how planning, preparation, patience, technique, and, of course, luck, helped all the elements fall into place.
Deník o konečném čase a prostoru. Podle většiny dnešních kosmologů a astronomů je náš vesmír nekonečný. Janna Levinová, jedna z nejvýraznějších osobností soudobé kosmologie, rozvíjí ve své knize opačnou hypotézu: vesmír je prostorově konečný, a to přesto, že nemá žádné hranice. Je v něm tedy sice možno putovat donekonečna "stále dopředu", avšak po jisté době dospějeme do výchozího místa. V takovémto vesmíru mohou být vzdálené objekty ve skutečnosti jen ´zrcadlovými´ obrazy blízkých galaxií, jejichž světlo se kdysi v daleké minulosti vydalo na pouť kolem celého vesmíru. Kromě této hypotézy autorka s nadhledem seznamuje čtenáře se základními myšlenkami Newtonovy teorie gravitace, Einsteinovy teorie relativity, kvantové teorie, ale též se standardní kosmologií, černými dírami, představou vícerozměrných prostorů či fundamentálních strun.