John D. Barrow

A leading mathematician and cosmologist explores the concept of nothingness, from the origins of zero in ancient India, through changing ideas about "nothing" from ancient Greece to the present day, to attempts by modern mathematics, cosmology, theology, and physics to explain the role of "nothing" in the structure of the universe. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe

The Book of Nothing

A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless

The Infinite Book

Astronomer John Barrow takes an intriguing look at the limits of science, who argues that there are things that are ultimately unknowable, undoable, or unreachable.

The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits

Impossibility

Will we ever discover a single scientific theory that tells us everything that has happened, and everything that will happen, on every level in the Universe? The quest for the theory of everything - a single key that unlocks all the secrets of the Universe - is no longer a pipe-dream, but the focus of some of our most exciting research about the structure of the cosmos. But what might such a theory look like? What would it mean? And how close are we to getting there?In New Theories of Everything, John D. Barrow describes the ideas and controversies surrounding the ultimate explanation. Updating his earlier work Theories of Everything with the very latest theories and predictions, he tells of the M-theory of superstrings and multiverses, of speculations about the world as a computer program, and of new ideas of computation and complexity. But this is not solely a book about modern ideas in physics -- Barrow also considers and reflects onthe philosophical and cultural consequences of those ideas, and their implications for our own existence in the world.Far from there being a single theory uniquely specifying the constants and forces of nature, the picture today is of a vast landscape of different logically possible laws and constants in many dimensions, of which our own world is but a shadow: a tiny facet of a higher dimensional reality. But this is not to say we should give up in bewilderment: Barrow shows how many rich and illuminating theories and questions arise, and what this may mean for our understanding of our own place in thecosmos.

New Theories of Everything

L'universo come opera d'arte

I numeri dell'universo. Le costanti di natura e la teoria del tutto

Perché il mondo è matematico?

This is a book about universes. It tells a story that revolves around a single unusual and unappreciated fact: that Albert Einstein's famous theory of relativity describes universes - entire universes. Not many solutions to Einstein's tantalising universe equations have ever been found, but those that have are all remarkable. Some describe universes that expand in size, while others contract; some rotate like a top while others are chaotically unpredictable. Some are perfectly smooth, while others are lumpy. Some permit time travel into the past. Only a few allow life to evolve within them; the rest, if they exist, are destined to remain unknowable to conscious minds. Our story will encounter universes where the laws of physics can change from time to time and from one region to another, universes that have extra hidden dimensions of space and time, universes that are eternal, universes that live inside black holes, universes that end without warning, colliding universes, inflationary universes, and universes that come into being from something else - or from nothing at all. Gradually, we are introduced to the latest and the best descriptions of the Universe as we understand it today, together with the concept of the 'Multiverse' - the universe of all possible universes - that modern theories of physics lead us to contemplate.

The book of universes

Professor of Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics John D Barrow

Eminent cosmologist Professor John D. Barrow uses simple mathematics to explain one hundred of life's most perplexing questions. What can maths tell us about art? Professor John Barrow sheds light on the mysteries of the world of the arts. At the very heart, he tells us, mathematics and the arts are not so far removed. He takes us on a tour of the world of the arts through 100 steps, guiding us through art forms as various as sculpture, literature, architecture and dance, and revealing what maths can tell us about them. Find out: * Why diamonds sparkle * How many words Shakespeare knew * Why the shower is the best place to sing * Why an egg is egg-shapped * How to shatter a wine glass with your singing voice * Why Charles Dickens led a crusade against maths Enlivening the everyday with a new way of looking at the world, this book will enrich your understanding of the maths and the arts that we are surrounded by in our day-to-day lives.

100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know about Maths and the Arts

Frank J. Tipler

Explores the concepts and many implications of the theory that the structure and operation of the universe is determined by the existence of intelligent observers

The Anthropic Cosmological Principle

Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas About the Origins of the Universe

Da zero a infinito. La grande storia del nulla

L'infinito. Breve guida ai confini dello spazio e del tempo

A major contribution to our understanding of the basic laws of the universe -- from the author of The Book of Nothing. The constants of nature are the fundamental laws of physics that apply throughout the universe: gravity, velocity of light, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. They encode the deepest secrets of the universe, and express at once our greatest knowledge and our greatest ignorance about the cosmos. Their existence has taught us the profound truth that nature abounds with unseen regularities. Yet while we have become skilled at measuring the values of these constants, our frustrating inability to explain or predict their values shows how much we have still to learn about inner workings of the universe. What is the ultimate status of these constants of nature? Are they truly constant? And are there other universes where they are different? John D. Barrow, one of our foremost mathematicians and cosmologists, discusses the latest thinking about these and many more dramatic issues in this accessible and thought-provoking book. "From the Hardcover edition.

From Alpha to Omega

The Constants of Nature

a scientist explains 100 amazing things about the world of sports

Mathletics

Joseph Silk

The Origin and Evolution of the Expanding Universe

The Left Hand of Creation

In iThe Artful Universe Expanded/i, John D. Barrow draws out the deep links between our aesthetic inclinations - our art, our music, our appreciation of form, pattern, and landscape - and the mathematical and physical structure of the Universe of which we form a part. Barrow challenges thecommonly held view that our sense of beauty is entirely free and unfettered. He argues that as beings that have evolved in this Universe, we are products of its natural laws and its underlying mathematical forms. Our minds show the imprints of this structure, which constrains and moulds ourperceptions and our aesthetic preferences. In this rich and wide-ranging exploration, Barrow looks at the evolution of complexity, form in painting, computer art and music, and how landscapes and the wheeling patterns of stars in the night sky have impinged upon the human psyche. Originally published in 1995, this revised and expandededition includes new essays on topics including the beauty of vases, the fractal nature of Jackson Pollock's art, life on extrasolar planets, multiverses, and the question of whether we might be living in a simulated universe (and if so, how would we know?). This is a deeply inspiring and eruditework from an author described by Sir Martin Rees as 'emerging as the Stephen Jay Gould of the mathematical sciences'.

The Artful Universe Expanded

Początek Wszechświata

First published by Bodley Head in 2014 under the title 100 essential things you didn't know you didn't know about maths and the arts.

100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didnt Know about Math and the Arts

Illustrates the intersection between math and the arts in one hundred examples, including the golden ratios in Mondrian's rectangles, Jackson Pollock's fractal-like splatter paintings, and ballerinas defying gravity.

John D. Barrow

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