The Imperfect Cosmos

Download or read book The Imperfect Cosmos written by Arunas Bartusevicius and published by Arunas Bartusevicius. This book was released on with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melancholic and introspective look into the life and the complexities of human interaction.

Download or read book A Tear at the Edge of Creation written by Marcelo Gleiser and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-04-06 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For millennia, shamans and philosophers, believers and nonbelievers, artists and scientists have tried to make sense of our existence by suggesting that everything is connected, that a mysterious Oneness binds us to everything else. People go to temples, churches, mosques, and synagogues to pray to their divine incarnation of Oneness. Following a surprisingly similar notion, scientists have long asserted that under Nature’s apparent complexity there is a simpler underlying reality. In its modern incarnation, this Theory of Everything would unite the physical laws governing very large bodies (Einstein’s theory of relativity) and those governing tiny ones (quantum mechanics) into a single framework. But despite the brave efforts of many powerful minds, the Theory of Everything remains elusive. It turns out that the universe is not elegant. It is gloriously messy. Overturning more than twenty-five centuries of scientific thought, award-winning physicist Marcelo Gleiser argues that this quest for a Theory of Everything is fundamentally misguided, and he explains the volcanic implications this ideological shift has for humankind. All the evidence points to a scenario in which everything emerges from fundamental imperfections, primordial asymmetries in matter and time, cataclysmic accidents in Earth’s early life, and duplication errors in the genetic code. Imbalance spurs creation. Without asymmetries and imperfections, the universe would be filled with nothing but smooth radiation. A Tear at the Edge of Creation calls for nothing less than a new "humancentrism" to reflect our position in the universal order. All life, but intelligent life in particular, is a rare and precious accident. Our presence here has no meaning outside of itself, but it does have meaning. The unplanned complexity of humankind is all the more beautiful for its improbability. It’s time for science to let go of the old aesthetic that labels perfection beautiful and holds that "beauty is truth." It’s time to look at the evidence without centuries of monotheistic baggage. In this lucid, down-to-earth narrative, Gleiser walks us through the basic and cutting-edge science that fueled his own transformation from unifier to doubter—a fascinating scientific quest that led him to a new understanding of what it is to be human.

Download or read book Cosmos written by Alexander von Humboldt and published by . This book was released on 1855 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cosmos: a Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe written by Alexander von Humboldt and published by . This book was released on 1868 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cosmos written by Alexander von Humboldt and published by . This book was released on 1878 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Archives of the Universe written by Marcia Bartusiak and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2006-04-11 with total page 722 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unparalleled history of astronomy presented in the words of the scientists who made the discoveries. Here are the writings of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Halley, Hubble, and Einstein, as well as that of dozens of others who have significantly contributed to our picture of the universe. From Aristotle's proof that the Earth is round to the 1998 paper that posited an accelerating universe, this book contains 100 entries spanning the history of astronomy. Award-winning science writer Marcia Bartusiak provides enormously entertaining introductions, putting the material in context and explaining its place in the literature. Archives of the Universe is essential reading for professional astronomers, science history buffs, and backyard stargazers alike.

Download or read book Islands in the Cosmos written by Dale A. Russell and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-14 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is it that we came to be here? The search for answers to that question has preoccupied humans for millennia. Scientists have sought clues in the genes of living things, in the physical environments of Earth from mountaintops to the depths of the ocean, in the chemistry of this world and those nearby, in the tiniest particles of matter, and in the deepest reaches of space. In Islands of the Cosmos, Dale A. Russell traces a path from the dawn of the universe to speculations about our future on this planet. He centers his story on the physical and biological processes in evolution, which interact to favor more successful, and eliminate less successful, forms of life. Marvelously, these processes reveal latent possibilities in life's basic structure, and propel a major evolutionary theme: the increasing proficiency of biological function. It remains to be seen whether the human form can survive the dynamic processes that brought it into existence. Yet the emergence of the ability to acquire knowledge from experience, to optimize behavior, to conceptualize, to distinguish "good" from "bad" behavior all hint at an evolutionary outcome that science is only beginning to understand.