Books like The clockwork universe by Edward Dolnick

Stephen Hawking explains the fundamental physics of the universe—space, time, cosmology, black holes, and the Big Bang—in clear, accessible language.

Explains the vision of the universe behind string theory, including new dimensions, black holes, and mysterious phenomena in the cosmos.

A thrilling exploration of the cosmos, brilliantly explained by a popular science master.

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos traces the history of science and the universe’s evolution, from ancient philosophers to modern discoveries, and explores the quest to understand life beyond Earth.

Stephen Hawking explores the cutting edge of theoretical physics in layman’s terms, guiding readers through the mysteries that shape our universe.

A popular science exploration of black holes and the fabric of spacetime, tracing Einsteinian ideas from Newtonian roots to the forefront of 1990s physics.

In 1932 at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, Brian Cathcart chronicles how Ernest Rutherford and his protégés John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton dismantled the atom using homemade apparatus, culminating in the first successful nuclear fission experiment that altered physics forever.

113 p. ; 18 cm

A groundbreaking book that challenges the very notion of time

At a time when the Manhattan Project was synonymous with large-scale science, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–67) represented the new sociocultural power of the American intellectual. Catapulted to fame as director of the Los Alamos atomic weapons laboratory, Oppenheimer occupied a key position in the compact between science and the state that developed out of World War II. By tracing the making—and unmaking—of Oppenheimer’s wartime and postwar scientific identity, Charles Thorpe illustrates the struggles over the role of the scientist in relation to nuclear weapons, the state, and culture.A stylish intellectual biography, Oppenheimer maps out changes in the roles of scientists and intellectuals in twentieth-century America, ultimately revealing transformations in Oppenheimer’s persona that coincided with changing attitudes toward science in society."This is an outstandingly well-researched book, a pleasure to read and distinguished by the high quality of its observations and judgments. It will be of special interest to scholars of modern history, but non-specialist readers will enjoy the clarity that Thorpe brings to common misunderstandings about his subject."—Graham Farmelo, Times Higher Education Supplement"A fascinating new perspective....Thorpe’s book provides the best perspective yet for understanding Oppenheimer’s Los Alamos years, which were critical, after all, not only to his life but, for better or worse, the history of mankind."—Catherine Westfall, Nature