Search results for ""ORBIT""

‘Brooding, blistering. Sirens is a remarkable literary thriller, perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and James Lee Burke’ AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the WindowWATERSTONES THRILLER OF THE MONTHI stopped going to work. I went missing. We still live in a world where you can disappear if you want to. Or even if you don't.Detective Aidan Waits is in trouble After a career-ending mistake, he’s forced into a nightmare undercover operation that his superiors don’t expect him to survive.Isabelle Rossiter has run away againWhen the teenage daughter of a prominent MP joins Zain Carver, the enigmatic criminal who Waits is investigating, everything changes.A single mother, missing for a decadeCarver is a mesmerising figure who lures young women into his orbit – young women who have a bad habit of disappearing. Soon Waits is cut loose by the police, stalked by an unseen killer and dangerously attracted to the wrong woman.How can he save the girl, when he can’t even save himself?*Reader reviews: 'It is an utterly brilliant debut novel; dark, gritty, menacing and meaningful.' *****'Compulsive reading, so well written that even the gruesome cruelty and sense of helplessness in a dark world seemed right.'***** 'Knox is always one-step ahead, deceiving the reader and creating a sexy, stylish world always with danger around every corner.' ******The bestselling debut from the winner of the Sky Arts Writer of the Year Award, the next big name in crime fiction - Joseph Knox.

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The year is 2050. Ava and her girlfriend live in what's left of Brooklyn, and though they love each other, it's hard to find happiness while the effects of climate change rapidly eclipse their world. Soon, it won't be safe outside at all. The only people guaranteed survival are the ones whose applications are accepted to The Inside Project, a series of weather-safe, city-sized structures around the world. The director of the Inside being built on the bones of Manhattan is Jacqueline Millender, a reclusive billionaire/women’s rights advocate. Her ideas are unorthodox, yet alluring, challenging the very concept of empowerment. Shelby, a business major from a working-class family, is drawn to Jacqueline’s promises of power and impact. When she lands a job as Jacqueline’s personal assistant, she's swept up into the glamourous world of corporatised feminism. Also drawn into Jacqueline's orbit is Olympia, who Jacqueline recruits to run the health department Inside. The more Olympia learns about the project, though, the more she realizes there's something else at play. As Ava, Olympia, and Shelby start to notice the cracks in the system, Jacqueline tightens her grip, becoming increasingly dangerous in what she is willing to do - and who she is willing to sacrifice - to keep her dream alive. At once a mesmerising story of queer love, betrayal, and chosen family, and an unflinching indictment of cis, corporate feminism, Yours for the Taking holds a mirror to our own world, in all its beauty and horror.

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Fully updated edition of the comprehensive, single-source reference on satellite technology and its applications Covering both the technology and its applications, Satellite Technology is a concise reference on satellites for commercial, scientific and military purposes. The book explains satellite technology fully, beginning by offering an introduction to the fundamentals, before covering orbits and trajectories, launch and in-orbit operations, hardware, communication techniques, multiple access techniques, and link design fundamentals. This new edition also includes comprehensive chapters on Satellite Networks and Satellite Technology – Emerging Trends. Providing a complete survey of applications, from remote sensing and military uses, to navigational and scientific applications, the authors also present an inclusive compendium on satellites and satellite launch vehicles. Filled with diagrams and illustrations, this book serves as an ideal introduction for those new to the topic, as well as a reference point for professionals. Fully updated edition of the comprehensive, single-source reference on satellite technology and its applications - remote sensing, weather, navigation, scientific, and military - including new chapters on Satellite Networks and Satellite Technology – Emerging Trends Covers the full range of satellite applications in remote sensing, meteorology, the military, navigation and science, and communications, including satellite-to-under sea communication, satellite cell-phones, and global Xpress system of INMARSAT The cross-disciplinary coverage makes the book an essential reference book for professionals, R&D scientists and students at post graduate level Companion website provides a complete compendium on satellites and satellite launch vehicles An ideal introduction for Professionals and R&D scientists in the field. Engineering Students. Cross disciplinary information for engineers and technical managers.

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Don't You Have Time to Think? collects the witty, eccentric and moving letters letters of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman. Richard Feynman was no ordinary genius. Brilliant, free-spirited and irreverent, he upset those in authority, gave captivating lectures, wrote equations on napkins in strip joints and touched countless lives everywhere. He also wrote hundreds of letters to friends, family, critics, colleagues and devoted fans around the world. Now these letters have been brought together for the first time. From down-to-earth advice to eager students to discussions of time travel and the atom bomb, and from blunt rebuttals to journalists to poignant exchanges with his first wife as she lay dying, they will introduce you to a unique person whose wisdom and lust for life inspired all those who came into his orbit. 'Nobel-winning physicist, expert bongo-player, safe-cracker and all-round genius, Feynman was, as this wonderful and inspiring collection records, also a champion letter-writer ... Witty, deadpan, warm ... some are unbearably poignant' Guardian 'Plain-speaking ... touching' Daily Telegraph 'He sparked excitement not just about science but also about the power of creativity, passion, curiosity' The New York Times Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) was one of this century's most brilliant theoretical physicists and original thinkers. Feynman's other books, also available in Penguin, include QED, Six Easy Pieces, Six Not-so-Easy Pieces, Don't You Have Time to Think, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, What Do You Care What Other People Think? and The Meaning of it All.

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In a post–Cold War world, the Iridium satellite network revealed a new age of globalization.Winner of the William and Joyce Middleton Electrical Engineering History Award by the IEEEIn June 1990, Motorola publicly announced an ambitious business venture called Iridium. The project’s signature feature was a constellation of 77 satellites in low-Earth orbit which served as the equivalent of cellular towers, connecting to mobile customers below using wireless hand-held phones. As one of the founding engineers noted, the constellation “bathed the planet in radiation,” enabling a completely global communications system. Focusing on the Iridium venture, this book explores the story of globalization at a crucial period in US and international history. As the Cold War waned, corporations and nations reoriented toward a new global order in which markets, neoliberal ideology, and the ideal of a borderless world predominated. As a planetary-scale technological system, the project became emblematic of this shift and of the role of the United States as geopolitical superpower. In its ambition, scope, challenges, and organizing ideas, the rise of Iridium provides telling insight into how this new global condition stimulated a re-thinking of corporate practices—on the factory floor, in culture and knowledge, and in international relations.Combining oral history interviews with research in corporate records, Martin Collins opens up new angles on what global meant in the years just before and after the end of the Cold War. The first book to tell the story of Iridium in this context, A Telephone for the World is a fascinating look at how people, nations, and corporations across the world grappled in different ways with the meaning of a new historical era.

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Discover our expansive solar system in this breathtaking journey into space. This charming book is the perfect introduction for young readers who want to learn about our local star - the Sun - and the planets that orbit it. The Solar System covers space in thrilling detail and is the perfect book for space lovers everywhere. Packed with mind-blowing facts, this incredible book of the solar system is perfect for space lovers everywhere. This fascinating guide introduces 7-9 year-olds to the birth of the Sun and the solar system, then continues on a journey through space. They discover the smallest planet, rocky Mercury, which is closest to the Sun, and Venus, the hottest planet. There is also Mars, with its polar ice caps and volcanoes, and Jupiter, with its swirling storm clouds. Then readers venture further into space to explore the icy giants of outer space. This wonderful solar system book offers:- In-depth information, backed up by space photography, probe images, illustrations, and fun diagrams.- Striking illustrations, making this title a perfect gift, as well as a solid reference book. - Easy-to-digest sections, each filled with incredible facts and visuals.STEM learning, with key topics for 7-9 year-olds: labeled images of each of the planets, clear step-by-step visuals to show the birth of our solar system, accessible facts about space missions.Boasting beautiful illustrations by artist Dawn Cooper, combined with up-to-date images from space agencies such as NASA and ESA, info panels, timelines, and diagrams, that help demystify and explain the spectacles of space, this is the ideal book for budding astronauts.At DK, we believe in the power of discovery.So why stop there?If you like The Solar System, then why not complete the collection? Take a trip into space and discover the mysteries of Earth’s closest neighbor with The Moon.

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A step-by-step guide to modern techniques of keyhole brain surgery Developed 20 years ago by leading innovators in the field, the keyhole concept of brain surgery has become an integral part of the practice of neurosurgery. This timely and comprehensive book covers the thinking, philosophy, and techniques of modern keyhole brain surgery, including a realistic assessment of its benefits and limitations. Written by expert practitioners and highlighted by vivid surgical illustrations and procedural videos, Principles and Practice of Keyhole Brain Surgery functions as an experienced mentor working side by side with neurosurgeons as they master the techniques. Special Features: Introduces the basic principles of the keyhole approach, including the practical, technical, and logistical aspects of planning procedures and operating through small openings Beautifully illustrated with nearly 900 endoscopic images, diagrams, surgical drawings, and operative photographs, many showing step-by-step procedures Details the pivotal role of the endoscope in keyhole brain surgery and its ability to provide multiple angles of visualization, including a useful catalog of clinical situations where the endoscope has proven most effective Demonstrates contemporary keyhole approaches (e.g. the eyebrow/sub-frontal approach) in procedures for supratentorial intra-axial brain tumors, tumors of the cribriform plate and orbit, parasellar masses, craniopharyngiomas, tumors of the middle fossa and cavernous sinus and many other conditions in the cranial base Offers more than 100 procedural videos on the Thieme's MediaCenter, narrated by the authors and aligned to chapters in the book for an unparalleled learning resource Providing all the information necessary to achieve surgical goals through well placed, smaller openings—with the added benefits of shorter procedures, fewer wound complications and better patient outcomes—Principles and Practice of Keyhole Brain Surgery is essential for every neurosurgeon in practice today.

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Surveys key advances in commercial satellite communications and what might be the implications and/or opportunities for end-users and service providers in utilizing the latest fast-evolving innovations in this field This book explores the evolving technical options and opportunities of satellite networks. Designed to be a self-contained reference, the book includes background technical material in an introductory chapter that will serve as a primer to satellite communications. The text discusses advances in modulation techniques, such as DBV-S2 extensions (DVS-S2X); spotbeam-based geosynchronous and medium earth orbit High Throughput Satellite (HTS) technologies and Internet applications; enhanced mobility services with aeronautical and maritime applications; Machine to Machine (M2M) satellite applications; emerging ultra HD technologies; and electric propulsion. The author surveys the latest innovations and service strategies and the resulting implications, which involves: Discussing advances in modulation techniques and HTS spotbeam technologies Surveying emerging high speed aeronautical mobility services and maritime and other terrestrial mobility services Assessing M2M (machine-to-machine) applications, emerging Ultra HD video technologies and new space technology Satellite communication is an integral part of the larger fields of commercial, television/media, government, and military communications, because of its multicast/broadcast capabilities, mobility, reliability, and global reach. High Throughput Satellites) are expected to revolutionize the field during this decade, providing very high speed, yet cost-effective, Internet access and connectivity anywhere in the world, in rural areas, in the air, and at sea. M2M connectivity, enabled by satellite communications, connects trucks on transcontinental trips, aircraft in real-time-telemetry aggregation, and mercantile ships. A comprehensive analysis of the new advances in satellite communications, Innovations in Satellite Communications Technology is a reference for telecommunications and satellite providers and end-users, technology investors, logistic professionals, and more.

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Tells the story of a laser technology that will have a big impact on society and the brilliant innovators responsible for its development Lidar--a technology evolved from radar, but using laser light rather than microwaves--has found an astounding range of applications, none more prominent than its crucial role in enabling self-driving cars. This accessible introduction to a fascinating and increasingly vital technology focuses on the engaging human stories of lidar's innovators as they advance and adapt it to better understand air, water, ice and Earth - not to mention mapping Mars and Mercury, spotting incoming nuclear warheads, and avoiding pedestrians and cyclists on city streets. Award-winning science writer Todd Neff invites readers behind the scenes to meet some of the great innovators who have explored and expanded the uses of this amazing technology: people like MIT scientist Louis Smullin, whose lidar bounced light off the moon soon after the laser's invention; Allan Carswell, who plumbed the shallows of Lake Erie en route to developing the aerial lidar now essential for coastal mapping and hurricane damage assessment; Red Whittaker, the field robotics pioneer who was putting lidar on his autonomous contraptions as early as the 1980s; and David Hall, whose laser sombrero on a Toyota Tundra gave birth to modern automotive lidar. These are just some of the stories Neff tells before looking ahead to a future that could bring lidar to unpiloted air taxis, to the contaminated pipes of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and to satellites capable of pinpointing greenhouse gas sources from orbit. As the author makes clear, the sky is no limit with lidar, which promises to make our world safer, healthier, and vastly more interesting.

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From the author of the BBC 2 Between the Covers hit, The Fine Art of Invisible Detection'The world's greatest storyteller' Guardian'One of the finest crime writers of any generation' Daily Mail'Our finest practitioner of the double-cross plotting' Mick Herron______________________________________Umiko Wada never set out to be a private detective, let alone become the one-woman operation behind the Kodaka Detective Agency. But so it has turned out, thanks to the death of her former boss, Kazuto Kodaka, in mysterious circumstances.Keen to avoid a similar fate, Wada chooses the cases she takes very carefully. A businessman who wants her to track down his estranged son offers what appears to be a straightforward assignment. Soon she finds herself pulled into a labyrinthine conspiracy with links to a twenty-seven-year-old investigation by her late employer and to the chaos and trauma of the dying days of the Second World War.As Wada uncovers a dizzying web of connections between then and now, it becomes clear that someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the past buried. Soon those she loves most will be sucked into the orbit of one of the most powerful men in Tokyo. And he will do whatever it takes to hold on to his power...The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction is another tour de force from the cunning mind of master storyteller Robert Goddard. Spanning seventy years, it takes the reader on a head-spinning journey of twist and counter-twist which keep you guessing until the final pages.__________________________________Readers love the Umiko Wada series:***** 'Guaranteed and satisfying escapism'***** 'Twists and turns right up to the last page'***** 'Edge-of-the-seat stuff'***** 'Fresh and inventive'***** 'The master of twists and suspense ... sublime'***** 'Scintillating and wickedly twisty'

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In this “heady tale of romance, intrigue, and empowerment” (Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author) during the Gilded Age, a determined and remarkable female journalist is determined to uncover the truth of the legendary Hope Diamond—from the New York Times bestselling author of Tiffany Blues.New York, 1910: A city of extravagant balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and poor immigrants crammed into crumbling Lower East Side tenements. A city where the suffrage movement is growing stronger every day, but most women reporters are still delegated to the fashion and lifestyle pages. But Vera Garland is set on making her mark in a man’s world of serious journalism. Shortly after the world-famous Hope Diamond is acquired for a record sum, Vera begins investigating rumors about schemes by its new owner, jeweler Pierre Cartier, to manipulate its value. Vera is determined to find the truth behind the notorious diamond and its mysterious curses, especially when her reporting puts her in the same orbit as a magazine publisher whose blackmailing schemes led to the death of her beloved father. Appealing to a young Russian jeweler for help, Vera is unprepared when she begins falling in love with him…and even more unprepared when she gets caught up in his deceptions and finds herself at risk of losing all she has worked so hard to achieve. “Vivid…[and] memorable” (Publishers Weekly), Cartier’s Hope is “a twisting tale of greed, revenge, and masked identities that put love and lives at risk. A fast-paced historical novel that shines with as much intrigue and mystery as the Hope Diamond itself” (Beatriz Williams, New York Times bestselling author).

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Offering authoritative guidance and a multitude of high-quality images, Facial Trauma Surgery: From Primary Repair to Reconstruction is the first comprehensive textbook of its kind on treating primary facial trauma and delayed reconstruction of both the soft tissues and craniofacial bony skeleton. This unique volume is a practical, complete reference for clinical presentation, fracture pattern, classification, and management of patients with traumatic facial injury, helping you provide the best possible outcomes for patients' successful reintegration into work and society. Explains the basic principles and concepts of primary traumatic facial injury repair and secondary facial reconstruction. Offers expert, up-to-date guidance from global leaders in plastic and reconstructive surgery, otolaryngology and facial plastic surgery, oral maxillofacial surgery, neurosurgery, and oculoplastic surgery. Covers innovative topics such as virtual surgical planning, 3D printing, intraoperative surgical navigation, post-traumatic injury, treatment of facial pain, and the roles of microsurgery and facial transplantation in the treatment facial traumatic injuries. Includes an end commentary in every chapter provided by Dr. Paul Manson, former Chief of Plastic Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a pioneer in the field of acute treatment of traumatic facial injuries. Offers videos that clarify surgical technique, including intraoperative guidance and imaging; transconjunctival approach to the orbit and reconstruction of a zygomaticomaxillary complex fracture; calvarial bone autograft splitting; dental splinting; a systematic method for reading a craniofacial CT scan; and more. Features superb photographs and illustrations throughout, as well as evidence-based summaries in current areas of controversy. Enhanced eBook version included with purchase. Your enhanced eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references from the book on a variety of devices.

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THE TIMES & UNCUT MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARCritically-acclaimed and bestselling author Paul Morley's long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson.A BOOK OF THE YEARSUNDAY TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, MOJO, LOUDER THAN WAR'Compelling . . . befitting its extraordinary subject.'BRIAN ENO'Bracing and often surprisingly tender . . . the perfect monument.'SUNDAY TIMES'Via Morley's magical prose Tony Wilson comes back to life . . . inspiring.'RICHARD RUSSELLTony Wilson was a man who became synonymous with his beloved city. As the co-founder of the legendary Factory Records and the Haçienda, he appointed himself a custodian of Manchester's legacy of innovation and change, becoming a cultural pioneer for the North. To Paul Morley, he was this and much more: bullshitting hustler, flashy showman, inventive broadcaster, self-deprecating chancer, publicity seeker, loyal friend. It was Morley to whom Wilson left a daunting final request: to write this book.From Manchester with Love is the biography of a man who changed the world around him through sheerforce of personality. In the cultural theatre of Manchester, Tony Wilson broke in and took centre stage.'An immersive experience . . . very moving indeed.'MIRANDA SAWYER, OBSERVER'Not just a "biog" but the story of a city's history and culture and a unique and disappearing figure.'STUART MACONIE, NEW STATESMAN'Morley's biography is as illuminating on Wilson's strange ability to hold others in his orbit, even after his death, as it is on the story of his life.'THE SPECTATOR'The man/myth Wilson died aged 57 in 2006, but here he burns on fantastically bright.'UNCUT

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Discover the long-awaited new book from the author of Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth and Building Stories. 'The week after I finished the last page of Jimmy Corrigan I immediately started a new long story based on characters who had originated as parodies, but whom now I wanted to humanize... amidst a setting of memories of my Omaha childhood and Nebraska upbringing.' (Chris Ware, Monograph)Now, twenty years later, Ware is publishing Rusty Brown in book form. It is, he says, 'a fully interactive, full-colour articulation of the time-space interrelationships of six complete consciousnesses on a single Midwestern American day and the tiny piece of human grit about which they involuntarily orbit.' The six characters are Rusty Brown himself, a shy schoolkid obsessed with superheroes, his father 'Woody' Brown, an eccentric teacher at Rusty's school, Chalky White, another schoolboy, Alison White, Chalky's sister, Jason Lint, an older boy who bullies Rusty and Chalky and fancies Alison, and the boys' teacher, Joanne Cole. Ware tells each of their stories in minute detail (or as he puts it, 'From childhood to old age, no frozen plotline is left unthawed'), producing another masterwork of the comics form that is at once achingly beautiful, heartbreakingly sad and painfully funny.'A treasure trove of invention... With its awe-inspiring exploration of regret and ageing, anxiety and ennui... Rusty Brown is a human document of rare richness' Guardian 'Chris Ware is one of the great writers of our generation...I spent 20 minutes reading the cover of Rusty Brown. Buy it. Buy all his work. Make your life larger.' Mark Haddon, Observer

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The remarkable true story of America's first women astronauts'Lifts the curtain on the moment when Neil Armstrong's "one small step for man" expanded to encompass the talent, ambition and perseverance of America's first female astronauts' MARGOT LEE SHETTERLY, bestselling author of Hidden Figures'Strap yourself in for a thrilling ride with genuine American heroes - six women who proved you don't need the right plumbing to have the right stuff!' LYNN SHERR, author of Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots - a group then made up exclusively of men - had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed too fragile for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA relented and opened the application process to everyone, regardless of race or gender. From a 1977 candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected - Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon. In The Six, acclaimed journalist Loren Grush shows these brilliant and courageous women enduring claustrophobic - and sometimes deeply sexist - media attention, undergoing rigorous survival training, and preparing for years to take multi-million-dollar payloads into orbit. Together, the Six helped build the tools that made the space program run. One of the group, Judy Resnik, sacrificed her life when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at 46,000 feet. Everyone knows of Sally Ride's history-making first space ride, but each of the Six would make their mark.

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Don't mess with our astronauts! A Russian ICBM site is attacked just north of the Ukraine boarder. The nuclear warheads are missing! A Special Operations and Intelligence Community Task Force is rapidly put together to respond, but where it should deploy is unclear. A fire ravages a cosmonaut training facility in which five spacesuits disappear. And the Task Force finds a cache of detailed schematics of highly complex rocketry systems.The Task Forces reaches out to Dr. Amy Sue Harrington of the Missiles and Space Intelligence Center in Huntsville, Alabama. To Dr. Harrington, it all adds up to the unthinkable: someone—someone extremely well-funded—is taking aim at the International Space Station. But Colonel Vladimir Lytokov and his team of mercenaries aren’t planning to bring the ISS crashing to Earth. They’re taking the fight to orbit, boarding the station and hijacking it. As the ISS traces its path across the heavens, Lytokov rains down destruction from above, effectively holding the entire globe hostage. With all the rockets capable of reaching the ISS currently out of commission, the terrorists are untouchable in their orbital perch. But Lytokov and his men have overlooked one crucial aspect of their intricate plan: that astronaut Major Allison Simms is on board the ISS—and you don’t mess with American astronauts! But can one astronaut hold out until the Task Force can come to the rescue? About Travis S. Taylor: “. . . explodes with inventive action." —Publishers Weekly on Travis S. Taylor’s The Quantum Connection “[Warp Speed] reads like Doc Smith writing Robert Ludlum. . . You won’t want to put it down”—John Ringo

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Transform Your Mind. Expand Your Universe. Reach for Mars. Imagine a better tomorrow with interstellar essays and art—drawing on the aspirational futurism that fuels Star Trek, The Martian, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, renowned contemporary artist Camomile Hixon reminds us that by reaching for the stars, we can chase our full potential beyond Earth, while also transforming ourselves and our understanding of the Pale Blue Dot we call home.We stand at the threshold of interplanetary travel: SpaceX rockets are now routinely leaving Earth and NASA’s new Perseverance rover is searching for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. Not since the moon landing in 1969 has space—or the promise of a transformational future for humankind—felt so close. Do we dare to reach for it? Yearning to know the stars has long united humanity and ignited our imaginations. And while here on Earth we grapple with deep unrest—economic struggle, political upheaval, gender discrimination, pandemics, racial tensions, climate change—the potential of a colony on Mars has sparked a new, universal hope and a heightened sense of collective purpose as we discover our ultimate destiny beyond Earth’s orbit. Celebrating the limitless potential of space and the human spirit, Hixon’s indelible essays and fantastical works of art invite us to imagine a transcendent future where we reach together for absolute freedom, unconditional love, and wellness on our grand quest for world peace. Weaving science, history, art, and philosophy with meditations on higher consciousness inspired by seeing the Earth from Space, Space Nomads is a book of unbridled optimism for the future.

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Isaac Newton had an extraordinary idea. He believed the physical universe and everything in it could be described in exact detail using mathematical relationships. He formulated a law of gravity that explained why objects fall downwards, how the moon causes the tides, and why planets and comets orbit the sun.While Newton’s work has been added to over the years, his basic approach remains at the heart of the scientific worldview. Yet Newton’s own had little in common with that of a modern scientist. He believed the universe was created to a precise and rational design – a design that was fully understood by the earliest people. Over time this knowledge was lost, and Newton considered it his life’s work to rediscover it, whether through applied mathematics or a painstaking study of the Bible and other ancient texts. In chasing his impossible goal, Newton managed to contribute more to our understanding of the universe than anyone else in history.Andrew May went to the same Cambridge college, Trinity, as Sir Isaac Newton. After gaining his first degree in Natural Sciences he went on to do a PhD in astrophysics at Manchester University. This was on the subject of galactic dynamics, and the only physics he needed to know he was a Newtonian. He continued as a postdoc in the same area for four years, before moving into the more lucrative if shadowy world of defence science. He worked first in private industry, then in the Civil Service and then in private industry again, for a total of 24 years. He now earns his living as a freelance writer and defence consultant.

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In its eerie likeness to Earth, Mars has long captured our imaginations,both as a destination for humankind and as a possible home to extraterrestrial life. It is our twenty-first century New World its explorers robots, shipped 350 million miles from Earth to uncover the distant planet's secrets.Its most recent scout is Curiosity,a one-ton, Jeep-sized nuclear-powered space labouratory,which is now roving the Martian surface to determine whether the red planet has ever been physically capable of supporting life. In Red Rover , geochemist Roger Wiens, the principal investigator for the ChemCam laser instrument on the rover and veteran of numerous robotic NASA missions, tells the unlikely story of his involvement in sending sophisticated hardware into space, culminating in the Curiosity rover's amazing journey to Mars.In so doing, Wiens paints the portrait of one of the most exciting scientific stories of our time: the new era of robotic space exploration. Starting with NASA's introduction of the Discovery Program in 1992, scrappier, more nimble missions became the order of the day, as manned missions were confined to Earth orbit, and behemoth projects went extinct. This strategic shift presented huge scientific opportunities, but tight budgets meant that success depended more than ever on creative engineering and human ingenuity. Beginning with the Genesis mission that launched his career, Wiens describes the competitive, DIY spirit of these robotic enterprises, from conception to construction, from launch to heart-stopping crashes and smooth landings.An inspiring account of the real-life challenges of space exploration, Red Rover vividly narrates what goes into answering the question: is there life elsewhere in the universe?

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SHORTLISTED for the Baillie Gifford Prize’s 25th Anniversary Winner of Winners award WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020 A Spectator Book of the Year • A Times Book of the Year • A Telegraph Book of the Year • A Sunday Times Book of the Year From the award-winning author of Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret comes a fascinating, hilarious, kaleidoscopic biography of the Fab Four. John Updike compared them to ‘the sun coming out on an Easter morning’. Bob Dylan introduced them to drugs. The Duchess of Windsor adored them. Noel Coward despised them. JRR Tolkien snubbed them. The Rolling Stones copied them. Loenard Bernstein admired them. Muhammad Ali called them ‘little sissies’. Successive Prime Ministers sucked up to them. No one has remained unaffected by the music of The Beatles. As Queen Elizabeth II observed on her golden wedding anniversary, ‘Think what we would have missed if we had never heard The Beatles.’ One Two Three Four traces the chance fusion of the four key elements that made up The Beatles: fire (John), water (Paul), air (George) and earth (Ringo). It also tells the bizarre and often unfortunate tales of the disparate and colourful people within their orbit, among them Fred Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Maharishi, Aunt Mimi, Helen Shapiro, the con artist Magic Alex, Phil Spector, their psychedelic dentist John Riley and their failed nemesis, Det Sgt Norman Pilcher. From the bestselling author of Ma’am Darling comes a kaleidoscopic mixture of history, etymology, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, essays, parallel lives, party lists, charts, interviews, announcements and stories. One Two Three Four joyfully echoes the frenetic hurly-burly of an era.

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In the early 1990s, Motorola, the legendary American radio and telecom company, made a huge gamble on a revolutionary satellite telephone system called Iridium. Light-years ahead of anything previously put into space, built on technology for Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars,” Iridium was a mind-boggling technical accomplishment that sent waves of panic through phone companies around the world, because, surely, Iridium was the future of communication. Only months after launching service, bankruptcy was inevitable—the largest to that point in American history. It looked like Iridium would go down as just a “science experiment.”That is, until Dan Colussy got a wild idea. Colussy, a retired former President of Pan Am, heard about Motorola’s plans to “de-orbit” the system and decided he would try to buy Iridium. Somehow, the little guy figured he could turn around one of the biggest blunders in the history of business.Eccentric Orbits masterfully traces the development of satellite technology, the birth of Iridium, and Colussy’s tireless efforts to stop it from being destroyed, despite having doors slammed in his face by all of Wall Street. Piecing together funding from a motley group of investors that included a mysterious Arab prince and friends of Jesse Jackson, he eventually made his case before the most powerful people at the Clinton White House, the Pentagon, the FCC, intelligence services, and a consortium of thirty banks, pleading for the only phone that works at the ends of earth. Eccentric Orbits is a rollicking, unforgettable tale of innovation, failure, the military-industrial complex, and one of the greatest deals of all time.

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The Great War meets the horrors of forgotten folklore in this occult skirmish wargame. 1916: A World Transformed. As the Great War raged, the Moon fell from its orbit. Seas shifted, uncovering new lands and revealing what tide and time had concealed. Long known as a potent occult power, the Moon’s descent also heralded the terrifying resurgence of magic. Long-forgotten gods and spirits began to stir in hidden groves and caverns and old traditions found new strength. Soon, stone circles echoed once more with the chanting of ancient rituals and menhirs were again bedecked with wildflowers and presented with offerings of honey and blood. 1918: A War Transformed. Rival nations battle on new fronts, seeking dominance with weapons of spell, song, and sacrifice. Thrust to the surface, Doggerland, the ancient bridge between Britain and Europe, becomes a crucial battleground in the conflict. In this alien landscape, raiding parties pick through the ribs of wrecks and the ruins of lost villages, war machines festooned with totems and fetishes roll over the brittle bones of long-dead giants, and cavalry charge across plains made verdant by the vegetation returning to this new land with unnatural speed. A War Transformed is a skirmish wargame set in a world where World War I was utterly changed by forces far beyond human comprehension. Players command small forces of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and other… stranger… troops on the Doggerland Front. Fast-paced gameplay and a tense initiative bidding system are combined with authentic folk traditions and occult philosophies of the era – it is a game of rifle and relic, of bayonet and belief, of machine gun and magic.

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Simone Marchi presents the emerging story of how cosmic collisions shaped both the solar system and our own planet, from the creation of the Moon to influencing the evolution of life on Earth. The Earth emerged out of the upheaval and chaos of massive collisions in the infancy of the Solar System, more than four billion years ago. The largest of these events sent into orbit a spray of molten rocks out of which the Moon coalesced. As in ancient mythological tales, this giant catastrophe marks the birth of our planet as we know it. Space exploration has shown that signs of ancient collisions are widespread in the Solar System, from the barren and once-habitable Mars to the rugged asteroids. On Earth these signs are more subtle, but still cataclysmic, such as the massive asteroid strike which likely sparked the demise of the dinosaurs and many other forms of life some 66 million years ago. Signatures of even more dramatic catastrophes are concealed in ancient rocks. These events wreaked havoc on our planet's surface, influencing global climate and topography, while also enriching the Earth with gold and other rare elements. And recently, modern science is finding that they could even have contributed to developing the conditions conducive to life. In Colliding Worlds, Simone Marchi explores the key role that collisions in space have played in the formation and evolution of our solar system, the development of planets, and possibly even the origin of life on Earth. Analysing our latest understanding of the surfaces of Mars and Venus, gleaned from recent space missions, Marchi presents the dramatic story of cosmic collisions and their legacies.

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The inspiring memoir of the superstar astronaut and TikTok sensation - now on her biggest space mission yet'Today I woke up on Earth. And I will fall asleep in space'In space the sun rises and sets 16 times a day. You fly over every sea, every mountain and desert, every city and every port. The most ordinary things -- eating, sleeping, brushing your teeth or cutting your hair -- have to be relearned, until they become familiar again. This is the story of Samantha Cristoforetti's incredible journey to becoming an astronaut, and her journey beyond Earth.Her voyage as an apprentice astronaut began when she was in her early thirties: five years of intense training around the world, from Houston to Japan to the legendary Star City in Russia. Countless hours spent in centrifuges, spaceship simulators and under water for spacewalk practice. Then, one day, a rocket was waiting for her on the launch pad. And after eight minutes of wild ascent, she was on orbit, crunched up with her two crewmates in a tiny spaceship that took them to the International Space Station.With honesty and warmth, Cristoforetti chronicles the two hundred days she spent on the ISS, the joys and challenges of being in an extraordinary place, from the sublime sight of seeing Earth for the first time to more unusual concerns, such as mastering the art of floating. How do you find your bearings when there is no up and down? What is it like to run in weightlessness? And how do you cook in space?This is an enthralling, inspiring and surprisingly down-to-earth story about what it really takes to pursue your dreams.

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Will the most powerful defense system in history be used to safeguard America-or to force universal domination? The U.S. has unleashed Thor's Hammer, a missile-launching satellite that can strike anywhere on the planet in seconds. But when President Joseph Gardner elects to employ the still-untested weapon against terrorists firing missiles at Indian cities, the Hammer misses its mark, killing thousands of Pakistani civilians. In retaliation, Pakistan and its neighbors grant China a strategic naval advantage over America through access to Middle Eastern ports. China responds swiftly and brutally, attacking and occupying Somalia, then setting up missile pads to target U.S. naval ships across vital sea-lanes. While in Earth's orbit, Chinese and Russian spacecraft surround an American space station with one clear message: back down or watch as your navy is crippled. With a president battling for his political life in D.C., retired Air Force Lieutenant General Patrick McLanahan and Kai Raydon, commander of the U.S. Space Defense Force, race to defuse the crisis-as every second brings the world closer to a full-scale war of superpowers on Earth . . . and miles above it.Praise for Dale Brown:'Dale Brown is the best military adventure writer in the country' - Clive Cussler'Dan Brown is a superb storyteller' - Washington Post'Dale Brown is one of the best' - Houston Chronicle'When a former pilot turns his hand to thrillers you can take their authenticity for granted. His writing is exceptional and the dialogue, plots and characters are first-class... far too good to be missed' - Sunday Mirror"A master at mixing technology and action, Brown puts readers right into the middle of the Inferno"- Larry Bond

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​Hugo Award–winning hard science fiction master Greg Egan returns with a new novel featuring one of science fiction’s most unusual worlds. Seth is a surveyor, along with his friend Theo, a leech-like creature running through his skull who tells Seth what lies to his left and right. Theo, in turn, relies on Seth for mobility, and for ordinary vision looking forwards and backwards. Like everyone else in their world, they are symbionts, depending on each other to survive. In the universe containing Seth's world, light cannot travel in all directions: there is a “dark cone” to the north and south. Seth can only face to the east (or the west, if he tips his head backwards). If he starts to turn to the north or south, his body stretches out across the landscape, and to rotate as far as north-north-east is every bit as impossible as accelerating to the speed of light. Every living thing in Seth’s world is in a state of perpetual migration as they follow the sun’s shifting orbit and the narrow habitable zone it creates. Cities are being constantly disassembled at one edge and rebuilt at the other, with surveyors mapping safe routes ahead. But when Seth and Theo join an expedition to the edge of the habitable zone, they discover a terrifying threat: a fissure in the surface of the world, so deep and wide that no one can perceive its limits. As the habitable zone continues to move, the migration will soon be blocked by this unbridgeable void, and the expedition has only one option to save its city from annihilation: descend into the unknown.

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Dedicated to remote sensing images, from their acquisition to their use in various applications, this book covers the global lifecycle of images, including sensors and acquisition systems, applications such as movement monitoring or data assimilation, and image and data processing. It is organized in three main parts. The first part presents technological information about remote sensing (choice of satellite orbit and sensors) and elements of physics related to sensing (optics and microwave propagation). The second part presents image processing algorithms and their specificities for radar or optical, multi and hyper-spectral images. The final part is devoted to applications: change detection and analysis of time series, elevation measurement, displacement measurement and data assimilation. Offering a comprehensive survey of the domain of remote sensing imagery with a multi-disciplinary approach, this book is suitable for graduate students and engineers, with backgrounds either in computer science and applied math (signal and image processing) or geo-physics. About the Authors Florence Tupin is Professor at Telecom ParisTech, France. Her research interests include remote sensing imagery, image analysis and interpretation, three-dimensional reconstruction, and synthetic aperture radar, especially for urban remote sensing applications. Jordi Inglada works at the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (French Space Agency), Toulouse, France, in the field of remote sensing image processing at the CESBIO laboratory. He is in charge of the development of image processing algorithms for the operational exploitation of Earth observation images, mainly in the field of multi-temporal image analysis for land use and cover change. Jean-Marie Nicolas is Professor at Telecom ParisTech in the Signal and Imaging department. His research interests include the modeling and processing of synthetic aperture radar images.

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Sleepy Hollow and queer romance meet in this coming-of-age tale from the co-creator of Lumberjanes!Isabel "Izzy" Crane and her family have just relocated to Sleepy Hollow, the town made famous by--and obsessed with--Washington Irving's legend of the Headless Horseman. But city slicker-skeptic Izzy has no time for superstition as she navigates life at a new address, a new school, and, with any luck, with new friends. Ghost stories aren't real, after all.... Then Izzy is pulled into the orbit of the town's teen royalty, Vicky Van Tassel (yes, that Van Tassel) and loveable varsity-level prankster Croc Byun. Vicky's weariness with her family connection to the legend turns to terror when the trio begins to be haunted by the Horseman himself, uncovering a curse set on destroying the Van Tassel line. Now, they have only until Halloween night to break it--meaning it's a totally inconvenient time for Izzy to develop a massive crush on the enigmatic Vicky. Can Izzy's practical nature help her face the unknown--or only trip her up? As the calendar runs down to the 31st, Izzy will have to use all of her wits and work with her new friends to save Vicky and uncover the mystery of the legendary Horseman of Sleepy Hollow--before it's too late. New York Times-bestselling writer Shannon Watters (Lumberjanes) and debut author Branden Boyer-White are joined by artist Berenice Nelle (Wanderlicht) in a coming of age tale that's at once a faithful homage and a free-wheeling spin-off of the classic Legend of Sleepy Hollow and everyone's favorite headless specter.

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Applying strategic theory to outer space and drawing out the implications for international relations Offers a definitive and original vision of space warfare that theorises often-overlooked aspects of contemporary space activities based in the discipline of Strategic Studies. This original research draws out the implications of spacepower for wider debate in grand strategy and IR. Applies the theory in a topical and contentious area within contemporary grand strategy – anti-access and area-denial warfare in the Taiwan Strait between China and America. Key principles are summarised in seven propositions to make the key take-aways of theory applicable and memorable for researchers and practitioners. This book presents a theory of spacepower and considers the implications of space technology on strategy and international relations. The spectre of space warfare stalks the major powers as outer space increasingly defines geopolitical and military competition. As satellites have become essential for modern warfare, strategists are asking whether the next major war will begin or be decided in outer space. Only strategic theory can explore the decisiveness and effects of war in space upon `grand strategy’ and international relations. The author applies the wisdom of military strategy to outer space, and presents a compelling new vision of Earth orbit as a coastline, rather than an open ocean or an extension of airspace as many have assumed. Rooted in the classical military works of Clausewitz, Mahan, and Castex to name a few, this book presents comprehensive principles for strategic thought about space that explain the pervasive and inescapable influence of spacepower on strategy and the changing military balance of the 21st century.

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A special edition hardcover that celebrates the third book in the NYT bestselling and Hugo award-winning Expanse series. Abaddon's Gate opens the door to the ruins of an alien gate network, and the crew of the Rocinante may hold the key to unlocking its secrets. Now a Prime Original series. This special edition hardcover includes: A striking new coverStained edges and illustrated endpapersA reversible cover that features the full, uncropped artwork of the original cover artA new introduction from the authors.HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SERIESFor generations, the solar system -- Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt -- was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has appeared in Uranus's orbit, where it has built a massive gate that leads to a starless dark.Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artifact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.Abaddon's Gate is a breakneck science fiction adventure following the critically acclaimed Caliban's War.The ExpanseLeviathan WakesCaliban's WarAbaddon's GateCibola BurnNemesis GamesBabylon's AshesPersepolis RisingTiamat's WrathLeviathan FallsMemory's LegionThe Expanse Short FictionDriveThe Butcher of Anderson StationGods of RiskThe ChurnThe Vital AbyssStrange DogsAuberonThe Sins of Our Fathers

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Breaking the mold of existing calculus textbooks, Calculus in Context draws students into the subject in two new ways. Part I develops the mathematical preliminaries (including geometry, trigonometry, algebra, and coordinate geometry) within the historical frame of the ancient Greeks and the heliocentric revolution in astronomy. Part II starts with comprehensive and modern treatments of the fundamentals of both differential and integral calculus, then turns to a wide-ranging discussion of applications. Students will learn that core ideas of calculus are central to concepts such as acceleration, force, momentum, torque, inertia, and the properties of lenses. Classroom-tested at Notre Dame University, this textbook is suitable for students of wide-ranging backgrounds because it engages its subject at several levels and offers ample and flexible problem set options for instructors. Parts I and II are both supplemented by expansive Problems and Projects segments. Topics covered in the book include: * the basics of geometry, trigonometry, algebra, and coordinate geometry and the historical, scientific agenda that drove their development* a brief, introductory calculus from the works of Newton and Leibniz* a modern development of the essentials of differential and integral calculus* the analysis of specific, relatable applications, such as the arc of the George Washington Bridge; the dome of the Pantheon; the optics of a telescope; the dynamics of a bullet; the geometry of the pseudosphere; the motion of a planet in orbit; and the momentum of an object in free fall. Calculus in Context is a compelling exploration-for students and instructors alike-of a discipline that is both rich in conceptual beauty and broad in its applied relevance.

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An introduction to celestial mechanics for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers new to the fieldCelestial mechanics—the study of the movement of planets, satellites, and smaller bodies such as comets—is one of the oldest subjects in the physical sciences. Since the mid-twentieth century, the field has experienced a renaissance due to advances in space flight, digital computing, numerical mathematics, nonlinear dynamics, and chaos theory, and the discovery of exoplanets. This modern, authoritative introduction to planetary system dynamics reflects these recent developments and discoveries and is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers. The book treats both traditional subjects, such as the two-body and three-body problems, lunar theory, and Hamiltonian perturbation theory, as well as a diverse range of other topics, including chaos in the solar system, comet dynamics, extrasolar planets, planetesimal dynamics, resonances, tidal friction and disruption, and more. The book provides readers with all the core concepts, tools, and methods needed to conduct research in the subject. Provides an authoritative introduction that reflects recent advances in the field Topics treated include Andoyer variables, co-orbital satellites and quasi-satellites, Hill’s problem, the Milankovich equations, Colombo’s top and Cassini states, the Yarkovsky and YORP effects, orbit determination for extrasolar planets, and more More than 100 end-of-book problems elaborate on concepts not fully covered in the main text Appendixes summarize the necessary background material Suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students; some knowledge of Hamiltonian mechanics and methods of mathematical physics (vectors, matrices, special functions, etc.) required Solutions manual available on request for instructors who adopt the book for a course

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The graphic novel tells the story of Bird's time in L.A. starting in December 1945, where Bird and Dizzy Gillespie brought frenetic sounds of bebop from the East Coast jazz underground to the West Coast for a two-month residency at Billy Berg's Hollywood jazz club. This marked the beginning of a tumultuous two year-stint for Bird bumming around L.A., showing up at jam sessions, crashing on people's couches, causing havoc in public places, and recording some of his most groundbreaking tracks, "A Night in Tunisia" and "Ornithology," as well as "Relaxin' At Camarillo," inspired by the end of his time in SoCal at the Camarillo State Hospital. The novel explores Bird's relationship with the characters and events he encountered during his time in L.A. including recording some of his signature songs with Dial Record founder Ross Russell, a brief but influential stay at the home of famed jazz photographer William Claxton, a party for the ages at the ranch home of artist Jirayr Zorthian, and others who found themselves in the orbit of the jazz genius. Chasin' the Bird is named for Charlie Parker's 1947 standard, and adapts one of the sunnier, but darker chapters in the life of Bird, beautifully told by Dave Chisholm The book will include an exclusive flexi disc record featuring a recording from Parker's time in Los Angeles. The deluxe limited edition will include a vinyl 45 with two tracks to be announced ahead of release. In conjunction with the graphic novel, Verve Records/UMe are currently working on a new album spanning Bird's L.A. period that will be released in September as well.

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On January 27, 1967, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee climbed into a new spacecraft perched atop a large Saturn rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a routine dress rehearsal of their upcoming launch into orbit, then less than a month away. All three astronauts were experienced pilots and had dreams of one day walking on the moon. But little did they know, nor did anyone else, that once they entered the spacecraft that cold winter day they would never leave it alive. The Apollo program would be perilously close to failure before it ever got off the ground. But rather than dooming the space program, this tragedy caused the spacecraft to be completely overhauled, creating a stellar flying machine to achieve the program’s primary goal: putting man on the moon. Apollo 1 is a candid portrayal of the astronauts, the disaster that killed them, and its aftermath. In it, readers will learn: How the Apollo 1 spacecraft was doomed from the start, with miles of uninsulated wiring and tons of flammable materials in a pure oxygen atmosphere, along with a hatch that wouldn’t open How, due to political pressure, the government contract to build the Apollo 1 craft went to a bidder with an inferior plan How public opinion polls were beginning to turn against the space program before the tragedy and got much worse after Apollo 1 is about America fulfilling its destiny of man setting foot on the moon. It’s also about the three American heroes who lost their lives in the tragedy, but whose lives were not lost in vain.

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THE TIMES & UNCUT MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARCritically-acclaimed and bestselling author Paul Morley's long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson.A BOOK OF THE YEARSUNDAY TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, MOJO, LOUDER THAN WAR'Compelling . . . befitting its extraordinary subject.'BRIAN ENO'Bracing and often surprisingly tender . . . the perfect monument.'SUNDAY TIMES'Via Morley's magical prose Tony Wilson comes back to life . . . inspiring.'RICHARD RUSSELLTony Wilson was a man who became synonymous with his beloved city. As the co-founder of the legendary Factory Records and the Haçienda, he appointed himself a custodian of Manchester's legacy of innovation and change, becoming a cultural pioneer for the North. To Paul Morley, he was this and much more: bullshitting hustler, flashy showman, inventive broadcaster, self-deprecating chancer, publicity seeker, loyal friend. It was Morley to whom Wilson left a daunting final request: to write this book.From Manchester with Love is the biography of a man who changed the world around him through sheerforce of personality. In the cultural theatre of Manchester, Tony Wilson broke in and took centre stage.'An immersive experience . . . very moving indeed.'MIRANDA SAWYER, OBSERVER'Not just a "biog" but the story of a city's history and culture and a unique and disappearing figure.'STUART MACONIE, NEW STATESMAN'Morley's biography is as illuminating on Wilson's strange ability to hold others in his orbit, even after his death, as it is on the story of his life.'THE SPECTATOR'The man/myth Wilson died aged 57 in 2006, but here he burns on fantastically bright.'UNCUT

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The editors present a state-of-the-art overview on the Physics of Space Weather and its effects on technological and biological systems on the ground and in space. It opens with a general introduction on the subject, followed by a historical review on the major developments in the field of solar terrestrial relationships leading to its development into the up-to-date field of space weather. Specific emphasis is placed on the technological effects that have impacted society in the past century at times of major solar activity. Chapter 2 summarizes key milestones, starting from the base of solar observations with classic telescopes up to recent space observations and new mission developments with EUV and X-ray telescopes (e.g., STEREO), yielding an unprecedented view of the sun-earth system. Chapter 3 provides a scientific summary of the present understanding of the physics of the sun-earth system based on the latest results from spacecraft designed to observe the Sun, the interplanetary medium and geospace. Chapter 4 describes how the plasma and magnetic field structure of the earth's magnetosphere is impacted by the variation of the solar and interplanetary conditions, providing the necessary science and technology background for missions in low and near earth's orbit. Chapter 5 elaborates the physics of the layer of the earth's upper atmosphere that is the cause of disruptions in radio-wave communications and GPS (Global Positioning System) errors, which is of crucial importance for projects like Galileo. In Chapters 6-10, the impacts of technology used up to now in space, on earth and on life are reviewed.

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First contact with extraordinary aliens, glittering technologies that could destroy the universe in a nanosecond, huge sweeping space operas: Alastair Reynolds is back!Some centuries from now, the exploration and exploitation of the Solar System is in full swing. On the cold edge of the system, Bella Lind, captain of the huge commercial spacecraft Rockhopper IV, helps fuel this new gold rush by attaching mass-driver motors to organic-rich water-ice comets to move them back to the inner worlds. Her crew are tough, blue-collar miners, engineers and demolition experts.Around Saturn, something inexplicable happens: one of the moons leaves its orbit and accelerates out of the Solar System. The icy mantle peels away to reveal that it was never a moon in the first place, just a parked spacecraft, millions of years old, that has now decided to move on.Rockhopper IV, trapped in the pull, is hurled across time and space into the deep, distant future, arriving in a vast, alien-constructed chamber. And the crew are not alone, for each chamber contains an alien culture dragged into this cosmic menagerie at the end of time.The crew of the Rockhopper IV know a lot about blowing up comets, but not much about first contact with ultra-advanced aliens. They have two things to worry about: can they (and their new alien allies) negotiate their way through each harrying contact? And can they assimilate the avalanche of knowledge about their own future - including all the glittering, dangerous technologies that are now theirs for the taking - without destroying themselves in the process?

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After the end of the Cold War, it seemed as if Southeast Asia would remain a geopolitically stable region within the American-led order for the foreseeable future. In the last two decades, however, the re-emergence of China as a major great power has called into question the geopolitical future of the region and raised the specter of renewed great power competition. As the eminent China scholar David Shambaugh explains in Where Great Powers Meet, the United States and China are engaged in a broad-gauged and global competition for power. While this competition ranges across the entire world, it is centered in Asia. In this book, Shambaugh focuses on the critical sub-region of Southeast Asia. The United States and China constantly vie for position and influence across this enormously significant area--and the outcome of this contest will do much to determine whether Asia leaves the American orbit after seven decades and falls into a new Chinese sphere of influence. Just as importantly, to the extent that there is a global "power transition" occurring from the US to China, the fate of Southeast Asia will be a good indicator. Presently, both powers bring important assets to bear in their competition. The United States continues to possess a depth and breadth of security ties, soft power, and direct investment across the region that empirically outweigh China's. For its part, China has more diplomatic influence, much greater trade, and geographic proximity. In assessing the likelihood of a regional power transition, Shambaugh examines how ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its member states maneuver and the degree to which they align with one or the other power.

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'As funny as it's intellectual, this page-turner about crashing and burning is spot-on about ambition, infatuation, theatre, film, ethics, teens, and everything else.' Emma Donoghue, author of Room 'Witty...Earnest...Laugh-out-loud...Pitch-perfect' New York TimesIn the pursuit of fame, how do you know when you've gone too far?When Cass - a thirty-something, promising, queer playwright - receives a prestigious award, it seems as though her career is finally taking off. That is until she finds herself at the centre of a searing public shaming, which relegates her from rising star in New York to a nobody on her best friend's sofa in L.A. As she comes to terms with the extent of her failure, she is forced to question who she is without the thing that has always defined her: her art. So she fills the days by stalking her playwright nemesis, of whom she is excruciatingly envious, and getting pulled into the orbit of the charismatic but manipulative filmmaker next door. As Cass becomes increasingly involved with her neighbour and the group of pugilistic teenage girls she's documenting, Cass begins to dream of a comeback. But when the film spins dangerously out of control, Cass is once again forced to reckon with her ambition, and her rage.We Play Ourselves is a darkly funny novel about the cost of making art, and the art of making enemies. 'Funny, sharp, modern - this is an excellent debut novel. Its bold, edgy, strange heroine has adventures and misadventures, screws up again and again, but somehow won my love. I couldn't put this book down.' Weike Wang, PEN/Hemingway-award winning author of Chemistry

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The nineteenth book in the beloved Foreigner space opera series begins a new era for human diplomat Bren Cameron, as he navigates the tenuous peace between human refugees and the alien atevi.Bren Cameron, acting as the representative of the atevi's political leader, Tabini-aiji, as well as translator between humans and atevi, has undertaken a mission to the human enclave of Mospheira. Both his presence on the island and his absence from the continent have stirred old enemies to realize new opportunities. Old hatreds. Old grudges. Old ambitions. The situation has strengthened the determination of power-seekers on both sides of the strait. Bren knows most of them very well, but not all of them well enough. The space station on which the world increasingly relies is desperate to get more supplies up to orbit and to get a critical oversupply of human refugees down to the world below. Rationing is in force on the station, but the overpopulation problem has to be solved quickly—and Bren's mission on Mospheira has expanded to include preparation for that landing. First down will be the three children to whom Tabini's son has a close connection. But following them will be thousands of humans who have never set foot on a planet, humans descended from colonists and officers who split off from Mospheiran humans two hundred years before in a bitter parting of the ways. There is no way the atevi, native to the world, will cede any more land to these new arrivals: they will have to share the island. But certain Mospheirans are willing to use force to prevent these refugees from settling among them. Bren's job is as general peacemaker—but old enemies want war. Is Bren's diplomatic acumen enough to prevent a war that both sides are prepared to wage?

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The story of the search for life on Mars—and the moral issues confronting us as we prepare to send humans thereDoes life exist on Mars? The question has captivated humans for centuries, but today it has taken on new urgency. NASA plans to send astronauts to Mars orbit by the 2030s. SpaceX wants to go by 2024, while Mars One wants to land a permanent settlement there in 2032. As we gear up for missions like these, we have a responsibility to think deeply about what kinds of life may already inhabit the planet--and whether we have the right to invite ourselves in. This book tells the complete story of the quest to answer one of the most tantalizing questions in astronomy. But it is more than a history. Life on Mars explains what we need to know before we go.David Weintraub tells why, of all the celestial bodies in our solar system, Mars has beckoned to us the most. He traces how our ideas about life on Mars have been refined by landers and rovers, terrestrial and Mars-orbiting telescopes, spectroscopy, and even a Martian meteorite. He explores how finding DNA-based life on the Red Planet could offer clues about our distant evolutionary past, and grapples with the profound moral and ethical questions confronting us as we prepare to introduce an unpredictable new life form—ourselves—into the Martian biosphere.Life on Mars is also a book about how science is done—and undone—in the age of mass media. It shows how Mars mania has obscured our vision since we first turned our sights on the planet and encourages a healthy skepticism toward the media hype surrounding Mars as humanity prepares to venture forth.

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Properly analyzed, the collective mythological and religious writings of humanity reveal that around 1500 BC, a comet swept perilously close to Earth, triggering widespread natural disasters and threatening the destruction of all life before settling into solar orbit as Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor. Sound implausible? Well, from 1950 until the late 1970s, a huge number of people begged to differ, as they devoured Immanuel Velikovsky’s major best-seller, Worlds in Collision, insisting that perhaps this polymathic thinker held the key to a new science and a new history. Scientists, on the other hand, assaulted Velikovsky’s book, his followers, and his press mercilessly from the get-go. In The Pseudoscience Wars, Michael D. Gordin resurrects the largely forgotten figure of Velikovsky and uses his strange career and surprisingly influential writings to explore the changing definitions of the line that separates legitimate scientific inquiry from what is deemed bunk, and to show how vital this question remains to us today. Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material from Velikovsky’s personal archives, Gordin presents a behind-the-scenes history of the writer’s career, from his initial burst of success through his growing influence on the counterculture, heated public battles with such luminaries as Carl Sagan, and eventual eclipse. Along the way, he offers fascinating glimpses into the histories and effects of other fringe doctrines, including creationism, Lysenkoism, parapsychology, and more—all of which have surprising connections to Velikovsky’s theories. Science today is hardly universally secure, and scientists seem themselves beset by critics, denialists, and those they label “pseudoscientists”—as seen all too clearly in battles over evolution and climate change. The Pseudoscience Wars simultaneously reveals the surprising Cold War roots of our contemporary dilemma and points readers to a different approach to drawing the line between knowledge and nonsense.

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From the author of the BBC 2 Between the Covers hit, The Fine Art of Invisible Detection'The world's greatest storyteller' Guardian'One of the finest crime writers of any generation' Daily Mail'Our finest practitioner of the double-cross plotting' Mick Herron______________________________________Umiko Wada never set out to be a private detective, let alone become the one-woman operation behind the Kodaka Detective Agency. But so it has turned out, thanks to the death of her former boss, Kazuto Kodaka, in mysterious circumstances.Keen to avoid a similar fate, Wada chooses the cases she takes very carefully. A businessman who wants her to track down his estranged son offers what appears to be a straightforward assignment. Soon she finds herself pulled into a labyrinthine conspiracy with links to a twenty-seven-year-old investigation by her late employer and to the chaos and trauma of the dying days of the Second World War.As Wada uncovers a dizzying web of connections between then and now, it becomes clear that someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the past buried. Soon those she loves most will be sucked into the orbit of one of the most powerful men in Tokyo. And he will do whatever it takes to hold on to his power...The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction is another tour de force from the cunning mind of master storyteller Robert Goddard. Spanning seventy years, it takes the reader on a head-spinning journey of twist and counter-twist which keep you guessing until the final pages.__________________________________Readers love the Umiko Wada series:***** 'Guaranteed and satisfying escapism'***** 'Twists and turns right up to the last page'***** 'Edge-of-the-seat stuff'***** 'Fresh and inventive'***** 'The master of twists and suspense ... sublime'***** 'Scintillating and wickedly twisty'

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For twenty-five years following the Voyager mission, scientists speculated about Saturn's largest moon, a mysterious orb clouded in orange haze. Finally, in 2005, the Cassini-Huygens probe successfully parachuted down through Titan's atmosphere, all the while transmitting images and data. In the early 1980s, when the two Voyager spacecraft skimmed past Titan, Saturn's largest moon, they transmitted back enticing images of a mysterious world concealed in a seemingly impenetrable orange haze. Titan Unveiled is one of the first general interest books to reveal the startling new discoveries that have been made since the arrival of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton take readers behind the scenes of this mission. Launched in 1997, Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in summer 2004. Its formidable payload included the Huygens probe, which successfully parachuted down through Titan's atmosphere in early 2005, all the while transmitting images and data--and scientists were startled by what they saw. One of those researchers was Lorenz, who gives an insider's account of the scientific community's first close encounter with an alien landscape of liquid methane seas and turbulent orange skies. Amid the challenges and frayed nerves, new discoveries are made, including methane monsoons, equatorial sand seas, and Titan's polar hood. Lorenz and Mitton describe Titan as a world strikingly like Earth and tell how Titan may hold clues to the origins of life on our own planet and possibly to its presence on others. Generously illustrated with many stunning images, Titan Unveiled is essential reading for anyone interested in space exploration, planetary science, or astronomy. A new afterword brings readers up to date on Cassini's ongoing exploration of Titan, describing the many new discoveries made since 2006.

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AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom Tessa Bailey—#1 New York Times bestselling author, TikTok favorite, and "the Michelangelo of dirty talk" (Entertainment Weekly)—comes a spicy small town rom-com about a grumpy professor and the bubbly neighbor he clashes with at every turn...Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family’s winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to Napa Valley, and when Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she'll finally get that smooch. But the starchy professor isn’t the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly.One wine-fueled girls’ night later, Hallie can’t shake the sense that she did something reckless—and then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit.On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans to write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. She’s eccentric, chronically late, often literally covered in dirt—and so unbelievably beautiful, he can’t focus on anything else. Until he finds an anonymous letter sent by a woman from his past.Even as Julian wonders about this admirer, he’s sucked further into Hallie’s orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of color in Julian’s grayscale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero sense. But there’s something so familiar about her... and her very presence is turning his world upside down."Tessa Bailey is the queen of rom-coms. Long may she reign!" — Julie Murphy, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Merry Little Meet Cute

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In this moving and thoughtful book, Kathleen Woodward explores the politics and poetics of the emotions, focusing on American culture since the 1960s. She argues that we are constrained in terms of gender, race, and age by our culture’s scripts for “emotional” behavior and that the accelerating impoverishment of interiority is a symptom of our increasingly media-saturated culture. She also shows how we can be empowered by stories that express our experience, revealing the value of our emotions as a crucial form of intelligence.Referring discreetly to her own experience, Woodward examines the interpenetration of social structures and subjectivity, considering how psychological emotions are social phenomena, with feminist anger, racial shame, old-age depression, and sympathy for non-human cyborgs (including robots) as key cases in point. She discusses how emerging institutional and discursive structures engender “new” affects that in turn can help us understand our changing world if we are attentive to them—the “statistical panic” produced by the risk society, with its numerical portents of disease and mortality; the rage prompted by impenetrable and bloated bureaucracies; the brutal shame experienced by those caught in the crossfire of the media; and the conservative compassion that is not an emotion at all, only an empty political slogan.The orbit of Statistical Panic is wide, drawing in feminist theory, critical phenomenology, and recent theories of the emotions. But at its heart are stories. As an antidote to the vacuous dramas of media culture, with its mock emotions and scattershot sensations, Woodward turns to the autobiographical narrative. Stories of illness—by Joan Didion, Yvonne Rainer, Paul Monette, and Alice Wexler, among others—receive special attention, with the inexhaustible emotion of grief framing the book as a whole.

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A History Today Book of the YearA world-renowned astronomer and an esteemed science writer make the provocative argument for space exploration without astronauts.Human journeys into space fill us with wonder. But the thrill of space travel for astronauts comes at enormous expense and is fraught with peril. As our robot explorers grow more competent, governments and corporations must ask, does our desire to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars justify the cost and danger? Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees believe that beyond low-Earth orbit, space exploration should proceed without humans.In The End of Astronauts, Goldsmith and Rees weigh the benefits and risks of human exploration across the solar system. In space humans require air, food, and water, along with protection from potentially deadly radiation and high-energy particles, at a cost of more than ten times that of robotic exploration. Meanwhile, automated explorers have demonstrated the ability to investigate planetary surfaces efficiently and effectively, operating autonomously or under direction from Earth. Although Goldsmith and Rees are alert to the limits of artificial intelligence, they know that our robots steadily improve, while our bodies do not. Today a robot cannot equal a geologist’s expertise, but by the time we land a geologist on Mars, this advantage will diminish significantly.Decades of research and experience, together with interviews with scientific authorities and former astronauts, offer convincing arguments that robots represent the future of space exploration. The End of Astronauts also examines how spacefaring AI might be regulated as corporations race to privatize the stars. We may eventually decide that humans belong in space despite the dangers and expense, but their paths will follow routes set by robots.

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China's Great Wall north of Beijing is one of the world's most famous sights. Millions every year climb the line of stone snaking over mountains. We all feel we know the Wall. But we are wrong. It is too big, too varied, too complex to be captured by a few images or a day-trip.Myths surround it. Many believe that the stone barrier marches across all China, that it has been in existence for over 2,000 years, and that it is the only man-made structure visible from the Moon. In fact, most of it is made of earth, and much of it is not there at all. It cannot even be seen from earth orbit, let alone the Moon. Estimates of its length vary from 1,500 to 5,000 miles. Even its name is deceptive - it is not an it, a single entity, but many walls (hence the uncertain length), built at different times. Yet behind the confusion are great simplicities. The many walls are united by two ideas - self-protection and unity - which go back to the First Emperor, who founded the nation in 221 BC. For 2,000 years, the Wall marked the border between China and nomadic peoples to the north and west. Mutual hostility inspired centuries of attacks, counter-attacks and Wall-building, until the northward spread of China in the 20th century made the Wall redundant.For this riveting account, John Man travelled the Wall from the far western deserts to the Pacific, exploring the grandest sections and many 'wild' ones. He is the first writer to describe two unknown walls in Mongolia. He covers two millennia of history, from the country's first unification to the present day, when the Great Wall, built and rebuilt over centuries of war, has become a symbol of tranquillity.

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