Charles Seife

En este libro convincente y cautivador, el premiado periodista científico Charles Seife nos presenta lo más vanguardista de la teoría de la información, una ciencia que nos muestra el significado de nuestros genes, la naturaleza de los universos paralelos e incluso el sorprendente destino del cosmos. Repleto de respuestas que son, a menudo, mas impactantes que las paradojas que resuelven, Descodificando el universo se torna mas profundo a medida que nos adentramos en el.

Cuando los desarrolladores de armamento detonaron la bomba de hidrógeno por primera vez en 1952, tuvieron acceso a la mayor fuente de energía del Sistema Solar, al fenómeno que hace que brille el Sol. La fusion parece proporcionar una fuente ilimitada de energia, pero se ha situado en el epicentro de una tragica y comica cruzada que ha acabado con la trayectoria y la honra cientifica de numerosos investigadores. La busqueda de la fusion es irresistible como ninguna otra, y ejerce tanta atraccion que ha sumado a su causa a una comunidad entera de cientificos durante mas de medio siglo. Como la eterna busqueda para construir los moviles perpetuos, el sueño de controlar la energia de una estrella en miniatura es tremendamente seductor. Construir un dispositivo de fusion proporcionaria al mundo una fuente de electricidad inagotable, pero ademas le otorgaria a sus inventores un enorme poder; poder economico, poder a partir de la fama, y tambien poder militar.Gobiernos y cientificos (incluso aficionados) se han gastado una cantidad incalculable de dinero para intentar hacer realidad ese sueño, tratando de confinar el Sol en todo tipo de botellas con rayos laser, imanes, ondas sonoras, haces de particulas y trozos de metal. En este momento las principales potencias mundiales invierten miles de millones de dolares para tratar de construir un reactor de fusion gigante. Sin embargo, a la luz de los precedentes, ni con todo el oro del mundo se conseguira que el sueño de la energia de fusion este a nuestro alcance. De hecho, la busqueda de la energia de fusion ha sido una sucesion de fracasos que se han repetido generacion tras generacion. La esperanza de continuar con la investigacion de la fusion y de convertirse en los dueños de la energia sin limites, ha hecho que algunos cientificos desesperados se hayan engañado a si mismos y a sus colegas, e incluso hayan llegado a cometer fraude. A lo largo de este fascinante viaje Charles Seife nos presenta a algunos de los genios audaces, villanos y victimas de la ciencia de la fusion: el brillante y torturado Andrei Sajarov, el monomaniaco y obsesivo Edward Teller, Ronald Richter, el reservado fisico cuyas mentiras avergonzaron a todo un pais, y Stanley Pons y Martin Fleischmann, los dos quimicos que encabezaron el mayor fiasco cientifico de los ultimos cien años.

Los babilonios lo inventaron, los griegos lo proscribieron, los indios lo veneraron y la Iglesia católica lo esgrimió para atajar herejías. Hoy es una bomba de relojería que late en el corazón de la astrofísica. Cero narra los avatares del número cero desde su nacimiento como concepto filosófico oriental y su lucha por ser aceptado en Europa hasta su apoteosis como misterio de los agujeros negros. Es la historia de los estudiosos y los místicos, los científicos y los clérigos que debatieron acerca de su enigmático significado; de las tentativas infructuosas, a veces violentas de Occidente para protegerse de la temible idea de la nada y el vacío; y de las paradojas planteadas por este número en apariencia inocente que desconcierta las mentes más brillantes del momento y amenaza con desmontar todo el armazón del pensamiento científico. Las polémicas suscitadas por el cero sacudieron los cimientos de la la ciencia, las matemáticas y la religión: en el transcurso del último milenio, detrás de cada revolución había un cero... y un infinito. Sin embargo, a pesar del rechazo y el exilio que le tocaron en suerte, el cero acabó siempre por imponerse a quienes se le opusieron porque la humanidad nunca pudo obligarle a calzar la horma de sus filosofías. Él, en cambio, configuró la visión que tenemos del universo...y de Dios.

Stephen Hawking was widely recognized as the worlds best physicist and even the most brilliant man alivebut what if his true talent was self-promotion?When Stephen Hawking died, he was widely recognized as the worlds best physicist, and even its smartest person. He was neither. In Hawking Hawking, science journalist Charles Seife explores how Stephen Hawking came to be thought of as humanitys greatest genius. Hawking spent his career grappling with deep questions in physics, but his renown didnt rest on his science. He was a master of self-promotion, hosting parties for time travelers, declaring victory over problems he had not solved, and wooing billionaires. In a wheelchair and physically dependent on a cadre of devotees, Hawking still managed to captivate the people around himand use them for his own purposes. A brilliant expose and powerful biography, Hawking Hawking uncovers the authentic Hawking buried underneath the fake. It is the story of a man whose brilliance in physics was matched by his genius for building his own myth.

Jusquà sa mort en mars 2018, Stephen Hawking était lune des personnalités les plus connues au monde. Confiné dans une chaise roulante, le visage déformé par un rictus figé, il lui était impossible de

Since A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME scientists have been in the midst of a revolution in cosmology. Gradually, astronomers and physicists are answering questions that have plagued mankind since prehistory: how was the universe born, how will it end? They are even now peering into the cradle of the universe - and into its grave. By the beginning of next year, scientists will have a clue to some of the answers. These will be among the greatest triumphs of science.This book tells that story and will reveal results of the most advanced experiments in cosmology ever conducted. Its a tale of men solving the insoluble, of the controversy and anger of rivals after the same goal. Even more thrillingly - it is a lucid explanation of new scientific ideas that stretch mans powers of understanding to their highest levels.

A New York Times Notable Book.The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now it threatens the foundations of modern physics. For centuries the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. For zero, infinitys twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything.In Zero, Science Journalist Charles Seife follows this innocent-looking number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its rise and transcendence in the West, and its ever-present threat to modern physics. Here are the legendary thinkersfrom Pythagoras to Newton to Heisenberg, from the Kabalists to todays astrophysicistswho have tried to understand it and whose clashes shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics, and religion. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.

The bestselling author of Zero shows how mathematical misinformation pervades-and shapes-our daily lives. According to MSNBC, having a child makes you stupid. You actually lose IQ points. Good Morning America has announced that natural blondes will be extinct within two hundred years. Pundits estimated that there were more than a million demonstrators at a tea party rally in Washington, D.C., even though roughly sixty thousand were there. Numbers have peculiar powers-they can disarm skeptics, befuddle journalists, and hoodwink the public into believing almost anything. "Proofiness," as Charles Seife explains in this eye-opening book, is the art of using pure mathematics for impure ends, and he reminds readers that bad mathematics has a dark side. It is used to bring down beloved government officials and to appoint undeserving ones (both Democratic and Republican), to convict the innocent and acquit the guilty, to ruin our economy, and to fix the outcomes of future elections. This penetrating look at the intersection of math and society will appeal to readers of Freakonomics and the books of Malcolm Gladwell.

The author of Zero explains the scientific revolution that is transforming the way we understand our world Previously the domain of philosophers and linguists, information theory has now moved beyond the province of code breakers to become the crucial science of our time. In Decoding the Universe, Charles Seife draws on his gift for making cutting-edge science accessible to explain how this new tool is deciphering everything from the purpose of our DNA to the parallel universes of our Byzantine cosmos. The result is an exhilarating adventure that deftly combines cryptology, physics, biology, and mathematics to cast light on the new understanding of the laws that govern life and the universe.

The bestselling author of Proofiness and Zero explains how to separate fact from fantasy in the digital world Digital information is a powerful tool that spreads unbelievably rapidly, infects all corners of society, and is all but impossible to controleven when that information is actually a lie. In Virtual Unreality, Charles Seife uses the skepticism, wit, and sharp facility for analysis that captivated readers in Proofiness and Zero to take us deep into the Internet information jungle and cut a path through the trickery, fakery, and cyber skullduggery that the online world enables. Taking on everything from breaking news coverage and online dating to program trading and that eccentric and unreliable source that is Wikipedia, Seife arms his readers with actual toolsor weaponsfor discerning truth from fiction online.

With his knack for translating science into understandable, anecdotal prose and his trademark dry humor, award-winning science writer Charles Seife presents the first narrative account of the history of fusion for general readers in more than a decade. Tracing the story from its beginning into the twenty-first century, Sun in a Bottle reveals fusions explosive role in some of the biggest scientific scandals of all time. Throughout this journey, he introduces us to the daring geniuses, villains, and victims of fusion science. With the giant international fusion project ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) now under construction, its clear that the science of wishful thinking is as strong as ever. This book is our key to understanding why.