The wizards discover to their cost that it’s no easy task to change history. Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures that lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator — they even intervened to rid the planet of a plague of elves, who attempted to divert humanity onto a different time track. But now it’s all gone wrong — Victorian England has stagnated and the pace of progress would embarrass a limping snail. Unless something drastic is done, there won’t be time for anyone to invent space flight, and the human race will be turned into ice-pops. Why, though, did history come adrift? Was it Sir Arthur Nightingale’s dismal book about natural selection? Or was it the devastating response by an obscure country vicar called Charles Darwin whose bestselling Theology of Species made it impossible to refute the divine design of living creatures? Can the God of Evolution come to humanity’s aid and ensure Darwin writes a very different book? And who stopped him writing it in the first place?

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch (Discworld)

Jack Cohen

Ian-Stewart

Terry-Pratchett

Science & Math

Ebury Press

Science's traditional answers to the question: "How does complexity arise in nature?" are given at the beginning of this book. It shows how intelligence and human culture can be traced back to atomic structure, reducing the whole of nature to simple laws of fundamental physics. However, the book then proceeds to show that "How does complexity arise?" is really the wrong question. It proposes that a more interesting question is "Why do simple structures exist at all?". Scientific reductionism is useful but does not give the whole truth: it tells how but not why; it looks at insides but not outsides, content but not context. The subject-matter of traditional science is re-examined from a different viewpoint, focusing on the ability of complicated rules to generate simple behaviour, through the "collapse of chaos".

The Collapse of Chaos (Penguin Science)

Penguin Books, Ltd.

While still in high school, Ian Stewart dreamed of exploring the world. Soon after his graduation from journalism school in 1991, he was reporting from the most far-flung and troubled corners of the globe, and by the age of 32, he was appointed West Africa bureau chief for the Associated Press. His award-winning and hard-hitting coverage while at the AP focused on the growing number of wars that continue to plague the continent. Stewart was appalled not only by the level of cruelty he witnessed but also by the indifference of the outside world. Although he had reported from some of the most dangerous places on earth, none were more dangerous than Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Few journalists dared venture there, but Ian Stewart was one of them. On January 10, 1999, Stewart and two colleagues were ambushed as they drove through the streets of Freetown. One of his colleagues was killed instantly, and Stewart, shot in the head, was left paralyzed and clinging to life. Airlifted to London, he has since made a remarkable recovery. Ambushed: A War Reporter's Life on the Line is the unforgettable, moving and at times terrifying story of a war correspondent who became a casualty of the war he covered, but who survived-against all odds-to tell the story. The Moving, sometimes terrifying story of a war reporter who became a casualty of the war he covered, but who survived to tell the tale.

Ambushed: A Reporter's Life on the Line

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Penguin??Books

We are living in the Golden Age of mathematics, with more research being done than ever before. Yet many people view mathematics as a static, completed subject.  This book for general readers aims to open the door to the rapid modern growth of mathematics and its power and beauty.  It surveys many areas of current research in non-technical terms, describing what the problems are, where they come from, how they get solved, what mathematicians are like, what you can do with the answers when you get them, and how solving them or failing to solve them changes peoples' views of mathematics and the way it is advancing.  Topics include Fermat's Last Theorem, the Riemann hypothesis, the Poincare Conjecture, prime numbers, non-Euclidean geometry, infinity, the four-color problem, probability, catastrophe theory, chaos, fractals, algorithms, and undecidable propositions. A final chapter discusses the relations between mathematics and its applications.  Each topic is developed within a historical framework, and a number of recent breakthroughs are presented for the first time in layman's terms.

The Problems of Mathematics

Oxford Univ. Pr.

This first integrated treatment of the main ideas behind René Thom's theory of catastrophes aims to make them accessible to scientists wishing to apply the theory in their own fields of research. The mathematical basis of the theory is therefore explained with a minimum of technicalities, although some knowledge of the calculus of variables is assumed.Thom's now-famous list of seven elementary catastrophes, broadly classifying various types of discontinuous change, is elucidated, as are the reasons for its appearance. Nearly half the book concentrates on detailed applications of the theory, emphasizing its uses in the physical sciences where applications can be made quantitative and can be experimentally verified. The more controversial and speculative applications to areas in the social sciences are also mentioned, but not discussed in detail.Over 200 illustrations help clarify the ideas and applications in this volume, which will be of interest to researchers and postgraduate students in such diverse disciplines as engineering, mathematics, physics, and biology. 1978 edition. Bibliography.

Catastrophe Theory and Its Applications (Surveys and Reference Works in Mathematics, 2)

Tim Poston

Mathematics

Pitman

Think of the stripes of a zebra and the complexities of a spider’s web. Think of a snowflake… These are natural patterns that have been recognized for centuries, and they can all be accounted for mathematically. In this enlightening book, Ian Stewart shows how life on Earth develops not simply from the outworkings of genetic processes, but also from the principles of mathematics. The result is a visually compelling guide to the links between mathematics and the natural world – a beautiful journey through the fields of science, mathematics, history and art.

What Shape Is a Snowflake?

Weidenfeld&Nicolson

Contents: Preface. Reader's Guide. Index of Notation. The Origins of Algebraic Number Theory. Part I: Numbers. Quadratic and Cyclotomic Fields. Geometric Methods. Lattices. Minkowski's Theorem. Part II: Geometric Representation of Algebraic Numbers. Class-Group and Class-Number. Part III: Number-Theoretic Applications. Computational Methods. Fermat's Last Theorem. Dirichlet's Units Theorem. Appendix. Quadratic Residues. References. Index.

Algebraic Number Theory

Chapman and Hall

The Magical Maze: Seeing the World Through Mathematical Eyes

wiley

Some years ago, "new math" took the country's classrooms by storm. Based on the abstract, general style of mathematical exposition favored by research mathematicians, its goal was to teach students not just to manipulate numbers and formulas, but to grasp the underlying mathematical concepts. The result, at least at first, was a great deal of confusion among teachers, students, and parents. Since then, the negative aspects of "new math" have been eliminated and its positive elements assimilated into classroom instruction. In this charming volume, a noted English mathematician uses humor and anecdote to illuminate the concepts underlying "new math": groups, sets, subsets, topology, Boolean algebra, and more. According to Professor Stewart, an understanding of these concepts offers the best route to grasping the true nature of mathematics, in particular the power, beauty, and utility of pure mathematics. No advanced mathematical background is needed (a smattering of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry is helpful) to follow the author's lucid and thought-provoking discussions of such topics as functions, symmetry, axiomatics, counting, topology, hyperspace, linear algebra, real analysis, probability, computers, applications of modern mathematics, and much more. By the time readers have finished this book, they'll have a much clearer grasp of how modern mathematicians look at figures, functions, and formulas and how a firm grasp of the ideas underlying "new math" leads toward a genuine comprehension of the nature of mathematics itself.

Concepts of Modern Mathematics (Dover Books on Mathematics)

Humor & Entertainment

Puzzles & Games

Dover Publications

This first integrated treatment of the main ideas behind René Thom's theory of catastrophes aims to make them accessible to scientists wishing to apply the theory in their own fields of research. The mathematical basis of the theory is therefore explained with a minimum of technicalities, although some knowledge of the calculus of variables is assumed. Thom's now-famous list of seven elementary catastrophes, broadly classifying various types of discontinuous change, is elucidated, as are the reasons for its appearance. Nearly half the book concentrates on detailed applications of the theory, emphasizing its uses in the physical sciences where applications can be made quantitative and can be experimentally verified. The more controversial and speculative applications to areas in the social sciences are also mentioned, but not discussed in detail. Over 200 illustrations help clarify the ideas and applications in this volume, which will be of interest to researchers and postgraduate students in such diverse disciplines as engineering, mathematics, physics, and biology. 1978 edition. Bibliography.

Catastrophe Theory and Its Applications (Dover Books on Mathematics)

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