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Featured Book

How to Build a Time Machine [Build Your Own Time Machine] by Brian Clegg


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If you remember James Burke ('Good evening. [thoughtful pause; turn from one camera to another; raise an eyebrow] Or is it?'), you're going to love How to Build a Time Machine!

James Burke is one of my heroes: the BBC's moon-shot programmes, The Burke Special, The End of the Beginning, Tomorrow’s World, etc. However, it was his Connections programme that really got me. The way that one idea seeded some inkling of another – a tantalising Connection. It was a master-class in how to sneak up on a subject and then to hook the audience with a single line. Brian Clegg is surely cast from the same mould; he's our contemporary JB.

In How to Build a Time Machine we start each chapter with an affirmation: 'Yes, time travel is possible …'. There's clarification, 'ifs', often detailed historic references; consequences; and then the practicalities – at which point you might have the feeling that it's not possible after all. But then there's the 'Or is it?' moment, and one cannot but take the bait and turn the page.

To name but a few, what does the following have to do with time travel?: near-light speed travel, an infinitely long cylinder built from dust - or a less ambitious one (!) built from neutron stars, wormholes, paradoxes, black and white Holes, antimatter, dark energy…? If you’re like me when presented with such a list - appetite whet to the point of drooling - this is a book written with you in mind!

One last and very important point: Clegg is both a writer and a physicist; and it's as a writer – one who is able to communicate physics to the non-specialist – and that makes this book so very enjoyable. The hard stuff is there, between the lines, but we're not asked to deal with it – Clegg leads us through, in his own inimitable style. There are just two equations: Einstein's E=mc2 (of course), and Maxwell's – the latter because they're so 'beautifully spare and simple looking'. Perfect. I'm sure I'll go back and re-read it. If only I had the time – or a time machine perhaps?

Hardback

Review by Peet Morris

Please note, this title is written by the editor of the Popular Science website. Our review is still an honest opinion - and we could hardly omit the book - but do want to make the connection clear.


Featured Children's Book

Earthquakes and Volcanoes by Anita Ganeri age range 9-12

Review - Earthquakes and Volcanoes - Anita Ganeri

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Geology is a bit of a difficult subject to get younger readers interested in. When you've seen one rock, you've seen them all. (I know this isn't true, but the distinctions rapidly become only of interest to the geeky.) But you can't go wrong with things that explode and/or open huge cracks in the Earth and spew out molten lava. Cue earthquakes and volcanoes.

What's good about this approach is that the book draws the reader in, but then can get in plenty of geological and Earth sciences facts that otherwise might never have been bothered with. The book has a number of dramatic popups - I particularly liked Krakatoa exploding, which portrays a huge jet of ash and fire spewing from the middle of the book - plus several other different types of paper technology, which range from simple turn the flap examples and mini-booklets on the page to a wheel you turn to see different strengths of eruption.

On the whole this all worked well. The paper technology was slightly lower key than some other books of this kind I've seen - and I struggled to turn the flap that lets you see inside a volcano (memo to self: stop biting nails), but it certainly enhanced what was an impressively visual experience.

There's no doubt a young reader will come away from this book knowing more about what earthquakes and volcanoes are, how they happen, what impact they have on us and the planet and what particular examples have stood out in history. All the expected favourites are there from Vesuvius covering Pompeii to the San Francisco earthquake (with a dramatic, diorama style popup).

The only reason this book doesn't get five stars is that it seems just a bit too bitty - it lacks structure through the book - throwing facts at us well, but not providing any real narrative.

Reviewed by Jo Reed

* Our age range recommendation is an estimated guide, but individual readers outside the range could still enjoy the book!


Featured Gifts

Looking for a different present, or a gift for someone who's difficult to buy for? Take a look at this:

Gift review - Starry Night Enthusiast

 

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Ready for some Stargazing? You don't need Brian Cox. The night sky is a wonderful place, but it's easy enough to get lost - the Starry Night Enthusiast Version 6 software contains everything you need to find your way around, and find out some amazing new facts.

Starry Night is an excellent planetarium program that brings up on your PC or Mac a view of the night sky that is simply brilliant. It's a clear, crisp, image, the controls are mostly intuitive and some of the extras are a delight. Constellations can be brought up in stick form, or (for the major ones) with a very effective graphic image. Click on a star or planet and you will get extra information. You can even travel to one. This may be a bit over the top for a star, but the way you travel out to Mars or Saturn is quite magical, and in the new Version 2 pack, you can even control this spaceflight with a joystick. The program shows you the view from home (or anywhere else), and monitors real time to show you the view now (but of course you can move to another date and time at will). The secondary features are good too. You can find something in space, print off star maps to take outside and more.  But in the end you have to come back to what is an excellent planetarium with 1 million stars and 28,000 galaxies.

Astronomers who are real enthusiasts will want to go for one of the more powerful Starry Night versions, but for the 95 per cent of us, adult and child who just want to peep out at the stars occasionally and know what we're seeing, and to find out more about space, this is excellent. Includes:

  • Follow the paths of over 25 interplanetary probes through the solar system.
  • Ride along with New Horizons on its mission to Pluto and more
  • Pan around 25 3-D models of spacecraft, including Voyager, Deep Impact, Stardust and more
  • Zoom in on 3-D models of comets, asteroids and satellites
  • Track over 830 artificial satellites used for communications, GPS, environmental monitoring and scientific research
  • Plan observing sessions with Event Finder that displays celestial events, such as lunar and solar eclipses
  • Pinpoint the exact location of historical events, such as the Apollo moon landings, with Location Markers
  • Access up-to-date local observing conditions through online link to Clear Sky Clock
  • Click on any location on Earth while hovering and select a Google Map for that precise location
  • Ambient environment sounds enhance the digital observing experience

Reviewed by Brian Clegg


Popular Science covers the best books on science and technology. 

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