Books about Penrose from Amazon.com

Roger Penrose, one of the most accomplished scientists of our time, presents the only comprehensive and comprehensible account of the physics of the universe From the very first attempts by the Greeks to grapple with the complexities of our known world to the latest application of infinity in physics, The Road to Reality carefully explores the movement of the smallest atomic particles and reaches into the vastness of intergalactic space. Here, Penrose examines the mathematical foundations of the physical universe, exposing the underlying beauty of physics and giving us one the most important works in modern science writing..
Price: $15.30 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century. A distinguished physicist's exploration of the question which lies at the heart of biology, it was written for the layman, but proved one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of the structure of DNA. The philosopher Karl Popper hailed it as a 'beautiful and important book' by 'a great man to whom I owe a personal debt for many exciting discussions'. It appears here together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Schrodinger asks what place consciousness occupies in the evolution of life, and what part the state of development of the human mind plays in moral questions. Brought together with these two classics are Schrödinger's autobiographical sketches, published and translated here for the first time. They offer a fascinating fragmentary account of his life as a background to his scientific writings, making this volume a valuable additon to the shelves of scientist and layman alike..
Price: $7.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Penrose, a cat with a knack for math, takes children on an adventurous tour of mathematical concepts from fractals to infinity When the fractal dragon jumps off the computer screen and threatens to grow larger than the room itself, Penrose must find out if fractal patterns can work in reverse, getting smaller instead of larger..
Price: $5.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

What is the true nature of space and time? These concepts are at the heart of science, but they remain deeply wrapped in mystery Both house their structure at the smallest pre-subatomic and the largest cosmological levels continues to defy modern physics and may require revolutionary new ideas for which science is still grasping. This unique volume brings together world leaders in cosmology, particle physics, quantum gravity, mathematics, philosophy and theology, to provide fresh insights into the deep structure of space and time. Andrew Taylor, Shahn Majid, Roger Penrose, Alain Connes, Michael Heller, and John Polkinghorne all experts in their respective fields, explain their theories in this outstanding compiled text.

A note from Simon Capelin, one of scholarly science publishing's leading editors: What is space? What is time? Is space infinite? Does time have a beginning? These questions have fascinated scientists, philosophers and theologians alike for hundreds of years, and the answers continue to elude us today. Current theories fall short of answers to the deeper questions, and the structure of space and time continues to defy modern physics. But the quest to understand the nature of space and time does not just lie with scientists. The search raises theological questions about the nature of physical reality itself, and what it means to exist. So, after more than two thousand years of thought and several hundred years of science, what do we know about the nature of space and time? This question was posed to a panel of six world leaders in physics, mathematics, and theology in a public discussion held at Emmanuel College, Cambridge: Sir Roger Penrose, who has made many remarkable contributions to science; John Polkinghorne KBE, a renowned theologian and particle physicist; Alain Connes, Fields medalist, and one of the world's foremost mathematicians; Michael Heller, a key contributor to the fields of science, theology, and philosophy; Shahn Majid, one of the pioneers in the theory of quantum symmetry; and Andrew Taylor, who has made major contributions in the study of dark matter and dark energy. In this book, each of these very distinguished authors expands on the theories presented at the discussion. They offer their personal perspectives, providing unique insights on this matter, from the structure of spacetime, dark matter, quantum spacetime, and what happened before the Big Bang, to the nature of time, metaphysics, and the philosophical and theological implications of spacetime..
Price: $15.18 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Mr Tompkins has become known and loved by many thousands of readers (since his first appearance over fifty years ago) as the bank clerk whose fantastic dreams and adventures lead him into a world inside the atom. George Gamow's classic provides a delightful explanation of the central concepts in modern physics, from atomic structure to relativity, and quantum theory to fusion and fission. Roger Penrose's new foreword introduces Mr Tompkins to a new generation of readers, and reviews his adventures in the light of current developments in physics today..
Price: $11.60 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For decades, proponents of artificial intelligence have argued that computers will soon be doing everything that a human mind can do. Admittedly, computers now play chess at the grandmaster level, but do they understand the game as we do? Can a computer eventually do everything a human mind can do? In this absorbing and frequently contentious book, Roger Penrose--eminent physicist and winner, with Stephen Hawking, of the prestigious Wolf prize--puts forward his view that there are some facets of human thinking that can never be emulated by a machine. Penrose examines what physics and mathematics can tell us about how the mind works, what they can't, and what we need to know to understand the physical processes of consciousness. He is among a growing number of physicists who think Einstein wasn't being stubborn when he said his "little finger" told him that quantum mechanics is incomplete, and he concludes that laws even deeper than quantum mechanics are essential for the operation of a mind. To support this contention, Penrose takes the reader on a dazzling tour that covers such topics as complex numbers, Turing machines, complexity theory, quantum mechanics, formal systems, Godel undecidability, phase spaces, Hilbert spaces, black holes, white holes, Hawking radiation, entropy, quasicrystals, the structure of the brain, and scores of other subjects. The Emperor's New Mind will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in modern physics and its relation to philosophical issues, as well as to physicists, mathematicians, philosophers and those on either side of the AI debate..
Price: $9.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This rhetorical, multi-disciplinary guide discusses the major genres of science writing including research reports, grant proposals, conference presentations, and a variety of forms of public communication. Writing in the Sciences combines a descriptive approach—helping students to recognize distinctive features of common genres in their fields—with a rhetorical focus—helping them to analyze how, why, and for whom texts are created by scientists. Multiple samples from real research cases illustrate a range of scientific disciplines and audiences for scientific research along with the corresponding differences in focus, arrangement, style, and other rhetorical dimensions. Comparisons among disciplines provide the opportunity for students to identify common conventions in science and investigate variation across fields. Individuals who need to write in the sciences..
Price: $64.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Descended from an aristocratic European family, Erzsebet Bathory bore the psychotic aberrations of centuries of intermarriage From adolescence on, she indulged in sadistic lesbian fantasies, and by middle age, had regressed to a mirror-fixated state of pathological necro-sadism involving witchcraft, torture, blood-drinking, and more. Her 16th century reign of cruelty remains unsurpassed in the annals of mass murder, with the Countess? depredations on the virgin girls of the Carpathians leading to some 650 deaths id her many castles equipped with torture chambers. This is a true, disturbing case history of a female psychopath, a chillingly lyrical account beautifully translated by Alexander Trocchi, evoking the decadent melancholy of doomed, delinquent aristocracy in a dark age of superstition. The book contains an appendix featuring actual transcripts from Bathory’s trial and has inspired many horror movies, such as Hammer’s Countess Dracula.

De Sade did not know of Erzs‚bet Bathory’s existence, but doubtless her atrocities would have roused his most vicious excitement. -- Georges Bataille, The Tears Of Eros.
Price: $8.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Einstein said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible But was he right? Can the quantum theory of fields and Einstein's general theory of relativity, the two most accurate and successful theories in all of physics, be united in a single quantum theory of gravity? Can quantum and cosmos ever be combined? On this issue, two of the world's most famous physicists--Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time) and Roger Penrose (The Emperor's New Mind and Shadows of the Mind)--disagree. Here they explain their positions in a work based on six lectures with a final debate, all originally presented at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

How could quantum gravity, a theory that could explain the earlier moments of the big bang and the physics of the enigmatic objects known as black holes, be constructed? Why does our patch of the universe look just as Einstein predicted, with no hint of quantum effects in sight? What strange quantum processes can cause black holes to evaporate, and what happens to all the information that they swallow? Why does time go forward, not backward?

In this book, the two opponents touch on all these questions. Penrose, like Einstein, refuses to believe that quantum mechanics is a final theory. Hawking thinks otherwise, and argues that general relativity simply cannot account for how the universe began. Only a quantum theory of gravity, coupled with the no-boundary hypothesis, can ever hope to explain adequately what little we can observe about our universe. Penrose, playing the realist to Hawking's positivist, thinks that the universe is unbounded and will expand forever. The universe can be understood, he argues, in terms of the geometry of light cones, the compression and distortion of spacetime, and by the use of twistor theory. With the final debate, the reader will come to realize how much Hawking and Penrose diverge in their opinions of the ultimate quest to combine quantum mechanics and relativity, and how differently they have tried to comprehend the incomprehensible..
Price: $8.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The bestselling author of The Emperor's New Mind offers another exhilarating look at modern science as he mounts an even more powerful attack on artifical intelligence. Shadows of the Mind points the way to a new science, one that may eventually explain the physical basis of the human mind. 49 illustrations..
Price: $6.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]