"On December 26, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves generated from merging black holes for the first time in human history. But why is this significant? Through an engaging, easily accessible approach, the origins, dynamics, and ultimate fate of black holes are thoroughly unraveled so that students without a scientific background can grasp complex physics theories. This text supports the...

The universe is rapidly expanding. Of that much scientists are certain. But how fast? And with what implications regarding the fate of the universe? Ellen Jackson and Nic Bishop follow Dr. Alex Fillippenko and his High-Z Supernova Search Team to Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, where they will study space phenomena and look for supernovae, dying stars that explode with the power of billions of hydrogen bombs. Dr. Fillippenko looks for black holes--areas...

"Ever since Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity burst upon the world in 1915 some of the most brilliant minds of our century have sought to decipher the mysteries bequeathed by that theory, a legacy so unthinkable in some respects that even Einstein himself rejected them." "Which of these bizarre phenomena, if any, can really exist in our universe? Black holes, down which anything can fall but from which nothing can return; wormholes, short...

"Offering a sweeping tour of fantastic physics and cosmic history, Gravity's Engines provides a view of the most fearsome places in the universe, and finally asks what it will take to see the event horizon of a black hole"-- "We've long understood black holes to be the points at which the universe as we know it comes to an end. Often billions of times more massive than the Sun, they lurk in the inner sanctum of almost every galaxy of stars in the...

"In 1916, Einstein became the first to predict the existence of gravitational waves: sounds without a material medium generated by the unfathomably energy-producing collision of black holes. Now, Janna Levin, herself an astrophysicist, recounts the story of the search, over the last fifty years, for these elusive waves--a quest that has culminated in the creation of the most expensive project ever funded by the National Science Foundation ($1 billion-plus)....

"Hill and Hole were best friends. Hill likes being a hill, and Hole likes being a hole, but sometimes they wonder what it would be like to swap places. Maybe Mole and Wind can help?"-- Two friends, a hill and a hole, long to be more like one another.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • An “addictive page-turner” (Los Angeles Times)—Inspector Harry Hole attempts to exonerate his would-be son Oleg in this installment of the New York Times bestselling series.

When Harry Hole moved to Hong Kong, he thought he was escaping the traumas of his life in Oslo and his career as a detective for good. But now, the unthinkable has happened—Oleg, the boy he helped...