Marcus du Sautoy. (2017). The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science. Deluxe Penguin Publishing Group.

Marcus du Sautoy. 2017. The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science. Penguin Publishing Group.

Marcus du Sautoy, The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science. Penguin Publishing Group, 2017.

Marcus du Sautoy. The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science. Deluxe Penguin Publishing Group, 2017.

OverDrive Product Record

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1523-1/{1F6F9C64-5207-44A2-A226-10074BDFB384}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1523-1/{1F6F9C64-5207-44A2-A226-10074BDFB384}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1523-1/1F6/F9C/64/{1F6F9C64-5207-44A2-A226-10074BDFB384}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1523-1/1F6/F9C/64/{1F6F9C64-5207-44A2-A226-10074BDFB384}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

formats

1. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780735224926
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
2. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B01IOHQ8P6
   • name: Kindle Book
   • id: ebook-kindle
3. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780735224926
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • id: ebook-overdrive

mediaType

eBook

primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Marcus du Sautoy

title

The Great Unknown

dateAdded

2017-09-08T12:06:00-04:00

contentDetails

1. • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=3088401
   • type: text/html
   • account:
     • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
     • id: 1151

sortTitle

Great Unknown Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science

crossRefId

3088401

subtitle

Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science

id

1f6f9c64-5207-44a2-a226-10074bdfb384

starRating

4.2

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain

False

formats

1. • fileName: TheGreatUnknown_9780735224926_3088401
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 362966563
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780735224926
   • rights:
     1. • type: Copying
        • value: 0
     2. • type: Printing
        • value: 0
     3. • type: Lending
        • value: 0
     4. • type: ReadAloud
        • value: 0
     5. • type: ExpirationRights
        • value: 0
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
   • onSaleDate: 4/11/2017
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=1f6f9c64-5207-44a2-a226-10074bdfb384&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
2. • fileName: TheGreatUnknown_3088401
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B01IOHQ8P6
   • name: Kindle Book
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-kindle
   • onSaleDate: 4/11/2017
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=1f6f9c64-5207-44a2-a226-10074bdfb384&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
3. • fileName: TheGreatUnknown_9780735224926_3088401
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 362966228
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780735224926
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-overdrive
   • onSaleDate: 4/11/2017
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=1f6f9c64-5207-44a2-a226-10074bdfb384&.epub-sample.overdrive.com

keywords

1. • value: Epistemology
2. • value: pascal
3. • value: statistics
4. • value: Physics
5. • value: string theory
6. • value: quantum physics
7. • value: Newton
8. • value: cosmology
9. • value: infinity
10. • value: einstein
11. • value: dark matter
12. • value: math
13. • value: chaos theory
14. • value: proof
15. • value: calculus
16. • value: mathematics
17. • value: Particle Physics
18. • value: Black Hole
19. • value: space travel
20. • value: Randomness
21. • value: galileo
22. • value: uncertainty principle
23. • value: speed of light
24. • value: math books
25. • value: Nanoparticles
26. • value: heisenberg
27. • value: richard feynman
28. • value: quarks
29. • value: science books
30. • value: karl popper
31. • value: expanding black hole
32. • value: future of physics
33. • value: God of the Gaps
34. • value: limits of knowledge
35. • value: Marcus de Satoy
36. • value: Murray Gell-Mann
37. • value: Nobel Prize science
38. • value: probablity
39. • value: Shrodinger

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: du Sautoy, Marcus
   • name: Marcus du Sautoy

imprint

Viking

publishDate

2017-04-11T00:00:00-04:00

edition

Deluxe

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

The Great Unknown

fullDescription

"Brilliant and fascinating. No one is better at making the recondite accessible and exciting." —Bill Bryson
This enhanced eBook edition takes readers even deeper into The Great Unknown with exclusive video and audio clips. Watch du Sautoy demonstrate chaos theory with his wooden pendulum, stumble to find logic in a paradoxical notecard, search his own iPhone for signs of consciousness, and show off the portable pot of uranium he purchased, curiously enough, off the Internet.

Ever since the dawn of civilization we have been driven by a desire to know—to understand the physical world and the laws of nature. But are there limits to human knowledge? Are some things simply beyond the predictive powers of science? Or are those challenges the next big discovery waiting to happen?
In The Great Unknown, one of the world's most beloved mathematicians takes us into the minds of science's greatest innovators as he probes the many deep mysteries we have yet to solve. He reminds us that major breakthroughs were often ridiculed at the time of their discovery and takes us on a whirlwind tour of seven frontiers of knowledge, where scientists are grappling with the unknown. Can you locate consciousness in the brain? Is our universe infinite? What is dark energy made of? What happens to time in space? Is it possible to beat ageing?
At once exhilarating and mind-bending, The Great Unknown will challenge you to think in new ways about every aspect of the known world. It invites us to consider big questions—about who we are and the nature of God—that even the most creative scientists have yet to answer definitively.

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from February 20, 2017
     With uncommon grace, this work illuminates the strides and limitations of humans’ quest to understand nature via math and science. Du Sautoy (The Music of the Primes), Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, takes readers to seven different “edges” of knowledge and shows why “Newton, Leibniz, and Galileo were perhaps the last scientists to know all that was known.” From chaos, which “placed huge limits on what we humans could ever hope to know,” to consciousness, to infinity itself, each edge “represents a horizon beyond which we cannot see.” Patiently and cleverly explaining basic principles, du Sautoy begins most sections with a simple touchstone and builds from there, deftly rendering otherwise recondite theories: a pair of dice leads to probability, a cello to the nature of matter, a pot of uranium to quantum physics. One-on-one interviews with scientists and du Sautoy’s descriptions of his participation in various experiments breathe life into cold data, as when the author perceives his consciousness in another person or observes the illusion of his free will in an fMRI. This brilliant, well-written exploration of our universe’s biggest mysteries will captivate the curious and leave them pondering “natural phenomena that will never be tamed and known.” Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, Zoë Pagnamenta Agency.

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from March 1, 2017
     Are there limits to human knowledge? Philosophers and religious thinkers have long answered "yes" and then provided examples that turned out to be wrong. A renowned mathematician argues that "yes" might very well be correct.Du Sautoy (Public Understanding of Science/Oxford Univ.; The Number Mysteries: A Mathematical Odyssey through Everyday Life, 2011, etc.) sets himself a difficult task: "to know whether there are things that, by their very nature, we will never know." He asks, "despite the marauding pace of scientific advances, are there things that will remain beyond the reach of even the greatest scientists, mysteries that will remain forever part of the great unknown?" Readers will thoroughly enjoy his successful effort, which avoids the pitfalls of predicting specifics by addressing general areas. Empty space cannot exist; it's impossible to know the simultaneous location and speed of anything; particles sometimes behave like pure energy. This is true of everything but becomes obvious at the level of atoms and smaller. It's called quantum mechanics, a murky subject that nobody understands fully. The most powerful computer can't forecast a traffic jam or the weather beyond a few weeks because a small change at the beginning may produce enormous, unpredictable changes later. This is chaos theory, an implacable barrier. Deconstructing time and determining the size of the universe remain out of reach, but the mechanism of consciousness, once the poster boy of impossibility, now seems the inevitable product of increasingly advanced studies in neuroscience. The author concludes with his own field, which, unlike science, can prove statements absolutely. Infinity, once considered beyond comprehension, turns out to be full of interesting qualities, and parallel lines often meet, but mathematicians have shown that many statements and entire areas of mathematics are unprovable.A delicious addition to the "Big Question" genre.

     COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     March 15, 2017
     Du Sautoy (What We Cannot Know: Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge, 2016), a mathematician and Oxford's Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, seeks to venture out into the wilds of the unknown and ponder the scientific questions that might never get closureotherwise known as known unknowns. Calling these questions edges, Du Sautoy tackles unresolved issues that plague modern science, like what fractals and Poincare's chaos theory tell us about the cosmos, and whether string theory suggests hidden dimensions we've yet to discover. Each of the seven edges starts with a broad theme such as The Universe, Time, and Consciousness, which the author then dives deeply into, recruiting pictures and simple, hand-drawn diagrams along the way and helpfully summarizing when needed (which is often). Though admirably compact and conversational for such heavy and wide-ranging subject matterDu Sautoy knows he is writing for a general audiencethe book will challenge readers unable to stay afloat in the deep end of science and math. But those eager to have their minds stretched will find this a rewarding and stimulating experience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

popularity

160

links

• self:
  • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/1f6f9c64-5207-44a2-a226-10074bdfb384/metadata
  • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json

id

1f6f9c64-5207-44a2-a226-10074bdfb384

starRating

4.2

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1523-1/{1F6F9C64-5207-44A2-A226-10074BDFB384}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1523-1/{1F6F9C64-5207-44A2-A226-10074BDFB384}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1523-1/1F6/F9C/64/{1F6F9C64-5207-44A2-A226-10074BDFB384}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1523-1/1F6/F9C/64/{1F6F9C64-5207-44A2-A226-10074BDFB384}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

isPublicPerformanceAllowed

False

languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: History
2. • value: Mathematics
3. • value: Science
4. • value: Nonfiction

publishDateText

04/11/2017

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9780735221802

mediaType

eBook

shortDescription

"Brilliant and fascinating. No one is better at making the recondite accessible and exciting." —Bill Bryson
A captivating journey to the outer reaches of human knowledge by the popular presenter of Netflix's The Story of Maths

Ever since the dawn of civilization we have been driven by a desire to know—to understand the physical world and the laws of nature. But are there limits to human knowledge? Are some things simply beyond the predictive powers of science? Or are those challenges the next big discovery waiting to happen?
In The Great Unknown, one of the world's most beloved mathematicians takes us into the minds of science's greatest innovators as he probes the many deep mysteries we have yet to solve. He reminds us that major breakthroughs were often ridiculed at the time of their discovery and takes us on a whirlwind tour of seven frontiers of knowledge, where scientists are grappling with the unknown. Can you locate...

sortTitle

Great Unknown Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science

crossRefId

3088401

subtitle

Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science

publisher

Penguin Publishing Group

bisacCodes

1. • code: MAT029000
   • description: Mathematics / Probability & Statistics / General
2. • code: SCI034000
   • description: Science / History
3. • code: SCI055000
   • description: Science / Physics / General