Ten Billion Tomorrows

Ten Billion Tomorrows
Author: Brian Clegg
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2015-12-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1466861924

An exciting book about real-life technology derived from science fiction and its impact on the world. Science fiction is a vital part of popular culture, influencing the way we all look at the world. TV shows like Star Trek and movies from Forbidden Planet to Inception have influenced scientists to enter the profession and have shaped our futures. Science fiction doesn't set out to predict what will happen - it's far more about how human beings react to "What if?..." - but it is fascinating to see how science fiction and reality sometimes converge, sometimes take extraordinarily different paths. Ten Billion Tomorrows brings to life a whole host of science fiction topics, from the virtual environment of The Matrix and the intelligent computer HAL in 2001, to force fields, ray guns and cyborgs. We discover how science fiction has excited us with possibilities, whether it is Star Trek's holodeck inspiring makers of iconic video games Doom and Quake to create the virtual interactive worlds that transformed gaming, or the strange physics that has made real cloaking devices possible. Mixing remarkable science with the imagination of our greatest science fiction writers, Ten Billion Tomorrows will delight science fiction lovers and popular science devotees alike.

Ten Billion Tomorrows

Ten Billion Tomorrows
Author: Brian Clegg
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2015-12-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 125005785X

An exciting new book about real-life technology derived from science fiction and its impact on the world.

Ten Billion

Ten Billion
Author: Stephen Emmott
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2013-10-08
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0143190318

Earth is home to millions of species. Yet just one dominates it. Us. Our cleverness, inventiveness, and activities have modified almost every part of our planet, impacting it profoundly. Indeed, our cleverness, inventiveness, and activities are now the drivers of every global problem we face. And every one of these problems is accelerating as we continue to grow towards a global population of ten billion. This is not a political issue. Or a cultural issue. It’s not about saving whales or rainforests or polar bears. This is an emergency. Written not by an environmentalist but by a world-leading computer scientist, and preaching not to the choir but to everyone with a stake in the future, Ten Billion is devastatingly easy to understand. Stephen Emmott looks at the shocking impact our species has had on the planet and focuses on the near future, as our population approaches the point where using everything from energy, food, and water slams into the limits imposed by reality. Addressing the implications for our everyday lives and the possible solutions we may or may not take comfort in, Ten Billion is a truly shocking assessment of our species’ prospects.

Final Frontier

Final Frontier
Author: Brian Clegg
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2014-08-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1250039444

Star Trek was right — there is only one final frontier, and that is space... Human beings are natural explorers, and nowhere is this frontier spirit stronger than in the United States of America. It almost defines the character of the US. But the Earth is running out of frontiers fast. In Brian Clegg's The Final Frontier we discover the massive challenges that face explorers, both human and robotic, to uncover the current and future technologies that could take us out into the galaxy and take a voyage of discovery where no one has gone before... but one day someone will. In 2003, General Wesley Clark set the nation a challenge to produce the technology that would enable new pioneers to explore the galaxy. That challenge is tough — the greatest we've ever faced. But taking on the final frontier does not have to be a fantasy. In a time of recession, escapism is always popular — and what greater escape from the everyday can there be than the chance of leaving Earth's bounds and exploring the universe? With a rich popular culture heritage in science fiction movies, books and TV shows, this is a subject that entertains and informs in equal measure.

How to Build a Time Machine

How to Build a Time Machine
Author: Brian Clegg
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2011-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0312656882

A pop science look at time travel technology, from Einstein to Ronald Mallett to present day experiments. Forget fiction: time travel is real. In How to Build a Time Machine, Brian Clegg provides an understanding of what time is and how it can be manipulated. He explores the fascinating world of physics and the remarkable possibilities of real time travel that emerge from quantum entanglement, superluminal speeds, neutron star cylinders and wormholes in space. With the fascinating paradoxes of time travel echoing in our minds will we realize that travel into the future might never be possible? Or will we realize there is no limit on what can be achieved, and take on this ultimate challenge? Only time will tell.

Big Data

Big Data
Author: Brian Clegg
Publisher: Icon Books
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2017-08-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1785782495

Is the Brexit vote successful big data politics or the end of democracy? Why do airlines overbook, and why do banks get it wrong so often? How does big data enable Netflix to forecast a hit, CERN to find the Higgs boson and medics to discover if red wine really is good for you? And how are companies using big data to benefit from smart meters, use advertising that spies on you and develop the gig economy, where workers are managed by the whim of an algorithm? The volumes of data we now access can give unparalleled abilities to make predictions, respond to customer demand and solve problems. But Big Brother's shadow hovers over it. Though big data can set us free and enhance our lives, it has the potential to create an underclass and a totalitarian state. With big data ever-present, you can't afford to ignore it. Acclaimed science writer Brian Clegg - a habitual early adopter of new technology (and the owner of the second-ever copy of Windows in the UK) - brings big data to life.

Tomorrow's People

Tomorrow's People
Author: Paul Morland
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2022-03-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1529046025

‘Morland predicts the future of humanity in 10 illuminating statistics (could the Japanese and Italians now go the way of the dodo?) and looks back to how ebbs and flows of population have shaped history, such as the Soviet Union’s plummeting birth rate in the 1960s, which hastened the end of the Cold War.’ - The Daily Telegraph ‘The Best Books for Summer 2022’ The great forces of population change – the balance of births, deaths and migrations – have made the world what it is today. They have determined which countries are superpowers and which languish in relative obscurity, which economies top the international league tables and which are at best also-rans. The same forces that have shaped our past and present are shaping our future. Illustrating this through ten illuminating indicators, from the fertility rate in Singapore (one) to the median age in Catalonia (forty-three), Paul Morland shows how demography is both a powerful and an under-appreciated lens through which to view the global transformations that are currently underway. Tomorrow’s People ranges from the countries of West Africa where the tendency towards large families is combining with falling infant mortality to create the greatest population explosion ever witnessed, to the countries of East Asia and Southern Europe where generations of low birth-rate and rising life expectancy are creating the oldest populations in history. Morland explores the geographical movements of peoples that are already under way – portents for still larger migrations ahead – which are radically changing the cultural, ethnic and religious composition of many societies across the globe, and in their turn creating political reaction that can be observed from Brexit to the rise of Donald Trump. Finally, he looks at the two underlying motors of change – remarkable rises in levels of education and burgeoning food production – which have made all these epochal developments possible. Tomorrow’s People provides a fascinating, illuminating and thought-provoking tour of an emerging new world. Nobody who wants to understand that world should be without it.

Ten Days in Physics that Shook the World

Ten Days in Physics that Shook the World
Author: Brian Clegg
Publisher: Icon Books
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2021-08-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1785787489

The breakthroughs that have had the most transformative practical impacts, from thermodynamics to the Internet. Physics informs our understanding of how the world works – but more than that, key breakthroughs in physics have transformed everyday life. We journey back to ten separate days in history to understand how particular breakthroughs were achieved, meet the individuals responsible and see how each breakthrough has influenced our lives. It is a unique selection. Focusing on practical impact means there is no room for Stephen Hawking's work on black holes, or the discovery of the Higgs boson. Instead we have the relatively little-known Rudolf Clausius (thermodynamics) and Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (superconductivity), while Albert Einstein is included not for his theories of relativity but for the short paper that gave us E=mc2 (nuclear fission). Later chapters feature transistors, LEDs and the Internet.

Ten Billion

Ten Billion
Author: Stephen Emmott
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Human ecology
ISBN: 9780141976327

This is a book about us. It's a book about you, your children, your parents, your friends. It's about every one of us. It's about our failure- failure as individuals, the failure of business, and the failure of our politicians. It's about the unprecedented planetary emergency we've created. It's about the future of us.