Astronomy & Physics Audiobooks | Science & Technology

[Arabic] - ملخص كتاب موجز تاريخ كل شيء تقريبا

غالبًا ما تعرض المفاهيم العلمية على أنَّها معقدة للغاية بحيث يتعذر على الفرد العادي فهمها، ولكن في الواقع، غالبا ما يكون أسلوب العرض هو السيء، لا المفاهيم، وهو ما يجعل الأفكار صعبة المتابعة أو الفهم. من خلال البحث في تاريخ العديد من التخصصات العلمية، فإن Bill Bryson وهو كاتب أمريكي مهتم بتبسيط العلوم، استطاع في هذا الكتاب تبسيط وتوضيح بعض أكثر الموضوعات تعقيدًا، مثل نظرية النسبية لأينشتاين. لإيمانه بأن العلم يجب أن يثير الفضول، ويثير العجب ويدفعنا لمواصلة البحث في المزيد من أسرار هذا الكون. ولأننا نؤمن بذلك أيضًا، سنقدم لك أبرز الأفكار في هذا الكتاب

بل برياسون (Author), Sahla Books (Narrator)

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[Arabic] - ملخص كتاب الأرض غير الصالحة للسكن: الحياة بعد الاحترار

'الأرض غير الصالحة للسكن' هو عنوان مقال أصبح الأكثر قراءة في تاريخ مجلة New York Times وتطوَّر لاحقًا ليكون كتاباً، وضع فيه David تصوره عن أسوأ السيناريوهات الممكنة فيما يتعلق بمستقبل البشرية. قُبل الكتاب بجدية من قبل المجتمع العلمي وكثير من الهلع من قبل القراء غير المتخصصين الذين قرأوا في الكتاب عن معلومات تخص مستقبلهم، لم يخبرهم بها أحدٌ من قبل.

ديفيد والاس ولز (Author), Sahla Books (Narrator)

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[Arabic] - ملخص كتاب مبادئ الفيزياء الفلكية للمتعجلين

ما الذي قد تستفيده عند معرفة مبادئ علم الفيزياء الفلكية؟ منذ أن وُهب الإنسانُ ملَكةَ العقل وعلى مدار جميع الأزمنة والعصور، دائمًا ما توجّه نظره للسماء متسائلًا، ماذا يعني كلُّ هذا؟ كيف تسير أمور الكواكب والمجرات والشمس والقمر؟ أين أقف في هذه الصورة؟ هذه الأسئلة الوجوديةً هي التي دفعت مسيرة الحضارة و البشرية، لو لم نتساءل لما بدأنا البحث وحاولنا التوصُّل إلى أجوبة.

نيل ديجراس تايسون (Author), Sahla Books (Narrator)

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Nostradamus: The Prophesies of an Astrologer, Physician, and Reputed Seer

Michel de Nostredame, referred to as Nostradamus in Latin, was a French astronomer, doctor, and presumed seer mostly known for his work Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains supposedly predicting future events. In the year 1555, the book was first released. Since the release of his Les Prophéties, Nostradamus has acquired a very large following of followers who, in addition to the majority of the well-known press, credit him with properly anticipating many essential historic events. Many of scholastic sources deny that Nostradamus had any true super prophetic skills, saying that the connections he made between international events and his quatrains were the repercussion of misconceptions or mistranslations (at times purposeful). These experts also point out that Nostradamus' predictions are usually uncertain, meaning they might be applied to practically anything, and for that reason are unhelpful in developing whether or not the writer has true prophetic powers. In this book, let’s take a look at what he predicted and if any of it came true.

Kelly Mass (Author), Chris Newman (Narrator)

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The One Thing You Need to Know: The Simple Way to Understand the Most Important Ideas in Science

Rather than trying to bend your mind around all the vast and confounding details of things such as gravitational waves, electricity, and black holes, wouldn't it be easier to understand just one central concept from which everything else follows? If you've ever found yourself fascinated by the idea of quantum computing but feel a little overwhelmed by the mind-blowing subject of quantum mechanics or concerned by climate change but haven't been able to get to grips with the details of global warming, this book is for you. Let's take atoms, for example-what on earth are they? Well, if you start to think of them less like things you can't see with complex little nuclei and more like the alphabet of nature, they might start to feel a little more understandable. Or gravitational waves-why are they creating so much excitement? Think of them as the voice of space, vibrations on the drumskin of space-time-before delving into all their complexities. Chown explains the one thing you need to know to understand some of the most important scientific ideas of our time. Packed full of astounding facts, scientific history, and the entertaining personalities at the heart of the most pivotal discoveries about the workings of our universe, this is an accessible guide to all the tricky stuff you've always wanted to understand more about.

Marcus Chown (Author), Peter Noble (Narrator)

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The Uranium Club: Unearthing Lost Relics of the Nazi Nuclear Program

Tim Koeth peered into the crumpled brown paper lunch bag; inside was a surprisingly heavy black metal cube. He recognized the mysterious object instantly-he had one just like it sitting on his desk at home. It was uranium metal, taken from the nuclear reactor that Nazi scientists had tried-and failed-to build at the end of World War II. This unexpected gift, wrapped in a piece of paper inscribed with a few cryptic but crucial lines, would launch Koeth, a nuclear physicist and professor, and his colleague Miriam Hiebert, a cultural heritage scientist, on an odyssey to trace the tale of these cubes-two of the original 664 on which the Third Reich had pinned their nuclear ambitions. From Werner Heisenberg and Germany's nuclear program to the Curies, the first family of nuclear physics, to the Allied Alsos Mission's infiltration of Germany to capture Nazi science to the renegade geologists of Murray Hill scouring the globe for uranium, the cubes are lodestars that illuminate a little-known-and hugely consequential-chapter of history. The cubes are physical testimony to the stories of the German failure, and the successful American program that launched the world into the modern nuclear age, and the lessons for modern science that the contrast in these two programs has to offer.

Miriam E. Hiebert (Author), Wendy Tremont King (Narrator)

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The Little Book of Exoplanets

In this audiobook, astrophysicist Joshua Winn provides an accessible introduction to exoplanets and explains the cutting-edge science behind recent discoveries For centuries, people have speculated about the possibility of planets orbiting distant stars, but only since the 1990s has technology allowed astronomers to detect them. At this point, more than five thousand such exoplanets have been identified, with the pace of discovery accelerating after the launch of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey and the Webb Space Telescope. In The Little Book of Exoplanets, Princeton astrophysicist Joshua Winn offers a brief and engaging introduction to the search for exoplanets and the cutting-edge science behind recent findings. In doing so, he chronicles the dawn of a new age of discovery—one that has rapidly transformed astronomy and our broader understanding of the universe. Scientists now know that many Sun-like stars host their own systems of planets, some of which may resemble our solar system and include planets similar to the Earth. But, Winn tells us, the most remarkable discoveries so far have been of planets with unexpected and decidedly un-Earth-like properties, which have upended what we thought we knew about the origins of planetary systems. Winn provides an inside view of the sophisticated detective work astronomers perform as they find and study exoplanets and describes the surprising—sometimes downright bizarre—planets and systems they have found. He explains how these discoveries are revolutionizing astronomy, and he explores the current status and possible future of the search for another Earth. Finally, drawing on his own and other scientists’ work, he considers how the discovery of exoplanets and their faraway solar systems changes our perspectives on the universe and our place in it.

Joshua N. Winn (Author), Joshua N. Winn (Narrator)

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[Spanish] - El Astronomicon y otros textos en defensa de la ciencia (The Astronomicon and other text

¿Puede la Luna ser alcanzada por el hombre? ¿Es Marte un mundo habitado? ¿Hay aún planetas por descubrir? ¿Existen extraños cuerpos en el espacio interestelar? En su intento por educar al público en los fundamentos de la astronomía, H. P. Lovecraft planteaba e intentaba abordar estas cuestiones tan provocativas y sugerentes hace ya más de un siglo. En realidad, el genio de la literatura fantástica luchaba por hacer atractiva la divulgación de su amada ciencia. Con ese empeño concibió este compendio de cosmografía en el que, con gran didactismo, Lovecraft nos habla del Sol, la Luna y los eclipses; de los planetas del sistema solar; de los asteroides, cometas, estrellas y constelaciones; también de sus insondables misterios, e incluso de los mejores telescopios y observatorios existentes. Este pequeño manual de astronomía para amateurs se lee hoy con un nuevo significado; a la luz de la influencia de estas aficiones científicas en su célebre «punto de vista cósmico» y en su ya imperecedera faceta como creador de mundos fantásticos. La segunda parte de este volumen ofrece una formidable polémica epistolar y periodística, a ratos cómica y burlesca, sobre la eterna confrontación entre astronomía y astrología. Y lo hace mediante los escritos cruzados entre el propio Lovecraft y un astrólogo de Providence a finales del año 1914, con el trasfondo de los vaticinios en torno a la Primera Guerra Mundial. Emerge entonces una encendida defensa de la ciencia y de sus promesas para la humanidad.

H.P. Lovecraft (Author), Sergio Alberto Bustos De La Tijera (Narrator)

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Magnetic Current

Magnetic Current is a short pamphlet by eccentric sculptor and writer Edward Leedskalnin. Detailing his many experiments with magnets, this work posits that it is not metal itself that is magnetic. Rather, tiny individual magnet particles that circulate in and around the metal give it its pull. Edward Leedskalnin was born in Latvia in 1887. While his formal education lasted only until 4th grade, he was intensely curious and spent much of his youth reading. At the age of 26, Leedskalnin became engaged. But as the young woman was only 16, she (or her mother) decided that he wasn’t a suitable match and called off the wedding the day before it was set to occur. Heartbroken, Leedskalnin emigrated to the United States. In 1923, he purchased an undeveloped acre of land in Florida City. Over the next 28 years, Leedskalnin cut massive pieces of oolite rock from his property, moved them, and sculpted them—all on his own. He built a two-story tower from oolite, which served as his living quarters. In the grounds below, sculptures and carved stone furniture dot the landscape. The project was dedicated to his “Sweet Sixteen,” the woman who rejected him years before. During the years of his construction project, Leedskalnin studied and tested magnets from his home base of Rock Gate. His findings were eventually compiled into Magnetic Current, a short pamphlet detailing his theories of magnetism. The pamphlet explains many of his experiments. Using U-shaped, round, and bar magnets, as well as car batteries, light bulbs, and coils of wire, he demonstrates the movements of magnetic currents in a double helix pattern, swirling around each other to create pull.

Edward Leedskalnin (Author), Larry Peterson (Narrator)

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Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension

Are there other dimensions beyond our own? Is time travel possible? Can we change the past? Are there gateways to parallel universes? All of us have pondered such questions, but there was a time when scientists dismissed these notions as outlandish speculations. Not any more. Today, they are the focus of the most intense scientific activity in recent memory. In Hyperspace, Michio Kaku offers the first book-length tour of the most exciting (and perhaps most bizarre) work in modern physics. The theory of hyperspace (or higher dimensional space)-and its newest wrinkle, superstring theory-stand at the center of this revolution, with adherents in every major research laboratory in the world. Beginning where Hawking's Brief History of Time left off, Kaku paints a vivid portrayal of the breakthroughs now rocking the physics establishment. Why all the excitement? As the author points out, for over half a century, scientists have puzzled over why the basic forces of the cosmos-gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces-require markedly different mathematical descriptions. But if we see these forces as vibrations in a higher dimensional space, their field equations suddenly fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, perfectly snug, in an elegant, astonishingly simple form. This may thus be our leading candidate for the Theory of Everything.

Michio Kaku (Author), Tim Lounibos (Narrator)

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NASA’s Space Race Programs: The History and Legacy of NASA Missions in the 1950s and 1960s

Today the Space Race is widely viewed poignantly and fondly as a race to the Moon that culminated with Apollo 11 “winning” the Race for the United States. In fact, it encompassed a much broader range of competition between the Soviet Union and the United States that affected everything from military technology to successfully launching satellites that could land on Mars or orbit other planets in the Solar System. Moreover, the notion that America “won” the Space Race at the end of the 1960s overlooks just how competitive the Space Race actually was in launching people into orbit, as well as the major contributions the Space Race influenced in leading to today’s International Space Station and continued space exploration. The Apollo space program is the most famous and celebrated in American history, but the first successful landing of men on the Moon during Apollo 11 had complicated roots dating back over a decade. Landing on the Moon presented an ideal goal all on its own, but the government’s urgency in designing the Apollo program was actually brought about by the Soviet Union, which spent much of the 1950s leaving the United States in its dust (and rocket fuel). In 1957, at a time when people were concerned about communism and nuclear war, many Americans were dismayed by news that the Soviet Union was successfully launching satellites into orbit. Throughout the 1960s, NASA would spend tens of billions on missions to the Moon, the most expensive peacetime program in American history to that point, and Apollo was only made possible by the tests conducted through earlier missions. Of course, by the time it was all done, Americans sure felt the cost was worth it as they watched the first live shots of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon. As he left his first footprint on the Moon, Armstrong transmitted one of the 20th century’s most famous phrases: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Charles River Editors (Author), Bill Caufield (Narrator)

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The Search for Exoplanets: The History of the Efforts to Find Planets in Other Solar Systems

While modern technology has helped astronomers view the furthest reaches of the Solar System, it has also allowed scientists to start discovering planets orbiting distant stars. To make it easier to assess the relative mass and size of the new planets being discovered, scientists give these measurements as multiples of those properties for either Jupiter or Earth. In other words, if the planet is the same mass as Jupiter, then this measure would be listed as 1.0 MJ. If it were three times the mass of Earth, then it would be listed as 3.0 MEarth. The sizes of exoplanets are frequently given by expressing their radii as multiples of Jupiter’s radius or as multiples of Earth’s radius, RJ and REarth, respectively. Of course, given the immense distances involved, detecting exoplanets has always been hard, even to this day. The variations of light that might be evidence of an exoplanet can be caused by other phenomena, and separating the false positives from the actual detections is part of the rigor required by modern planet hunters. For example, in July 1988, a Canadian team led by astronomers Bruce Campbell, Gordon Walker, and Stephenson Yang discovered persistent indications that a planet orbited the primary star in the Gamma Cephei system, 44.98 light-years (13.79 parsecs) from the Earth. Though the technique they used was successfully employed in many subsequent discoveries, the quality of their data was insufficient for others to verify as unequivocally the result of an extrasolar planet. For reasons of poor data quality, the claimed discovery of Gamma Cephei Ab was retracted in 1992. The first confirmed discovery of an exoplanet involved a system that surprised most planet hunters. While most astronomers had been looking to find planets orbiting stars in the main sequence (between infancy and old age) or in their old age (giant phase), the first confirmed planets were found to orbit a dead star.

Charles River Editors (Author), Kc Wayman (Narrator)

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Astronomy & Physics Audiobooks in Science & Technology