Tim James

The Universe came into being 13.8 billion years ago. At this point, all of existence could be summed up as an endless soup of particles frothing at temperatures many times hotter than the Sun. It was chaos. Fortunately, as the Universe expanded, everything began to cool and the particles stabilised. It was around this time, as disorder gave way to order, that the elements were born. Fast forward to June 2016 and the periodic table of elements was finally completed with the discovery and addition of four new elements. At last we could identify all the ingredients necessary to make a world. But it doesn't stop there. Human ingenuity knows no bounds; we have even begun to invent our own elements and have created an entire science devoted to their study: chemistry. When it comes to chemistry, Tim James knows his stuff. In Elemental he tells the story of the periodic table from its ancient Greek roots, when you could count the number of elements humans were aware of on one hand, to the modern alchemists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, who have used nuclear chemistry and physics to generate new elements and complete the periodic table. In addition to this, James answers questions such as: What is the chemical symbol for a human? What would happen if all of the elements were mixed together? How many bananas can you stand next to before you die of radiation sickness? Which liquid can teleport through walls? Why is the medieval dream of transmuting lead into gold now a reality?

'In the same light-heartedly informative spirit as his previous Elemental, Tim James gives us an entertaining gallop through light years of space science, from the big bang to UFOs' Andrew Crumey, author of The Great Chain of Unbeing PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR 'Humorous, yet deep . . . Fundamental will speak to all readers' Professor Charles Antoine, Sorbonne University 'Who said science was dry? Certainly not Tim James' New York Post Does the Big Bang prove the existence of God? What's the Universe expanding into? Is Earth the only planet which supports life? Why did the greatest astronomer in history murder his pet moose? Space is the biggest, oldest, hottest, coldest, strangest thing a human can study. It's no surprise then, that the weirdest facts in science (not to mention the weirdest scientists themselves) are found in astrophysics and cosmology. If you're looking for instructions on how to set up your grandad's telescope this book probably isn't for you. In Astronomical, Tim James takes us on a tour of the known (and unknown) Universe, focusing on the most-mind boggling stuff we've come across, as well as unpacking the latest theories about what's really going on out there. Guiding us through Einstein's relativity, quantum mechanics and string theory, Astronomical delves into the baffling corners of the cosmos and tackles the biggest mysteries we face: from alien life to the zodiac; from white holes to wormholes; from quasars to quark stars. This is the science of space at its absolute strangest! From the creation of the Universe out of nothing to the Large Hadron Collider and the Universe's ongoing expansion, Tim explores our planetary neighbours, where it snows metal on Venus, there are underground lakes on Mars and rivers of petrol on Titan. He then looks beyond our solar system: to exoplanets which could support life, rogue planets, quark stars, quasars, neutron stars and more. Tim looks at black holes (and how to survive in one), wormholes, white holes as well as dark energy, dark matter and even a bit of string theory thrown in for good measure. He explains the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, including the discovery of Martian fossils in the Alan Hills meteorite and the tantalising 'Wow signal' transmission earth received in 1973 - still unexplained. He also rebuts resurgent anti-science movements, including the Flat Earth Society and discusses what's really going on inside Area 51. To close, Tim finishes by looking at human achievements in space including how rockets work, how faster-than-light warp-drives (currently being investigated by NASA) work and how we plan to colonise both the moon and Mars.