Janna Levin ist Professorin für Physik und Astronomie, deren Forschung sich hauptsächlich auf das frühe Universum, Chaos und Schwarze Löcher konzentriert. Sie verbindet auf meisterhafte Weise komplexe wissenschaftliche Konzepte mit fesselnder Prosa und macht das Universum einem breiten Publikum zugänglich. Ihr Schreiben zeichnet sich durch eine einzigartige Mischung aus persönlichen Reflexionen und gründlicher wissenschaftlicher Untersuchung aus, wobei sie oft epistolare Formate und lebendige Bilder verwendet, um die tiefsten Geheimnisse des Universums zu erforschen. Levins unverwechselbare Stimme lädt die Leser auf eine Reise durch die Weiten des Weltraums und die Feinheiten des Geistes ein.
"Is the universe infinite or just really big? With this question, cosmologist Janna Levin announces the central theme of this book, which established her as one of the most direct, unorthodox, and creative voices in contemporary science. As Levin sets out to determine how big "really big" may be, she offers a rare intimate look at the daily life of an innovative physicist, complete with jet lag and the tensions between personal relationships and the extreme demands of scientific exploration."--
From the acclaimed author of Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space—an authoritative and accessible guide to the most alluring and challenging phenomena of contemporary science. "[Levin will] take you on a safe black hole trip, an exciting travel story enjoyed from your chair’s event horizon.” —Boston Globe Through her writing, astrophysicist Janna Levin has focused on making the science she studies not just comprehensible but also, and perhaps more important, intriguing to the nonscientist. In this book, she helps us to understand and find delight in the black hole—perhaps the most opaque theoretical construct ever imagined by physicists—illustrated with original artwork by American painter and photographer Lia Halloran. Levin takes us on an evocative exploration of black holes, provoking us to imagine the visceral experience of a black hole encounter. She reveals the influence of black holes as they populate the universe, sculpt galaxies, and even infuse the whole expanse of reality that we inhabit. Lively, engaging, and utterly unique, Black Hole Survival Guide is not just informative—it is, as well, a wonderful read from first to last.
In a saga of genius, madness, and seminal scientific accomplishment, a physicist obsessed with logician Kurt Gödel and mathematician Alan Turing chronicles the lives of both men in parallel narratives that reveal each man's great achievements and sorry deaths. Reprint.
"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). She makes clear the how the waves are created in the cosmic collision of black holes, and why the waves can never be detected by telescope. And, most revealingly, she delves into the lives and fates of the four scientists currently engaged in--and obsessed with--discerning this soundtrack of the universe's history. Levin's account of the surprises, disappointments, achievements, and risks of this unfolding story provides us with a uniquely compelling and intimate portrait of the people and processes of modern science"--
