From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, a concise, elegant exploration of time.
Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to “flow”? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike.
For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe.
Already a bestseller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time.

艾萨克·牛顿与戈特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨围绕时间的本质展开的重要讨论标志着人们对时间的理解发生了根本转变。这发生在机械钟表的精确度跃升的时代：摆钟和精密怀表问世后，私人计时器在大城市的市民阶层中迅速普及。物理学家和科学评论员托马斯·德·帕多瓦借助牛顿和莱布尼茨的引人入胜的传记，铺陈出我们理解时间的历史。他旁征博引，讲述了时间是如何在十八世纪来临之际变得无所不在，并成为自然研究的中心课题的。简而言之：为什么近现代（德文“Neuzeit”，本意为“新时间”或“新时代”）是名副其实的。

Everything you need to know about modern physics, the universe and our place in the world in seven enlightening lessons
'Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world. And it's breathtaking'
These seven short lessons guide us, with simplicity and clarity, through the scientific revolution that shook physics in the twentieth century and still continues to shake us today. In this beautiful and mind-bending introduction to modern physics, Carlo Rovelli explains Einstein's theory of general relativity, quantum mechanics, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, elementary particles, gravity, and the nature of the mind. In under eighty pages, readers will understand the most transformative scientific discoveries of the twentieth century and what they mean for us. Not since Richard Feynman's celebrated best-seller Six Easy Pieces has physics been so vividly, intelligently and entertainingly revealed.

A New York Times Bestseller
An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science
Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? Why does any material look and behave the way it does? These are the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is constantly asking himself. A globally-renowned materials scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring objects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that hold together our physical world.
In Stuff Matters, Miodownik entertainingly examines the materials he encounters in a typical morning, from the steel in his razor and the graphite in his pencil to the foam in his sneakers and the concrete in a nearby skyscraper. He offers a compendium of the most astounding histories and marvelous scientific breakthroughs in the material world, including:
The imprisoned alchemist who saved himself from execution by creating the first European porcelain.
The hidden gem of the Milky Way, a planet five times the size of Earth, made entirely of diamond.
Graphene, the thinnest, strongest, stiffest material in existence—only a single atom thick—that could be used to make entire buildings sensitive to touch.
From the teacup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elastic in our underpants, our lives are overflowing with materials. Full of enthralling tales of the miracles of engineering that permeate our lives, Stuff Matters will make you see stuff in a whole new way.

From preeminent math personality and author of The Joy of x, a brilliant and endlessly appealing explanation of calculus – how it works and why it makes our lives immeasurably better.
Without calculus, we wouldn’t have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. We wouldn’t have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket.
Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz’s brilliantly creative, down‑to‑earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it’s about simplicity. It harnesses an unreal number—infinity—to tackle real‑world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous.
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves (a phenomenon predicted by calculus). Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes “backwards” sometimes; how to make electricity with magnets; how to ensure your rocket doesn’t miss the moon; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.

(excerpts from my proposal for the book)
Anyone who has explored the history, technology, or theory of computers has likely encountered the concept of the Turing Machine. The Turing Machine is an imaginary — not even quite hypothetical — computer invented in 1936 by English mathematician Alan Turing (1912–1954) to help solve a question in mathematical logic. As a byproduct, Turing also founded the field of computability theory — the study of the abilities and limitations of digital computers.
Although the concept of the Turing Machine is well known, Turing’s original 1936 paper is only rarely read. This neglect may have something to do with the paper’s title — “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem” — and perhaps the paper’s extensive use of a scary German gothic font. That’s too bad, because the paper is not only a fascinating read but a milestone in the history of computing and 20th century intellectual thought in general.
This book presents Turing’s original 36-page paper (and a follow-up 3-page correction) with background chapters and extensive annotations. Mathematical papers like Turing’s are often terse and cryptic. I have elaborated on many of Turing’s statements, clarified his discussions, and provided numerous examples.
Interwoven into the narrative are the highlights of Turing’s own life: his years at Cambridge and Princeton, his secret work in cryptanalysis during World War II, his involvement in seminal computer projects, his speculations about artificial intelligence, his arrest and prosecution for the crime of “gross indecency,” and his early death by apparent suicide at the age of 41.
The book is divided into four parts: Parts I and II together are about 200 pages in length and cover the first 60% of Turing’s paper, encompassing the Turing Machine and computability topics. This part of the book is entirely self-contained and will be of primary interest to most readers.
Part III is a faster paced look at the remainder of Turing’s paper, which involves the implications for mathematical logic. Some readers might want to skip these chapters.
Part IV resumes the more "popular" presentation showing how the Turing Machine has become a vital tool in understanding the workings of human consciousness and the mechanisms of the universe.
Although I expect the primary readers of the book to be programmers, computer science majors, and other “techies,” I have tried my best to make the book accessible to the general reader. There is unavoidably much mathematics in the book, but I have tried to assume that the reader only has knowledge of high-school mathematics, and probably a foggy one at that.

详细实用又趣味盎然的蔬菜图文小百科
全面收录276种中国蔬菜，精心手绘181幅蔬菜科普图
科普蔬菜知识，述说蔬菜趣事，解读蔬菜文化，探寻蔬菜渊源
体例科学，旁征博引，有颜有味
▎ 内容简介
民以食为天，佳膳蔬为先，蔬菜是中国人餐桌上最长情的陪伴。我国的蔬菜栽培历史悠久，种类繁多，在数千年发展过程中，逐渐形成了丰富灿烂的蔬菜文化，并与酒文化、茶文化一起成为了中华饮食文化的重要组成部分。本书以蔬菜名称解读为切入点，详解二百七十余种中国蔬菜，并配以精美手绘科普图。全书分为“综述”和“各论”，“综述”概述我国蔬菜名称构成、命名缘由及构词手段等，“各论”则分门别类地对各种蔬菜的所属类别、起源地域、引入时间、栽培历史、供应现状、名称由来、命名因素、营养成分、食用方法等内容进行详细的考释。本书视角独特，条理清晰，行文深入浅出，可读性强，既适合普通读者休闲阅读丰富见闻，也适合作为家庭藏书便利生活，更适合蔬菜、园艺、植物学研究学习者作为相关学科的入门读物。
▎ 编辑推荐
◎收罗广博，内容详细，蔬菜文化一本通
本书由从事蔬菜、副食工作数十年的资深蔬菜研究学者张平真先生撰写，将276种中国蔬菜分作18大类目进行系统阐释，提及各种蔬菜称谓逾5000个，基本包括了我国现有主要蔬菜的实体及称谓。全书对中国蔬菜的所属类别、起源地域、栽培历史、名称由来、构词手段及其食用指南和保健常识等进行了全面而详细的科普及文化解读，书后附有《中国蔬菜正名、别称通览》《蔬菜拉丁文学名总汇》等，堪称“蔬菜文化一本通”。
◎旁征博引，详实考据，蔬菜趣事在其中
本书是一部读来饶有兴味的蔬菜典故趣事集。作者广览史料，旁征博引，详实考据，挖掘蔬菜小故事。菠菜的家乡在哪里？竹笋的别名“玉板”从何而来？苏武牧羊饥饿时吞掉的“毡”实际上是哪种蔬菜？爱吃白菜还为它写诗的清朝皇帝是哪一位？明清时蒙古草原上的蘑菇圈是如何形成的？“河豚欲上时”长出的蒌蒿怎么做最好吃？你不知道的蔬菜小故事尽在其中。
◎深入浅出，通俗易懂，蔬菜知识讲解透
作者行文平实质朴、叙述条理清晰，讲解深入浅出，用语简明扼要，内容浅显有趣，兼具知识性和实用性。既适合普通读者休闲阅读丰富见闻，也适合作为家庭藏书便利生活，更适合蔬菜、园艺、植物学研究学习者作为相关学科的入门读物。消遣性与学术性并重是本书的一大特点，能充分满足读者多元化的阅读需求。
◎原创手绘，图文并茂，蔬菜大观眼底收
全书特请资深插画师精心手绘原创蔬菜线描科普图。精准刻画，细节清晰，易于辨识，图文并茂，激发读者阅读兴趣，使读者直观感受蔬菜形态的美感和趣味，开拓蔬菜和园艺知识的新领域。全书平装锁线，便利平翻，读者可以轻松阅读。特别制作蔬菜主题精美全彩衬页附于全书首尾，三种版本随机发送，惊喜满满。