E-Book Overview
Do you know: • What might happen if you fall into a black hole? • That the Universe does not have an edge? • That the reason it gets dark at night is proof of the Big Bang? • That cosmic particles time-travel through the atmosphere defying death? • That our past, present and future might all coexist "out there"? With two remarkable ideas, Albert Einstein revolutionized our view of the Universe. His first was that nothing can travel faster than light-the ultimate speed limit. This simple fact leads to the unavoidable conclusion that space and time must be linked together forever as Spacetime. With his second monumental insight, Einstein showed how Spacetime is warped and stretched by the gravity of all objects in the Universe and even punctured by black holes. But such possible twisting of Spacetime allowed a magic not even Einstein could have imagined: time-travel. Theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili finally lays science fiction to rest as he opens up Einstein's Universe. Leading us gently and light-heartedly through the dizzying world of our space and time, he even gives us the recipe for a time machine, capable of taking us Back to the Future, to Alice's Wonderland, or on a trip with the Terminator.
E-Book Content
BLACK HOLES WO R M H O L E S & T I M E M A C H I N E S JIM AL-KHALILI University of Surrey Institute of Physics Publishing Bristol and Philadelphia BLACK HOLES WO R M H O L E S & T I M E M A C H I N E S About the Author Jim Al-Khalili was born in 1962 and works as a theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey in Guildford. He is a pioneering popularizer of science and is dedicated to conveying the wonder of science and to demystifying its frontiers for the general public. He is an active member of the Public Awareness of Nuclear Science Eu