num_pages: 264
description: Is time travel possible? Common sense tells us that it isn't. Time machines, surely, are simply the stuff of science fiction. But scientists from California to Moscow are now seriously investigating the possibility. Their startling finding is that the laws of physics do actually allow for the existence of time machines - although there is no prospect at present of any human being using one to go back and change the past.Time travel involves those ultimate concentrations of matter and gravity, black holes. Among its other bizarre properties, a back hole is a place where time literally comes to a stop - an edge of time. Now, in his new book (1992), bestselling science writer John Gribbin takes us over the edge, to a place where time runs backwards and everyday rules of common sense no longer apply.The story begins in the seventeenth century, with the cleric who first suggested that black holes might exist, and along the way it involves meetings with key historical characters, including the lazy philosopher who found inspiration in the flight of a fly, the mathematicians who invented a new kind of geometry in which parallel lines can cross each other, and physicists who didn't believe their own theories until confounded by new astronomical discoveries which they should have predicted - but didn't.Accessible, entertaining and informative, In Search of the Edge of Time is John Gribbin at his best. John Gribbin's books include In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, hailed as the best introduction to quantum physics for the layman, The Hole in the Sky, a survey of the destruction of the ozone layer, Hothouse Earth and his most recent book, Blinded by the Light, which was published by Bantam Press in 1991. He has written regularly for The Times and the Guardian, and is physics consultant for the New Scientist. He also broadcasts for BBC World Service and is an adviser for television documentaries. He lives in Sussex with his wife and their two sons. Librarian's note: The above description is from 1992.
language: English
title: In Search Of The Edge Of Time
titlecomplete: In Search Of The Edge Of Time
genres: Physics, Science, Nonfiction, Popular Science, Space
ratings_count: 142
publisher: Book Club Associates