A playful and entertaining look at science on The Simpsons
This amusing book explores science as presented on the longest-running and most popular animated TV series ever made: The Simpsons. Over the years, the show has examined such issues as genetic mutation, time travel, artificial intelligence, and even aliens. ""What's Science Ever Done for Us?"" examines these and many other topics through the lens of America's favorite cartoon.
This spirited science guide will inform Simpsons fans and entertain science buffs with a delightful combination of fun and fact. It will be the perfect...

Inspired by the end of the millennium, celebrated science writer Paul Halpern tackles the fate of human civilization and our planet in this meditation on the end of the world. Beginning with the religious origins of the idea of apocalypse, Halpern shows how science has borrowed the metaphor to describe potential worldwide catastrophes. He spins out various scenarios for destruction, from nuclear war and global warming to a great flood and a new Ice Age. He argues that while human history will someday come to a close-even if we survived for billions of years, we would eventually face the end...

"This book is well written and informative, and Halpern's humor is delightful."-- "Choice"

An amazing journey throughout the universe in a search for other planets and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Pluto joined the Planet Club in 1930, but didn't quite fit in. He is much tinier than the gas giants in the outer part of the Solar System. He has a lot more moons than any of the inner planets. His orbit is much more stretched out than any of the other worlds' paths around the Sun. The other members of the Planet Club didn't know what to make of him. Then one day, Pluto received some bad news... Explore the story of Pluto as seen through the eyes of the planets themselves. Witness the rise and fall of Pluto's membership in the Planet Club. Why was he demoted and what happened next? Introduce...

"A fascinating and thought-provoking story, one that sheds light on the origins of... the current challenging situation in physics."--Wall Street Journal
When the fuzzy indeterminacy of quantum mechanics overthrew the orderly world of Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrodinger were at the forefront of the revolution. Neither man was ever satisfied with the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics, however, and both rebelled against what they considered the most preposterous aspect of quantum mechanics: its randomness. Einstein famously quipped that God...