Marcus Chown

Look around you. The reflection of your face in a window tells you that the universe is orchestrated by chance. The iron in a spot of blood on your finger tells you that somewhere out in space there is a furnace at a temperature of 4.5 billion degrees. Your TV tells you that the universe had a beginning. In fact,...

From gravity to black holes, special relativity to global warming, bestselling author Marcus Chown breaks down complex science into manageable chunks, explaining the one thing you really need to know to get to grips with the subject. Rather than trying to bend your mind around all the vast and confounding details of things such as gravitational waves, electricity and black...

What is space? What is time? Where did the universe come from? The answers to mankind’s most enduring questions may lie in science’s greatest enigma: black holes. A black hole is a region of space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. This can occur when a star approaches the end of its life. Unable...

'Marcus Chown rocks!' - Brian May How does it feel to know something about the universe that no one has ever known before? And why is mathematics so good at revealing nature's secrets? This is the story of the scientists who, using mathematics, predicted the existence of unknown planets, black holes, invisible force fields, ripples in the fabric of space-time,...

The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year 2017 'Does Einstein proud . . . Eminently readable' – Guardian 'No one has covered the topic with such a light touch and joie de vivre . . . a delight' – Brian Clegg The Ascent of Gravity explores how gravity was the first force to be recognised and described, yet it...

What is space? What is time? Where did the universe come from? The answers to mankind’s most enduring questions may lie in science’s greatest enigma: black holes. A black hole is a region of space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. This can occur when a star approaches the end of its life. Unable...

The two towering achievements of modern physics are quantum theory and Einstein's general theory of relativity. But, almost a century after their advent, most people haven't the slightest clue what either is about. Did you know that there's so much empty space inside matter that the entire human race could be squeezed into the volume of a sugar cube? Or...