De Gruyter Populärwissenschaftliche Reihe

Modern knowledge of color perception – physical and physiological! Pigments play a major role in manipulating the light rays. This can be done by absorption, reflection or interference. The eye does not care how this manipulation takes place. A green colored pigment produces the same color impression as a mixture of yellow and blue colored pigment. These exciting aspects will guide you through the book.

This volume is the first to incorporate perspectives from both science and the humanities into a comprehensive theory of time. In the inverse-entropic arrow of time, physics, biology, philosophy, and medicine share the theoretical principles of one understanding of the world. Understanding the real direction in which time flows restructures the world. It gives the reader cause for well-founded, enlightened optimism.

This volume describes with great clarity the significance of chemistry as the foundation of evolution: from star dust to self-replicating molecules to chemical proliferation and, gradually, to the development of the first cells. It explains in depth the significance of mutations that led to photosynthesis and complex cells, which was ultimately what made the unbelievable diversity of multicellular organisms possible in the first place.

This volume explores the lives of Galileo, Kepler, and Marius, and the circumstances of their times that influenced their extraordinary achievements. It traces the joint and opposing paths they took and sets them in relation both to ancient worldviews and insights from modern cosmology.

This work views Einstein’s Autobiographical Notes, a classic in the history of science, as a key to opening up a new perspective on Einstein’s intellectual life, from childhood to old age, and to reconstructing the becoming of this philosophical scientist. Scientific reflections and personal correspondence add to this compelling portrait of Albert Einstein.

Lightening or blue skies, glow worms, tea cups, and bubbles – we are constantly running into natural phenomena in our everyday lives. In this volume, Jearl Walker takes up the funniest and most interesting of these and provides physical explanations – not in formulas, but in words. Some of the solutions are easy to find, others are extremely difficult.

If you, too, are the kind of person who often asks themselves things like whether dogs can do sums, how to calculate the weight of a pig, or what the difference is between big and giant numbers, the updated and revised edition of this book will provide you with the mathematical solutions. Discover the surprising explanations that mathematics can provide to everyday questions in a humorous way.

Dieser Reiseführer zum Mars erläutert, unter welchen Bedingungen wir auf dem ‚roten Planeten‘ landen und dort sogar eine begrenzte Zeit leben können. Beginnend mit den frühesten astronomischen Beobachtungen und Berechnungen seiner Umlaufbahn nimmt uns der Autor mit auf die erfolgreiche Mission Mars 2020 und gibt einen Ausblick auf weitere Missionen und deren Herausforderungen.

This book gives a nice overview of new technologies dealing with autonomous driving, intelligent traffic systems and e-mobility. With a focus on sustainability and network solutions, the book shows how car will change our daily lifes. Ideal for everyone interested in this topic.

Trend analyses taken to their logical conclusion. Climate change and raw material scarcity are tangible. Reserves of important metals will last less than 80 years. The mining and processing of raw materials requires fossil fuels. There is enough oil and gas for 60–80 years and coal for around 200 years. Trend analyses and future scenarios often do not take these effects into account. This volume addresses trends from an integrated perspective.

The book takes you on a journey into you microscopic inner world. It is devides into three parts: "What we can't see. The invisible life of microbes", "War and peace in ourselves. How we survive everday" and "The language of life. DNA, RNA". They explore our microbiom, immune system and our genes. It covers microscopic components, their interaction, their discovery and investigation.

This volume describes the fascinating origins of the elements of the universe, starting with the Big Bang and the formation of cosmic structures, before considering the stars and their various life stages, ending with their demise as white dwarfs or neutron stars after supernova explosions. It presents the current state of scientific understanding in an engaging and accessible manner.

How round is a rainbow, why does a piece of bread always fall butter side down, and what is blood pressure anyway? The author explains these questions and much more in an engaging, insightful manner. Everyday topics like the functioning of heat pumps and lasers are presented just as compellingly as what causes of black holes, how electric cars change gears, and how much clouds weigh.

This book delves into the question of what private individuals / households can do to live more sustainably. In order to motivate this behavior, it is essential to have a holistic understanding of sustainability and the ability to recognize and evaluate sustainability parameters relevant to households – which is what this book aims to convey.

The topic of energy is on everybody's lips – due to, firstly, knowledge of modern physics and, secondly, its significance for our lives, for the climate, and for the economy. This volume comprehensively presents the concept of energy, and its physical and technological significance. It discusses numerous aspects of energy, starting with ancient concepts and working up to the mass-energy equivalence of modern physics.

For anybody fascinated with flying who wants to deepen their understanding of how birds and model planes fly. The author provides a clear, entertaining introduction to complex matters relating to vortices, circulation, and lift. Numerous diagrams and videos make the concepts easy to understand and grasp.

This popular science book conveys background knowledge on the topic of digitalization, embedded within a frame story. Anna is a scientific translator and digital nomad. She begins asking herself questions about digitalization, answering them in a blog, until she receives responses from the past.