Personality:  Theories and Processes by Alan O Ross

Comprehensive outline in easy-to-use narrative format supplements major textbooks.  Charts, tables included.

This book is part of an all-new, in-depth series, featuring titles in all areas of study, including Humanities, Social Science, Business, Engineering, Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science.  Featuring the most up-to-date information, each book is written by educators in the field, for students as well as the general reader.  Without sacrificing quality, these outlines summarize the material in a format that assures easy comprehension.

Can we predict prison riots?  Earthquakes?  Stock Market Crashes?

Hailed by scientists as the most important intellectual development since calculus, catastrophe theory boldly suggests a controversial new way of predicting sudden, "unpredictable" change.  Imagine being able to forecast the raising of oil prices by Arab nations, the outbreak of a revolution, or the erratic behavior of a schizophrenic.  The brainchild of French mathematician Rene Thom, catastrophe theory uses seven basic geometric shapes to transform abstract concepts--fear, anger, love, hate--into concrete visual diagrams, or catastrophes, that represent patterns of behavior.

This vanguard book illustrated with thirty line drawing, explains the catastrophe theory to laymen, explores the controversy surrounding ti, and gives fascinating examples of how it can be used to understand problems in psychology, biology, politics, economics, and history that affect everyone.

Acclaimed in five prior editions, this text covers all of the standard topics for any introductory logic course in neatly-packaged capsules of learning. Known for its concise, direct style emphasizing clarity, Hurley avoids the peculiar quirks, technicalities, and wordiness of other texts. The material is integrated in such a way that elements fit together as in a puzzle so students can assemble a broad picture of the subject. Visual aids and color are used to reinforce key points and concepts. Additionally, key terms are boldfaced, hundreds of examples serve to illustrate ideas, and more than 2000 carefully selected exercises sharpen student understanding and skill. The adept presentation of the subject matter leads to mastery, even by students with poorer academic preparation.

Patrick Hurley was born in Spokane, Washington in 1942. He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics (with a Physics minor) from Gonzaga University in 1964 and his Ph.D. in philosophy of science with an emphasis in history of philosophy from Saint Louis University in 1973. In 1972 he began teaching at the University of San Diego, where his courses have included logic, philosophy of science, metaphysics, process philosophy, and legal ethics. In 1987 he received his J.D. from the University of San Diego and he is currently a member of the California Bar Association. He retired from teaching in 2008, but continues his research and writing. His interests include music, art, opera, environmental issues, fishing, and skiing.

Text deals with subgroups, permutation groups, automorphisms and finitely generated abelian groups, normal series, commutators and derived series, solvable and nilpotent groups, the group ring and monomial representations, Frattini subgroup, factorization, linear gorups, and representations and characters—in all, 431 problems. Full solutions to problems in separate section.

On the night Janie waits for her sister, Hannah, to be born, her grandmother tells her a story: Since the Japanese occupation of Korea, their family has lost a daughter in every generation, so Janie is charged with keeping Hannah safe. As time passes, Janie hears more stories, while facts remain unspoken. Her father tells tales about numbers, and in his stories everything works out. In her mother's stories, deer explode in fields, frogs bury their loved ones in the ocean, and girls jump from cliffs and fall like flowers into the sea. Within all these stories are warnings.

Years later, when Hannah inexplicably cuts all ties and disappears, Janie embarks on a mission to find her sister and finally uncover the truth beneath her family's silence. To do so, she must confront their history, the reason for her parents' sudden move to America twenty years earlier, and ultimately her conflicted feelings toward her sister and her own role in the betrayal behind their estrangement.

Weaving Korean folklore within a modern narrative of immigration and identity, Forgotten Country is a fierce exploration of the inevitability of loss, the conflict between obligation and freedom, and a family struggling to find its way out of silence and back to one another.

Catherine Chung was born in Evanston, Illinois. She grew up in New York, New Jersey and Michigan.  She graduated with a mathematics degree from the University of Chicago, and worked at the think tank The RAND Corporation before attending Cornell University to receive her MFA.

Chung's critically acclaimed debut novel, Forgotten Country, was published in 2012 by Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Press. She has also published short stories and essays in The New York Times, The Rumpus, and Granta, and was the recipient of a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize in Poetry.

She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and Jentel, and received support for her writing from The Camargo Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation. She was a Picador Guest Professor at The University of Leipzig, and is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Adelphi University. Catherine is the recipient of a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing, a Granta New Voice, and a fiction editor at Guernica Magazine.

The Seven Mysteries of Life : An Exploration in Science and Philosophy by Guy Murchie

Mixing science with philosophy, the author contemplates what he perceives to be the seven mysteries of life, ranging from evolution to divinity.

"All life in all worlds" -this was the object of the author's seventeen-year quest for knowledge and discovery, culminating in this book. In a manner unmistakably his own, Murchie delves into the interconnectedness of all life on the planet and of such fields as biology, geology, sociology, mathematics, and physics. He offers us what the poet May Sarton has called "a good book to take to a desert island as sole companion, so rich is it in knowledge and insight."

Originally edited by Thomas H. Greer, this series emanates from the Humanities Department at Michigan State University. Today, these books remain outstanding sources for the comprehensive study of most subject areas included under the umbrella of humanities. Most major literary forms are represented: essay, poem, short story, play, novel, memoir, epigram, scientific discourse, philosophical treatise, political manifesto, and religious proclamation. Major subject areas include art, music, education, mathematics, biology, psychiatry, religion, philosophy, politics, economics, and physics.Originally published under the General Editorship of Thomas H. Greer, the series emanated from the Humanities Department of Michigan State University. The books remain today perhaps the best sources available for the comprehensive study in one volume of every subject area which might be included in the umbrella of humanities. Most major literary forms are represented: essay, poem, short story, play, novel, memoir, epigram, scientific discourse, philosophical treatise, political manifesto, and religious proclamation. All major subject areas are explored: art, music, education, mathematics, biology, psychiatry, religion, philosophy, politics, economics, and physics. The informative apparatus, headnotes, and footnotes are all aimed at enhancing the student-reader's comprehension.

The amazing story of one of the greatest math problems of all time and the reclusive genius who solved it

"[Szpiro] turns the abstract mathematics of spheres into a lucid, lovely romantic odyssey."--Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind

In the tradition of Fermat’s Enigma and Prime Obsession, George Szpiro brings to life the giants of mathematics who struggled to prove a theorem for a century and the mysterious man from St. Petersburg, Grigory Perelman, who fi nally accomplished the impossible. In 1904 Henri Poincaré developed the Poincaré Conjecture, an attempt to understand higher-dimensional space and possibly the shape of the universe. The problem was he couldn’t prove it. A century later it was named a Millennium Prize problem, one of the seven hardest problems we can imagine. Now this holy grail of mathematics has been found.

Accessibly interweaving history and math, Szpiro captures the passion, frustration, and excitement of the hunt, and provides a fascinating portrait of a contemporary noble-genius.

Analog : Science Fiction & Fact September 2011

Novella : Energized, Part III of IV, Edward M. Lerner

Novelettes :

Therapeutic Mathematics and the Physics of Curve Balls, Gray Rineheart

Helix of Friends, Carl Frederick

Short Stories :

Hostile Environment, Emily Mah

The Chaplain's Assistant, Brad R. Torgersen

Asteroid Monte, Craig DeLancey

Science Fact :

Shake, Rattle, and Roll : Is Missouri Really America's Most Dangerous Earthquake Zone?, Richard A. Lovett

Reader's Departments : In Times to Come, The Alternate View of Jeffery D. Kooistra, Biolog—Brad R. Torgersen, The Reference Library by Don Sakers, Brass Tacks, and Upcoming Events by Anthony Lewis

"A mathematician named Klein
Thought the Moebius band was divine.
Said he: 'If you glue
The edges of two,
You'll get a weird bottle like mine.' " — Stephen Barr

In this lively book, the classic in its field, a master of recreational topology invites readers to venture into such tantalizing topological realms as continuity and connectedness via the Klein bottle and the Moebius strip. Beginning with a definition of topology and a discussion of Euler's theorem, Mr. Barr brings wit and clarity to these topics:

• New Surfaces (Orientability, Dimension, The Klein Bottle, etc.)
• The Shortest Moebius Strip
• The Conical Moebius Strip
• The Klein Bottle
• The Projective Plane (Symmetry)
• Map Coloring
• Networks (Koenigsberg Bridges, Betti Numbers, Knots)
• The Trial of the Punctured Torus
• Continuity and Discreteness ("Next Number," Continuity, Neighborhoods, Limit Points)
• Sets (Valid or Merely True? Venn Diagrams, Open and Closed Sets, Transformations, Mapping, Homotopy)

With this book and a square sheet of paper, the reader can make paper Klein bottles, step by step; then, by intersecting or cutting the bottle, make Moebius strips. Conical Moebius strips, projective planes, the principle of map coloring, the classic problem of the Koenigsberg bridges, and many more aspects of topology are carefully and concisely illuminated by the author's informal and entertaining approach.

Now in this inexpensive paperback edition, Experiments in Topology belongs in the library of any math enthusiast with a taste for brainteasing adventures in the byways of mathematics.

An Introduction to Information Theory : Symbols, Signals and Noise (Dover Books on Mathematics) by John R. Pierce - Paperback

"Uncommonly good...the most satisfying discussion to be found." — Scientific American.

Behind the familiar surfaces of the telephone, radio, and television lies a sophisticated and intriguing body of knowledge known as information theory. This is the theory that has permitted the rapid development of all sorts of communication, from color television to the clear transmission of photographs from the vicinity of Jupiter. Even more revolutionary progress is expected in the future.

To give a solid introduction to this burgeoning field, J. R. Pierce has revised his well-received 1961 study of information theory for a second edition. Beginning with the origins of the field, Dr. Pierce follows the brilliant formulations of Claude Shannon and describes such aspects of the subject as encoding and binary digits, entropy, language and meaning, efficient encoding, and the noisy channel. He then goes beyond the strict confines of the topic to explore the ways in which information theory relates to physics, cybernetics, psychology, and art. Mathematical formulas are introduced at the appropriate points for the benefit of serious students. A glossary of terms and an appendix on mathematical notation are proved to help the less mathematically sophisticated.

J. R. Pierce worked for many years at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he became Director of Research in Communications Principles. His Introduction to Information Theory continues to be the most impressive nontechnical account available and a fascinating introduction to the subject for lay readers.

Now available in paperback, Mind Tools connects mathematics to the world around us. Reveals mathematics' great power as an alternative language for understanding things and explores such concepts as logic as a computing tool, digital versus analog processes and communication as information transmission.

This reader-friendly volume groups the patterns of mathematics into five archetypes: numbers, space, logic, infinity, and information. Rudy Rucker presents an accessible introduction to each of these important areas, reflecting intelligence gathered from the frontiers of mathematical thought. More than 100 drawings illuminate explorations of digital versus analog processes, logic as a computing tool, communication as information transmission, and other "mind tools."

"Mind Tools is an original and fascinating look at various aspects of mathematics that is sure to fascinate the nonmathematician." — Isaac Asimov

"A lighthearted romp through contemporary mathematics. . . . Mind Tools is a delight." — San Francisco Chronicle
"For those who gave up college mathematics for what seemed more liberal arts, Rudy Rucker's book, Mind Tools, is a dazzling refresher course. . . . He rekindles the wonder that can come from contemplating logarithms, exponential curves and transcendental numbers." — The New York Times Book Review

"One of Rucker's greatest assets is his ability to make complexities comprehensible to the general reader without lecturing." — The Washington Post

"Approaching all of mathematics, and everything else, by way of information theory, Dr. Rucker's latest and most exciting book opens vistas of dazzling beauty — scenes that blend order with chaos, reality with fantasy, that startle you with their depths of impenetrable mystery." — Martin Gardner

In the same way the subject evolved historically, Ronald Solomon lets the abstract concepts emerge gradually from less abstract problems about geometry, polynomials, numbers, and more. Solomon also strongly emphasizes the connections between algebra and other areas of mathematics -- analysis (the infinitesimal calculus) and geometry. Readers will see that the various areas of mathematics are not hermetically sealed off from each other and that most of the truly important achievements in mathematics have been the product of a fruitful interaction of different areas. Using this book, readers will gain a true understanding of the subject while being creative mathematically as opposed to simply imitating template problems.

"A very stimulating book ... in a class by itself." — American MathematicalMonthly
Advanced students, mathematicians and number theorists will welcome this stimulating treatment of advanced number theory, which approaches the complex topic of algebraic number theory from a historical standpoint, taking pains to show the reader how concepts, definitions and theories have evolved during the last two centuries. Moreover, the book abounds with numerical examples and more concrete, specific theorems than are found in most contemporary treatments of the subject.

The book is divided into three parts. Part I is concerned with background material — a synopsis of elementary number theory (including quadratic congruences and the Jacobi symbol), characters of residue class groups via the structure theorem for finite abelian groups, first notions of integral domains, modules and lattices, and such basis theorems as Kronecker's Basis Theorem for Abelian Groups.

Part II discusses ideal theory in quadratic fields, with chapters on unique factorization and units, unique factorization into ideals, norms and ideal classes (in particular, Minkowski's theorem), and class structure in quadratic fields. Applications of this material are made in Part III to class number formulas and primes in arithmetic progression, quadratic reciprocity in the rational domain and the relationship between quadratic forms and ideals, including the theory of composition, orders and genera. In a final concluding survey of more recent developments, Dr. Cohn takes up Cyclotomic Fields and Gaussian Sums, Class Fields and Global and Local Viewpoints.

In addition to numerous helpful diagrams and tables throughout the text, appendices, and an annotated bibliography, Advanced Number Theory also includes over 200 problems specially designed to stimulate the spirit of experimentation which has traditionally ruled number theory.

What is a self-working card trick? A trick that does not depend upon legerdemain or special abilities on the part of the magician, but a trick that works automatically because of the mathematics inherent in the card deck itself. Long practice and supernormal dexterity are not needed to perform these tricks, yet they are often among the most entertaining and most spectacular of all card tricks.

Some of these sure-fire tricks are simple, a good place to begin. Others were specially adapted from professional routines and are here presented for the first time for amateurs. Almost all of these tricks can be worked informally, with a borrowed deck of cards. Some also adapt to stage presentation.

Individual tricks in this book have sold for more than the price of the entire book. Amateurs can use them to get a start in magic and to feel, at once, the rewards of giving a professional performance. Advanced and professional magicians will find tricks to add to their acts or informal routines. Author Karl Fulves is one of the best-known writers and editors in the field of magic.

Highly regarded for its exceptional clarity, imaginative and instructive exercises, and fine writing style, this concise book offers an ideal introduction to the fundamentals of topology. Originally conceived as a text for a one-semester course, it is directed to undergraduate students whose studies of calculus sequence have included definitions and proofs of theorems. The book's principal aim is to provide a simple, thorough survey of elementary topics in the study of collections of objects, or sets, that possess a mathematical structure.

The author begins with an informal discussion of set theory in Chapter 1, reserving coverage of countability for Chapter 5, where it appears in the context of compactness. In the second chapter Professor Mendelson discusses metric spaces, paying particular attention to various distance functions which may be defined on Euclidean n-space and which lead to the ordinary topology.

Chapter 3 takes up the concept of topological space, presenting it as a generalization of the concept of a metric space. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to a discussion of the two most important topological properties: connectedness and compactness. Throughout the text, Dr. Mendelson, a former Professor of Mathematics at Smith College, has included many challenging and stimulating exercises to help students develop a solid grasp of the material presented.

Self-Working Number Magic : 101 Foolproof Tricks (Dover Magic Books) by Karl Fulves

Numbers pervade nearly every aspect of our daily lives: telephone numbers, zip codes, Social Security numbers, driver's license and credit-card numbers. We are beleaguered by numbers: no wonder we're fascinated, intrigued, even a bit bewildered by them; no wonder tricks involving numbers are perennial favorites.

With Self-Working Number Magic you can perform show-stopping tricks, stunts and routines that are sure to delight audiences because they capitalize on our natural fascination for numbers. Karl Fulves, well-known writer in the field of magic presents 101 baffling tricks that are so easy to do they practically work by themselves. While all the tricks involve basic mathematical principles, the mathematics is not discussed here; rather, emphasis is on performing and perfecting the tricks. They can be learned quickly and put into operation immediately, and best of all, they really dazzle an audience.

Among the seemingly impossible tricks and stunts in this book: guessing a spectator's age or how long a married couple have known each other; predicting the sum of a group of numbers and using your brain like a lightning calculator; and instantly memorizing long lists of numbers or things. This selection also includes tricks involving cards, calendars, magic squares, and betting games. The author even suggests stage patter to use while performing.

With this book and a modicum of practice, anyone can perform an assortment of number tricks that will astound and delight an audience. Whatever your age or math skills, you'll soon be baffling friends and relatives with over 100 fascinating, foolproof tricks.

In 1931, a young Austrian mathematician published an epoch-making paper containing one of the most revolutionary ideas in logic since Aristotle. Kurt Gödel maintained, and offered detailed proof, that in any arithmetic system, even in elementary parts of arithmetic, there are propositions which cannot be proved or disproved within the system. It is thus uncertain that the basic axioms of arithmetic will not give rise to contradictions. The repercussions of this discovery are still being felt and debated in 20th-century mathematics.

The present volume reprints the first English translation of Gödel's far-reaching work. Not only does it make the argument more intelligible, but the introduction contributed by Professor R. B. Braithwaite (Cambridge University}, an excellent work of scholarship in its own right, illuminates it by paraphrasing the major part of the argument.

This Dover edition thus makes widely available a superb edition of a classic work of original thought, one that will be of profound interest to mathematicians, logicians and anyone interested in the history of attempts to establish axioms that would provide a rigorous basis for all mathematics. Translated by B. Meltzer, University of Edinburgh. Preface. Introduction by R. B. Braithwaite.

Now living in upstate New York, former LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker is plunged into a bizarre web involving academia, underworld crime, and calculating killers in this compulsive novel in New York Timesbestselling author Faye Kellerman's beloved Decker and Lazarus series.

Former LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker is relishing the quiet and slow pace of his new job with the Greenbury police department. The work is low stress and engaging, and it’s been almost a year since the last murder in this sleepy upstate New York town.

Then the body of a nude man is found deep within the woods, shattering Decker’s peace. The death appears to be a suicide—a single shot to the head, the gun by his side. But until the coroner’s ruling, the scene must be treated as a suspicious crime. Without any personal effects near the body, Decker must dig to uncover his identity, a task made difficult by the department’s tight budget and limited personnel. Luckily, Decker gets some unexpected help when his friend and former Greenbury colleague Tyler McAdams calls, looking for a quiet place to study for his law finals.

The investigation takes Decker and McAdams to Kneed Loft College, where they must penetrate the indecipherable upper echelons of mathematics and mathematical prodigies. Beneath the school’s rarified atmosphere they discover a sphere of scheming academics, hidden cyphers—and most dangerous of all—a realm of underworld crime that transforms harmless nerds into cold, calculating evil geniuses. It will take all of Decker’s experience and McAdams’s brains to penetrate enigmatic formulas and codes and solve a dark, twisted crime devised by some brilliant and depraved masterminds.

In 2000, the Clay Foundation of Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced a historic competition: whoever could solve any of seven extraordinarily difficult mathematical problems, and have the solution acknowledged as correct by the experts, would receive 1 million in prize money. 

There was some precedent for doing this: in 1900 David Hilbert, one of the greatest mathematicians of his day, proposed twenty-three problems, now known as the Hilbert Problems, that set much of the agenda for mathematics in the twentieth century. The Millennium Problems are likely to acquire similar stature, and their solution (or lack of one) is likely to play a strong role in determining the course of mathematics in the current century. 

Keith Devlin, renowned expositor of mathematics, tells here what the seven problems are, how they came about, and what they mean for math and science.These problems are the brass rings held out to today's mathematicians, glittering and just out of reach. In the hands of Keith Devlin, "the Math Guy" from NPR's "Weekend Edition," each Millennium Problem becomes a fascinating window onto the deepest and toughest questions in the field. For mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and everyone else with an interest in mathematics' cutting edge, The Millennium Problems is the definitive account of a subject that will have a very long shelf life.

“An irresistible literary thriller...Rich mines the terror of our times.” ―Rolling Stone

“The opposite of disaster, a knockout of a book by a young writer to keep your eye on from now on...As terrifically described as any of the best science fiction we have.” ―Alan Cheuse, NPR's All Things Considered

NEW YORK CITY, the near future: Mitchell Zukor, a gifted young mathematician, is hired by a mysterious new financial consulting firm, FutureWorld. The business operates out of a cavernous office in the Empire State Building; Mitchell is employee number two. He is asked to calculate worst-case scenarios in the most intricate detail, and his schemes are sold to corporations to indemnify them against any future disasters. This is the cutting edge of corporate irresponsibility, and business is booming. As Mitchell immerses himself in the mathematics of catastrophe--ecological collapse, global war, natural disasters--he becomes obsessed by a culture's fears. Yet he also loses touch with his last connection to reality: Elsa Bruner, a friend with her own apocalyptic secret, who has started a commune in Maine. Then, just as Mitchell's predictions reach a nightmarish crescendo, an actual worst-case scenario overtakes Manhattan. Mitchell realizes he is uniquely prepared to profit. But at what cost? At once an all-too-plausible literary thriller, an unexpected love story, and a philosophically searching inquiry into the nature of fear, Nathaniel Rich's Odds Against Tomorrow poses the ultimate questions of imagination and civilization. The future is not quite what it used to be.

This textbook for advanced courses in group theory focuses on finite groups, with emphasis on the idea of group actions. Early chapters summarize presupposed facts, identify important themes, and establish the notation used throughout the book. Subsequent chapters explore the normal and arithmetical structures of groups as well as applications.

Topics include the normal structure of groups: subgroups; homomorphisms and quotients; series; direct products and the structure of finitely generated Abelian groups; and group action on groups. Additional subjects range from the arithmetical structure of groups to classical notions of transfer and splitting by means of group action arguments. More than 675 exercises, many accompanied by hints, illustrate and extend the material.

A stimulating excursion into pure mathematics aimed at "the mathematically traumatized," but great fun for mathematical hobbyists and serious mathematicians as well. Requiring only high school algebra as mathematical background, the book leads the reader from simple graphs through planar graphs, Euler's formula, Platonic graphs, coloring, the genus of a graph, Euler walks, Hamilton walks, and a discussion of The Seven Bridges of Konigsberg. Exercises are included at the end of each chapter.

Although mathematics majors are usually conversant with number theory by the time they have completed a course in abstract algebra, other undergraduates, especially those in education and the liberal arts, often need a more basic introduction to the topic.

In this book the author solves the problem of maintaining the interest of students at both levels by offering a combinatorial approach to elementary number theory. In studying number theory from such a perspective, mathematics majors are spared repetition and provided with new insights, while other students benefit from the consequent simplicity of the proofs for many theorems.

Among the topics covered in this accessible, carefully designed introduction are multiplicativity-divisibility, including the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, combinatorial and computational number theory, congruences, arithmetic functions, primitive roots and prime numbers. Later chapters offer lucid treatments of quadratic congruences, additivity (including partition theory) and geometric number theory.

Of particular importance in this text is the author's emphasis on the value of numerical examples in number theory and the role of computers in obtaining such examples. Exercises provide opportunities for constructing numerical tables with or without a computer. Students can then derive conjectures from such numerical tables, after which relevant theorems will seem natural and well-motivated.

George E. Andrews, Evan Pugh Professor of Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University, author of the well-established text Number Theory (first published by Saunders in 1971 and reprinted by Dover in 1994), has led an active career discovering fascinating phenomena in his chosen field — number theory. Perhaps his greatest discovery, however, was not solely one in the intellectual realm but in the physical world as well.

In 1975, on a visit to Trinity College in Cambridge to study the papers of the late mathematician George N. Watson, Andrews found what turned out to be one of the actual Holy Grails of number theory, the document that became known as the "Lost Notebook" of the great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. It happened that the previously unknown notebook thus discovered included an immense amount of Ramanujan's original work bearing on one of Andrews' main mathematical preoccupations — mock theta functions. Collaborating with colleague Bruce C. Berndt of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Andrews has since published the first two of a planned three-volume sequence based on Ramanujan's Lost Notebook, and will see the project completed with the appearance of the third volume in the next few years.

In the Author's Own Words:
"It seems to me that there's this grand mathematical world out there, and I am wandering through it and discovering fascinating phenomena that often totally surprise me. I do not think of mathematics as invented but rather discovered." — George E. Andrews

What is the unique and most important feature that distinguishes man from all other living beings?

Why is it that, contrary to the instinct of self-preservation, a parent will throw themselves headlong into fire or water to save their child?

Why do people get married and why do they get divorced? Why do people have extra-marital affairs and why do two people in a couple become jealous of one another? What is Love?

When and why did the type of sex emerge among human beings that is free of any reproductive function?

Why are the social and behavioural distinctions between men and women being rapidly erased?

Why, despite everything, is the world becoming more tolerant than it was in previous centuries?

People are born with different intellectual, spiritual and physical capabilities. So why do we assert that all people are equal?

Can the world without violence exist? If not, under what circumstances and to what kind of violence does man have a right? Wherein lies the origin of this right?

Where is the root of our morality? Why do our moral values change over time? Do absolute moral values exist?

Why has Man, on the whole, never observed (or perhaps is incapable of observing) a set of various religious commandments? Should we observe them? Are they the decree of God?

By which “commandments” do we really live our lives and is it possible to formulate them in such a way that we could realistically observe them?

What is Good? And what is Evil? Is there a simple criterion by which one may distinguish Good from Evil?

In which direction is humanity evolving and is it governed by some universal law?

Is there any meaning to life?

Is it possible to give a clear and straightforward answer to all these questions?

It is, in fact, possible!

“The Last Faith: a book by an atheist believer” provides a clear and scientifically elegant answer to all the questions listed above. The answer which will cause the reader to reconsider many established moral principles and notions about the world around us. The answer which will help the reader to understand the nature of human actions, dilemmas, dramas and passions, in their true light. The answer which will elucidate the current stage in the development of human civilisation and offer unexpected predictions for its future.

“The Last Faith: a book by an atheist believer” is aimed at a wide audience and does not require any specialised knowledge. The author’s thoughts and reflections are presented here in the form of a fictional conversation with God which unfolds over the course of just two hundred pages. The author (PhD in Physics and Mathematics) gives concise and clearly expressed explanations and evidence for his ideas. He cites abundant examples from the world around us which are drawn from his extensive travels through Russia, America, Europe, Africa and Central Asia.

All this makes for an accessible and enjoyable read.

Why seemingly unrelated mathematical truths are connected in simple and beautiful equations continues to stump even mathematicians. This recreational math book takes the reader on a fantastic voyage into the world of natural numbers. From the earliest discoveries of the ancient Greeks to various fundamental characteristics of the natural number sequence, Clawson explains fascinating mathematical mysteries in clear and easy prose. He delves into the heart of number theory to see and understand the exquisite relationships among natural numbers, and ends by exploring the ultimate mystery of mathematics: the Riemann hypothesis, which says that through a point in a plane, no line can be drawn parallel to a given line.While a professional mathematician's treatment of number theory involves the most sophisticated analytical tools, its basic ideas are surprisingly easy to comprehend. By concentrating on the meaning behind various equations and proofs and avoiding technical refinements, Mathematical Mysteries lets the common reader catch a glimpse of this wonderful and exotic world.

Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist. Fascinating from first to last—this is a book that has already prompted the attention and admiration of some of the most prominent scientists and mathematicians.

Nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equations: An Introduction to Dynamical Systems (Oxford Texts in Applied and Engineering Mathematics) 3rd Edition

by D. W. Jordan and Peter Smith

Nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equations was first published in 1977 and has since become a standard text in the teaching of the subject. It takes a qualitative approach, and is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of dynamical systems in mathematics or mathematics-related subjects. The text of this third edition has been completely revised to bring it into line with current teaching, including an expansion of the material on bifurcations and chaos. The book is directed towards practical applications of the theory, with several hundred examples and problems covering a wide variety of applications. Prerequisites are kept to a minimum, with appendices containing the necessary mathematical theory new to this edition.

"The subject has wide applications in physical, biological, and social sciences which continuously supply new problems of practical and theoretical importance. The book does a good job in motivating the reader in such pursuits, and presents the subject in a simple but elegant style." --P. K. Kythe in Applied Mechanics Reviews

About the Author

Dominic Jordan is at University of Keele. Peter Smith is at University of Keele.

Presents the unifying world-concept long sought by scientists, mystics, and sages: an Integral Theory of Everything 

• Explains how modern science has rediscovered the Akashic Field of perennial philosophy 

• New edition updates ongoing scientific studies, presents new research inspired by the first edition, and includes new case studies and a section on animal telepathy 

Mystics and sages have long maintained that there exists an interconnecting cosmic field at the roots of reality that conserves and conveys information, a field known as the Akashic record. Recent discoveries in vacuum physics show that this Akashic Field is real and has its equivalent in science’s zero-point field that underlies space itself. This field consists of a subtle sea of fluctuating energies from which all things arise: atoms and galaxies, stars and planets, living beings, and even consciousness. This zero-point Akashic Field is the constant and enduring memory of the universe. It holds the record of all that has happened on Earth and in the cosmos and relates it to all that is yet to happen. 

“. . . Ervin Laszlo’s brilliant new work, Science and the Akashic Field, surpasses previous explorations. . . . This is a 'make-sense-of-the-complex' opus, accessible to every reader.” (A. Harris Stone, Ed.D., founder of The Graduate Institute in Milford, Connecticut, and author of The)

“This is a solidly grounded vision of our cosmos, with perspectives that are wide and deep and have profound implications for all of us.” (Henrik B. Tschudi, chairman of the Flux Foundation, Oslo, Norway)

“If you ever wanted to hold the universe in your hand . . . . You can hardly do better than join cosmologist Ervin Laszlo in the ultimate quest: for a theory of everything.” (Christian de Quincey, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, John F. Kennedy University, editor of Institut)

“Ervin Laszlo is, arguably, the most profound thinker alive today.” (Lady Montagu of Beaulieu, First Ambassador of the Club of Budapest)

"Decoding GUTs, WIMPs, and The Big Crunch, Ervin Laszlo brings the ancient Indian concept of akasha into the new millennium and convincingly details how science is turning this metaphor into a viable scientific theory.” (Spirit of Change, March-April 2005)

". . . lends credance to our deepest intuitions of the oneness of life and the whole of creation." (Share Guide, Sept-Oct 2005, Issue #81)

In Science and the Akashic Field, philosopher and scientist Ervin Laszlo conveys the essential element of this information field in language that is accessible and clear. From the world of science he confirms our deepest intuitions of the oneness of creation in the Integral Theory of Everything. We discover that, as philosopher William James stated, “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”

A friendly and non-formal approach to a subject of abstract mathematics that has important applications in physics, especially in General Relativity, but also in other sectors.

From the bestselling author of The Theoretical Minimum, a DIY introduction to the math and science of quantum mechanics.

First he taught you classical mechanics. Now, physicist Leonard Susskind has teamed up with data engineer Art Friedman to present the theory and associated mathematics of the strange world of quantum mechanics.

In this follow-up to the New York Times best-selling The Theoretical Minimum, Susskind and Friedman provide a lively introduction to this famously difficult field, which attempts to understand the behavior of sub-atomic objects through mathematical abstractions. Unlike other popularizations that shy away from quantum mechanics' weirdness, Quantum Mechanics embraces the utter strangeness of quantum logic. The authors offer crystal-clear explanations of the principles of quantum states, uncertainty and time dependence, entanglement, and particle and wave states, among other topics, and each chapter includes exercises to ensure mastery of each area. Like The Theoretical Minimum, this volume runs parallel to Susskind's eponymous Stanford University-hosted continuing education course.

An approachable yet rigorous introduction to a famously difficult topic, Quantum Mechanics provides a tool kit for amateur scientists to learn physics at their own pace.

Death and the Afterlife : A Chronological Journey, from Cremation to Quantum Resurrection by Clifford A. Pickover

Throughout history, the nature and mystery of death has captivated artists, scientists, philosophers, physicians, and theologians. This eerie chronology ventures right to the borderlines of science and sheds light into the darkness. Here, topics as wide ranging as the Maya death gods, golems, and séances sit side by side with entries on zombies and quantum immortality. With the turn of every page, readers will encounter beautiful artwork, along with unexpected insights about death and what may lie beyond.

About the Author

Internationally renowned author Clifford Pickover has published more than 40 books, translated into over a dozen languages, on topics ranging from science and mathematics to religion, art, and history. Dr. Pickover received his PhD from Yale University's Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and holds more than 200 US patents. His research has received considerable attention from such media outlets as CNN, Wired, and The New York Times, and his website, pickover.com, has received millions of visits. He lives in Yorktown Heights, NY.