دانلود کتاب تاریخچه مخفی کهکشان راه شیری

ONE OF THE BIGGEST MYSTERIES of the universe is why there is a universe at all. According to particle physics, the big bang should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, and they should have immediately canceled each other out. But here we are! We’re lucky enough to exist, and we get to live in a time when fundamental questions can be asked and potentially answered scientifically. Physicist Luke Caldwell on page 52 narrates how he and his colleagues made the most precise measurement ever of a property of electrons that could help explain the existence of everything. It’s tempting to think that our big old human brains are uniquely able to learn, store information, and use know-how to make decisions and solve problems. But bizarrely, recent research suggests that even rudimentary clumps of nonbrain cells—from the skin or the heart, for instance—can remember experiences and act on their knowledge. This work is leading to new ideas about the evolutionary origins of intelligence, as author Rowan Jacobsen writes on page 44. The field, called basal cognition, is full of startling examples that may change how you think about thinking. The clock is ticking toward a time when quantum computers will be able to hack today’s most common and sophisticated security systems. The clock has a name, the Y2Q clock, and the projected date when we’ll no longer be able to shop safely online or share encoded messages securely is April 14, 2030 (but that’s just a rough guess). The National Institute of Standards and Technology challenged inventors a few years ago to come up with “quantum-resistant” cryptography. On page 36, mathematician and writer Kelsey Houston-Edwards discusses how the winners of that contest propose using lattice mathematics and other strategies to keep today’s secrets safe from tomorrow’s quantum computers. Do you remember the first time you saw a faint band of stars across the sky and realized that was the Milky Way? No matter how many times you notice it, it’s awesome to know you’re seeing our own spiral galaxy from within. That sight might be a little more awesome after reading author Ann Finkbeiner’s description on page 20 of unprecedented star-tracking projects that have generated a new map of the Milky Way. Our galaxy’s history turns out to be much more tumultuous and chaotic than expected. One astronomer sums up our new view as “the single largest increase in astronomical knowledge in, like, forever.” Sand mining is a serious and growing environmental threat that has not gotten as much attention as deforestation or overfishing. Most of the sand is used in concrete, and the world is mining it much faster than it can be replenished. Sand dredging disrupts coastlines and rivers, and the industry is full of transnational corruption. Writer David A. Taylor goes inside the world of illegal and (kinda) legal sand mining on page 60 and shows how investigators are trying to stop the most dangerous practices. Some of the most dramatic fossil discoveries in the U.S. have been made in the badlands of Montana. Paleontologist Kristina A. Curry Rogers and geologist Raymond R. Rogers on page 28 take us on their journey to look at some of the humbler—but no less vital—fossil finds: teeth, fish scales, parasites and small bones.