Forces of Nature

About this book

"Why is the sky blue?"
"Why is the Earth round?"
"Why is every snowflake unique?"

To answer these and many other questions, Professor Brian Cox will reveal some of the most extraordinary phenomena and events on Earth.

He will reveal why Earth is the most colourful world we know, exploring the white light of the sun as it travels through the darkness of space until it hits Earth's atmosphere where it begins a new journey, splitting into a rainbow of colours. He will show how our world is built up of myriad shapes which all obey the forces of nature no matter where or what they are. These forces sculpt snowflakes into infinitely variable shapes, as well as setting limits to the height of spectacular, death-defying human towers created by hundreds of people from one town in Spain. In Florida, endangered manatees, large marine mammals also known as sea cows, use the rules of shape to survive.

From the great plains of the Serengeti, the volcanoes of Indonesia and the precipitous cliffs in Nepal, to the humpback whales of the Caribbean and the northern lights of the Arctic, Brian will give inspiring answers to our most searching questions that will illuminate our understanding of the planet like never before.

Think you know our planet?

Think again.

Customer Reviews

Biography

Professor Brian Cox, OBE is a particle physicist, a Royal Society research fellow, and a professor at the University of Manchester as well as researcher on one of the most ambitious experiments on Earth, the ATLAS experiment on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. He is best known to the public as a science broadcaster and presenter of the popular BBC Wonders trilogy.

Andrew Cohen is Head of the BBC Science Unit and the Executive Producer of the BBC series Human Universe. He has been responsible for a wide range of science documentaries including Horizon, the Wonders trilogy and Stargazing Live. He is an honorary lecturer in Life Sciences at the University of Manchester and lives in London with his wife and three children.