Ralph Edney – illustratör

Fractals are the geometry of the natural world. They're about the broken, wrinkled, wiggly world- the uneven shapes of nature, unlike the idealised forms of Euclidean geometry. We see fractals everywhere; indeed, we are fractals ourselves.Fractal geometry is an extension of classical geometry which can make precise models of physical structures, from ferns to galaxies. It can describe the shape of a cloud as precisely as an architect can describe a house.Introducing Fractals traces the historical development of this mathematical discipline, explores its descriptive powers in the natural world, and then looks at the applications and the implications of the discoveries it has made. As John Archibald Wheeler, protégé of Niels Bohr, friend of Albert Einstein and mentor of Richard Feynman has said, 'No one will be considered scientifically literate tomorrow, who is not familiar with fractals.'

What is time? The 5th-century philosopher St Augustine famously said that he knew what time was, so long as no one asked him.Is time a fourth dimension similar to space or does it flow in some sense? And if it flows, does it make sense to say how fast? Does the future exist? Is time travel possible? Why does time seem to pass in only one direction?These questions and others are among the deepest and most subtle that one can ask, but Introducing Time presents them - many for the first time - in an easily accessible, lucid and engaging manner, wittily illustrated by Ralph Edney.

One of the biggest-selling titles in the Introducing series, J.P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate's utterly brilliant Introducing Quantum Theory explores one of the most challenging, thrilling and mysterious areas of science. Taking the reader on a step-by-step tour, they tackle the puzzle of the wave-particle duality, Schrödinger's 'dead and alive cat', the EPR paradox and much more, explaining this notoriously difficult theory with patience, wit and clarity.It is now more than a century since Einstein's theories of Special and General Relativity began to revolutionise our view of the universe. Beginning near the speed of light and proceeding to explorations of space-time and curved spaces, Introducing Relativity plots a visually accessible course through the thought experiments that have given shape to contemporary physics. This is a superlative, fascinating graphic account of Einstein's strange world and how his legacy has been built upon since.If a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, does it cause a tornado in Texas? Described as 'a beautifully succinct primer ... most recommended' by Time Out, Ziauddin Sardar and Iwona Abrams' Introducing Chaos attempts to answer bafflingly difficult questions like this. Explaining how chaos makes its presence felt in events from the fluctuation of the animal population to the ups and downs of the stock market, the book offers a uniquely approachable introduction to an astonishing and controversial theory.

Why does philosophy give some people a headache, others a real buzz, and yet others a feeling that it is subversive and dangerous? Why do a lot of people think philosophy is totally irrelevant? What is philosophy anyway? The ABCs of philosophy --easy to understand but never simplistic. Beginning with basic questions posed by the ancient Greeks - What is knowledge? What is good and evil?"Philosophy For Beginners" traces the answers given by western philosophy over the last 2,500 years.