"A molecular biologist looks at life and the implications of genetic research"--Jacket subtitle.

This exploration of the scientific limits of knowledge challenges our deep-seated beliefs about our universe, our rationality, and ourselves. “A must-read for anyone studying information science.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review Many books explain what is known about the universe. This book investigates what cannot be known. Rather than exploring the amazing facts that science, mathematics, and reason have revealed to us, this work studies what science, mathematics, and reason tell us cannot be revealed. In The Outer Limits of Reason, Noson Yanofsky considers what cannot be predicted, described, or known, and what will never be understood. He discusses the limitations of computers, physics, logic, and our own intuitions about the world—including our ideas about space, time, and motion, and the complex relationship between the knower and the known. Yanofsky describes simple tasks that would take computers trillions of centuries to complete and other problems that computers can never solve: • perfectly formed English sentences that make no sense • different levels of infinity • the bizarre world of the quantum • the relevance of relativity theory • the causes of chaos theory • math problems that cannot be solved by normal means • statements that are true but cannot be proven Moving from the concrete to the abstract, from problems of everyday language to straightforward philosophical questions to the formalities of physics and mathematics, Yanofsky demonstrates a myriad of unsolvable problems and paradoxes. Exploring the various limitations of our knowledge, he shows that many of these limitations have a similar pattern and that by investigating these patterns, we can better understand the structure and limitations of reason itself. Yanofsky even attempts to look beyond the borders of reason to see what, if anything, is out there.

New and expanded edition of Kossy's bizarre sourcebook to the outer limits of human belief. Packed with amazing facts, theories and some just very weird ideas, there is something for everyone here and lots more besides! Will drilling a hole in one's head cause enlightenment? Can a person's soul be captured in a hairnet? Is there scientific proof of God? All is revealed. Illustrated. 'Donna Kossy boldly blazes new trails in the vast intellectual wilderness of American writers, thinkers and philosophers who were or are completely nuts.' - Bruce Sterling

Edgar Cayce, America's "sleeping prophet," was one of the most active and trusted psychics of the 20th century. Thousands of people relied on him for insights into their physical and emotional health, spiritual questions, business prospects, and dreams. His writings still inform us today. Cayce's readings were stunningly accurate-about 85 percent of them hit the mark. But some cases seemed to be beyond his abilities. Why did his powers fail him at times-if they in fact did? In The Outer Limits of Edgar Cayce's Power, his sons, Edgar Evans Cayce and Hugh Lynn Cayce, investigate the questions that challenged the prophet's seemingly unlimited psychic abilities.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE Even small children know there are infinitely many whole numbers - start counting and you'll never reach the end. But there are also infinitely many decimal numbers between zero and one. Are these two types of infinity the same? Are they larger or smaller than each other? Can we even talk about 'larger' and 'smaller' when we talk about infinity? In Beyond Infinity, international maths sensation Eugenia Cheng reveals the inner workings of infinity. What happens when a new guest arrives at your infinite hotel - but you already have an infinite number of guests? How does infinity give Zeno's tortoise the edge in a paradoxical foot-race with Achilles? And can we really make an infinite number of cookies from a finite amount of cookie dough? Wielding an armoury of inventive, intuitive metaphor, Cheng draws beginners and enthusiasts alike into the heart of this mysterious, powerful concept to reveal fundamental truths about mathematics, all the way from the infinitely large down to the infinitely small.