"Adventure is worthwhile in itself" said the aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. Roald Amundsen, one of the most intrepid explorers in History, put it much more prosaically when he declared that "adventure is just bad planning". Whichever way you look at it, the spirit of adventure is intrinsic in all of us; it is just a question of finding the right key to unleash it. And that is precisely what this book proposes to do with a collection of 100 adventurous journeys to the four corners of the Earth, on foot or by bicycle, by sailing boat or by off-road transport or even by more "exotic" means of transport, to plunge into the wildest forms of Nature or to encounter peoples who are very different from ourselves, and even to test our physical limits in extreme sports. Some of the adventures included in the book only last a few days, while others are epic journeys -- in the Amazon Forest, along the Grand Trunk Road, the "travelling continent" between Pakistan and India or through the ice of the Antarctic -- that will be remembered as once in a lifetime experiences. The chronicle of each one of these journeys, all of which are truly special, is accompanied by spectacular pictures and practical information and advice because, as Amundsen said, a perfect adventure must be well organised.

The remarkable story of a startling scientific idea that ignited a battle among the greatest minds of the twentieth century and profoundly influenced intellectual inquiry in fields ranging from physics to literary criticism, anthropology and journalism. In 1927, young German physicist Werner Heisenberg challenged centuries of scientific understanding when he introduced what came to be known as "the uncertainty principle." Heisenberg proved that in many physical measurements, you can obtain one bit of information only at the price of losing another. This proposition, undermining the cherished belief that science could reveal the physical world with limitless detail and precision, placed Heisenberg in direct opposition to the revered Albert Einstein. Niels Bohr, Heisenberg's mentor and Einstein's long-time friend, found himself caught between the two. Bohr understood that Heisenberg was correct, but he also recognized the vital necessity of gaining Einstein's support as the world faced the shocking implications of Heisenberg's principle.--From publisher description