Promotion

Use code MOM26 for 25% off sitewide!

Site Preferences

Show prices in:

Our Final Hour

A Scientist's Warning

Our Final Hour Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Martin Rees

Formats and Prices

On Sale
Mar 17, 2009
Page Count
240 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780786740697

Price

$11.99

Price

$15.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. ebook $11.99 $15.99 CAD
  2. Trade Paperback $19.99 $25.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around March 17, 2009. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Buy from Other Retailers:

A scientist known for unraveling the complexities of the universe over millions of years, Sir Martin Rees now warns that humankind is potentially the maker of its own demise — and that of the cosmos. Though the twenty-first century could be the critical era in which life on Earth spreads beyond our solar system, it is just as likely that we have endangered the future of the entire universe. With clarity and precision, Rees maps out the ways technology could destroy our species and thereby foreclose the potential of a living universe whose evolution has just begun. Rees boldly forecasts the startling risks that stem from our accelerating rate of technological advances. We could be wiped out by lethal “engineered” airborne viruses, or by rogue nano-machines that replicate catastrophically. Experiments that crash together atomic nuclei could start a chain reaction that erodes all atoms of Earth, or could even tear the fabric of space itself. Through malign intent or by mistake, a single event could trigger global disaster. Though we can never completely safeguard our future, increased regulation and inspection can help us to prevent catastrophe. Rees’s vision of the infinite future that we have put at risk — a cosmos more vast and diverse than any of us has ever imagined — is both a work of stunning scientific originality and a humanistic clarion call on behalf of the future of life.

Genre:

You May Also Like

The Doomsday Book
The Doomsday Book $14.99 $19.99 CAD
The Science Book
The Science Book $14.99
Earth in Human Hands
Earth in Human Hands $14.99 $19.99 CAD
The New York Times Book of Science
The New York Times Book of Science $16.99 $21.99 CAD
The End Of Science
The End Of Science $21.99 $28.99 CAD

Martin Rees

About the Author

Matrin Rees is a leading researcher on cosmic evolution, black holes, and galaxies. He has himself originated many key ideas, and brings a unique perspective to themes discussed in this book. He is currently a Royal Society Research Professor, and Great Britain’s Astronomer Royal. Through based in Cambridge University for most of his career, he travels extensively, and collaborates wit many colleagues in the U.S. and elsewhere. He is an enthusiast for international collaboration in research, and is a member of several foreign academies.

Learn more about this author