Malign Portents

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Vector

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Author : Robyn Arianrhod
Genre : Mathematics

Summary : "The stars of the latest book by award-winning science writer and mathematician Robyn Arianrhod are unlikely celebrities--vectors and tensors. If you took a high school physics course, the word "vector" might remind you of the mathematics needed to determine forces on an amusement park ride, say; or of cross products, a special kind of multiplication using a bespoke table and a right-hand rule. You might also remember the introductory definition of a vector as a quantity that has magnitude and (this is the key) direction. Velocity--for example, 25 miles per hour northwest--is a vector; speed, such as 25 miles per hour, is not. Put another way, a velocity vector in space contains not one number, but three-a measurement of speed along each of three dimensions. It sounds simple, in hindsight--yet, as Arianrhod shows in this intriguing story, the idea of a single symbol expressing several things at once is a sophisticated one, millennia in the making. Vectors are examples of an even more sophisticated idea, the tensor. And it's not just space that vectors and tensors can represent, but information, too. Which means that whenever you use a search engine, say, or AI bot, computer graphics, or a host of other digital applications, vectors and tensors are there somewhere in the software. As for physics, there's much more to it than velocities and simple forces! Arianrhod shows how the discovery of vectors and tensors enabled physicists and mathematicians to think brand new thoughts-such as Maxwell did when he ushered in the wireless electromagnetic age, and Einstein when he predicted the curving of four-dimensional space-time and the existence of gravitational waves. Quantum theory, too, makes fine use of these ideas. In other words, vectors and tensors have been critical not only to the way we see our universe, but also to the invention of Wi-Fi, GPS, micro-technology, and so much else that we take for granted today. In exploring the history and significance of vectors and tensors-and introducing the fascinating people who gave them to us--Arianrhod takes readers on an extraordinary, five-thousand-year journey through the human imagination. A celebration of an idea, Vector shows the genius required to imagine the world in new dimensions-and how a clever mathematical construct can direct the future of discovery"--

Red Heat

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Author : Richard Sim
Genre : Fiction

Summary : Winter 1961. Bruce Cordell has had quite enough trouble in his life. With a reputation badly injured by the collapse of his investigation into a corrupt corporation, he wants to keep his head down. His life has become mundane, reduced to desk work, and complicated only by family responsibilities. That is until his boss gives him a new case. A case which means that he will have to travel to the Caribbean Island of St. Eleanor, a tiny British colony being readied for independence. There the moderate First Minister, Warwick Constantine, favourable to joining the new West Indian Federation, has died suddenly, apparently from an overdose of barbiturates. Cordell is commissioned to investigate the circumstances of his death. But from the outset it is clear that mysterious interests know of his assignment. A strange delivery to his home implies a warning. Onslow-Bell, representing the business consultancy, International Project Assessment (IPA), inveigles Cordell into agreeing to compile a short report on St. Eleanor's prospects in return for an astonishingly generous remuneration. But from the outset Cordell feels his movements are being shadowed. Soon he finds himself caught up in a toxic mix of independence politics: plantation workers find their produce 'blacked' by shipping companies at the behest of the monolithic Allied Fruits; the United States is keeping a wary eye on Castro's revolution across the Caribbean and seeks a Naval anchorage in St. Eleanor; the multinational Alpha Omega is hoping to develop a tourism complex, a proposal backed by the new First Minister, the radical and slick Bob Jamieson. But more disturbing he finds are the oleaginous Jake Oppenheimer from Government House and his own IPA contact, the suave Rufus Halliday, who soon enmesh Cordell in their own intrigues. Cordell is assisted by two new local colleagues, the irrepressible Lucy Wainwright and the blunt speaking Tim Quick. Early enquiries lead Cordell to Quentin Quillham, an expatriate writer who was the last person to see Constantine alive. Quillham throws doubt on the circumstances of the First Minister's death, highlighting his anger at Allied Fruits' behaviour and that his last professional duties had involved reading a confidential report, now unaccountably missing. Quillham's wife, Chantelle, meanwhile runs a successful arts gallery in the capital, St. Jacques, as well as hosting soirees for the island's budding artists and up and coming elite. Investigations are derailed by a mysterious phone call from a female informer warning him that Quillham's life is in danger. This soon becomes an accomplished fact and Cordell despairingly seeks out the original police investigator, Woodbine Parish. Parish's ruminations lead Cordell and Lucy to search for a low life, Julian Maddox who had dealings with both Quillham and also Constantine whom he had approached ostensibly on behalf of desperate plantation workers. The Governor, Sir Godwin Faed, intervenes, educating Cordell in some of the realities of independence and the growing significance and concerns of the Americans. An informer Geneviève Clouin, a young French assistant working with Chantelle Quillham opens up suspicions about Halliday, Jamieson and the activities of Alpha Omega. A harrowing quest for answers begins, one that uncovers a shocking tale of deceit, greed and relentless pursuit. Cordell realises that he has become a pawn in other people's games.

Malign Portents

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Vector

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