First Law

Life on earth is characterized by three striking phenomena that demand explanation: adaptation—the marvelous fit between organism and environment; diversity—the great variety of organisms; and complexity—the enormous intricacy of their internal structure. Natural selection explains adaptation. But what explains diversity and complexity?

Joe Abercrombie's "First Law" series of fantasy novels have been translated into 26 languages worldwide and sold over two million copies, garnering a ton of acclaim along the way. Come find out why with the first issue of The Blade Itself…

The thesis tackles two distinct problems of great interest in gravitational mechanics — one relativistic and one Newtonian. The relativistic one is concerned with the "first law of binary mechanics", a remarkably simple variational relation that plays a crucial role in the modern understanding of the gravitational two-body problem, thereby contributing to the effort to detect gravitational-wave signals from binary systems of black holes and neutron stars. The work reported in the thesis provides a mathematically elegant extension of previous results to compact objects that carry spin angular momentum and quadrupolar deformations, which more accurately represent astrophysical bodies than mere point particles.

The thesis tackles two distinct problems of great interest in gravitational mechanics — one relativistic and one Newtonian. The relativistic one is concerned with the "first law of binary mechanics", a remarkably simple variational relation that plays a crucial role in the modern understanding of the gravitational two-body problem, thereby contributing to the effort to detect gravitational-wave signals from binary systems of black holes and neutron stars. The work reported in the thesis provides a mathematically elegant extension of previous results to compact objects that carry spin angular momentum and quadrupolar deformations, which more accurately represent astrophysical bodies than mere point particles.

Super-scientist George Baker's newest invention, electronic retinal implants known as "Cyber-Eyes," are nothing short of amazing. So amazing, in fact, and so cheap and easy to get, that some 40% of the population has gotten them within their first year on the market. But they aren't perfect. Far from it. When things start going inexplicably and bizarrely wrong with the original test-subjects, George and his family will have to find out why before the problem spreads and causes world-wide panic. Along the way they'll uncover ancient civilizations, corporate conspiracies, insane cults, other-dimensional creatures, awesome robots, subterranean cities, and Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. It's going to be a wild ride.