Wonders of the Universe

An iPad app well worth your time (and easily worth its $5.99 price) is Wonders of the Universe, hosted by physicist Brian Cox. I spent many hours happily scrolling through the app and learning about basic physics, from the particles of the quantum world to the monstrous black holes that destroy entire stars.

The app, which combines the text of the book with dozens of video and animated clips from the BBC television series, is gorgeous and extremely informative. Divided into eight episodes, from “Subatomic” to “Universe,” with each episode then further subdivided into chapters such as “Gravity,” the app is organized so that you can tour the universe systematically or simply dive in and out. The graphics are particularly beautiful and really pop out on the iPad’s Retina screen. Most importantly, I think, the text is clearly written for the general reader.

The host, a professor of physics who used to play in a rock band that had some hit songs, has an extremely engaging and enthusiastic personality, which has made him one of the most popular science presenters in England. He’s currently affiliated with the University of Manchester and conducts research into particles at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland.

So if you’re interested in how the universe came to exist, or if you want to know how it’s going to end, check out Wonders of the Universe.