An entertaining introduction to special characters and symbolsFeatures illustrative examples from many different areas: everyday life, politics and religion, science and technology, astronomy and mathematicsRequires no previous knowledge in any field

Since gaining a BSc in physics from the University of Bristol and a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Manchester, Stephen Webb has worked in a variety of universities in the UK. He is a regular contributor to the Yearbook of Astronomy series and has published an undergraduate textbook Measuring the Universe - The Cosmological Distance Ladder (1999) as well as several popular science books, among them Out of this World - Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild Ideas of Modern Physics in 2004, New Eyes on the Universe - Twelve Cosmic Mysteries and the Tools We Need to Solve Them in 2012, and, in 2015, the second edition of If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens. WHERE IS EVERYBODY? Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial, published as part of Springer's Science and Fiction series. His most recent book is All the Wonder that Would Be - Exploring Past Notions of the Future (2017), again published as part of Springer's Science and Fiction series.