Only 200 people have ever been in Christopher Whitcomb's elite branch of the F.B.I. The Hostage Rescue Team is its most highly trained and specialized squadron -- equivalent to the Navy's Seals and the Army's Delta Force -- charged with terrorist capture, hostage situations, and other large-scale emergencies in the U.S. and around the world. Whitcomb is the first HRT member ever to write about his experience. With breathtaking immediacy, Whitcomb describes the brutal training, the weapons and tactics, and the unbreakable camaraderie of the HRT. In short order, after joining HRT in 1991, Whitcomb was sent on missions to Ruby Ridge and Waco, and his frank assessment of those missions is must reading for anyone interested in modern law enforcement. Only rarely does a writer this accomplished have a life this dramatic. Cold Zero is a book of rare action and emotion, and one that introduces a remarkable new writer to the world.

For the first time a member of the F.B.I.Us elite Hostage Rescue Team--its most highly trained and specialized squadron that handles large-scale emergencies in the U.S.--reveals his experiences, describing in breathtaking detail the brutal training, the weapons and tactics, and the dramatic showdowns that marked many of his missions, including Ruby Ridge and Waco.

“A lovely, fascinating book, which brings science to life.” —Alan Lightman Combining science, history, and adventure, Tom Shachtman “holds the reader’s attention with the skill of a novelist” as he chronicles the story of humans’ four-centuries-long quest to master the secrets of cold (Scientific American). “A disarming portrait of an exquisite, ferocious, world-ending extreme,” Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold demonstrates how temperature science produced astonishing scientific insights and applications that have revolutionized civilization (Kirkus Reviews). It also illustrates how scientific advancement, fueled by fortuitous discoveries and the efforts of determined individuals, has allowed people to adapt to—and change—the environments in which they live and work, shaping man’s very understanding of, and relationship, with the world. This “truly wonderful book” was adapted into an acclaimed documentary underwritten by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, directed by British Emmy Award winner David Dugan, and aired on the BBC and PBS’s Nova in 2008 (Library Journal). “An absorbing account to chill out with.” —Booklist

John Hayes is a Special Operations legend who went rogue on a deep-cover mission and betrayed his own soldiers. Disgraced and on the run, he returns to the United States to get back to his wife and daughter and take revenge on his accusers with a series of devastating attacks. Only one man can stop him: Thomas Byrne. He once fought alongside Hayes as a combat medic, but he gave up the gun. Now a surgeon, he moves from town to town, trying to forget his past, until he is called upon by a high-ranking government official to help capture the man he once called a friend. Hayes and Byrne were once as close as brothers, but with the fate of the nation hanging in the balance and nothing as it seems, both men must decide whom to trust -- and whom to betray. In a final, explosive battle for justice, they face off along a rifle's cold barrel. Cold Barrel Zero brings together the blistering pace of Lee Child, the nonstop action of Brad Thor, and the richly drawn characters and moral stakes of Daniel Silva. An experienced reporter armed with deep behind-the-scenes research into America's Special Operations Forces, Quirk takes the military thriller to a new level of suspense.

Recent years have seen tremendous progress in research on cold and controlled molecular collisions, both in theory and in experiment. The advent of techniques to prepare cold and ultracold molecules and ions, to store them in optical lattices or in charged quasicristalline structures, and to use them in crossed or merged beam experiments have opened many new possibilities to study the most fundamental aspects of molecular interactions. At the same time, theoretical work has made progress in tackling these problems and accurately describing quantum effects in complex systems, and in proposing viable options to control chemical reactions at ultralow energies. Through tutorials on both the theoretical and experimental aspects of research in cold and ultracold molecular collisions, this book provides advanced undergraduate students, graduate students and researchers with the foundations needed to understand this exciting field.

Jason’s sleepwalking father is snoring all around the house! In the bathtub, in the kitchen, even on top of the car in the garage. But when the front door is opened and Jason’s father sleepwalks outside into the frozen night, Jason has to take special action. A newly designed Classic Munsch picture book introduces this charming tale of a noisily napping parent to a new generation of young readers.

Inside Cyber Warfare provides fascinating and disturbing details on how nations, groups, and individuals throughout the world use the Internet as an attack platform to gain military, political, and economic advantages over their adversaries. You'll discover how sophisticated hackers working on behalf of states or organized crime patiently play a high-stakes game that could target anyone, regardless of affiliation or nationality. The second edition goes beyond the headlines of attention-grabbing DDoS attacks and takes a deep look inside recent cyber-conflicts, including the use of Stuxnet. It also includes a Forward by Michael Chertoff (former Secretary of Homeland Security) and several guest essays, including one by Melissa Hathaway, former senior advisor to the Director of National Intelligence and Cyber Coordination Executive. Get an in-depth look at hot topics including: The role of social networks in fomenting revolution in the Middle East and Northern Africa The Kremlin's strategy to invest heavily in social networks (including Facebook) and how it benefits the Russian government How the U.S. Cyber Command and equivalent commands are being stood up in other countries The rise of Anonymous with analysis of its anti-structure and operational style or tempo Stuxnet and its predecessors, and what they reveal about the inherent weaknesses in critical infrastructure The Intellectual Property (IP) war, and how it has become the primary focus of state-sponsored cyber operations