Stephen Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for thirty years and the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the presidential Medal of Freedom. His books for the general reader include My Brief History, the classic A Brief History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universes, The Universe in a Nutshell, and, with Leonard Mlodinow, A Briefer History of Time and The Grand Design. Stephen Hawking died in 2018.
“[Hawking] can explain the complexities of cosmological physics
with an engaging combination of clarity and wit. . . . His is a
brain of extraordinary power.”—The New York Review of Books
“This book marries a child’s wonder to a genius’s intellect. We
journey into Hawking’s universe while marvelling at his mind.”—The
Sunday Times (London)
“Masterful.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Charming and lucid . . . [A book of] sunny brilliance.”—The New
Yorker
“Lively and provocative . . . Mr. Hawking clearly possesses a
natural teacher’s gifts—easy, good-natured humor and an ability to
illustrate highly complex propositions with analogies plucked from
daily life.”—The New York Times
“Even as he sits helpless in his wheelchair, his mind seems to soar
ever more brilliantly across the vastness of space and time to
unlock the secrets of the universe.”—Time
Hawking's discovery that black holes emit particles caused great excitement among astronomers. In this succinct overview of current theories of the cosmos, the Cambridge University physicist modestly weaves in his own notable contributions while giving due credit to his colleagues. He explains why relativity implies that a ``big bang'' occurred and examines string theory, which posits a universe of 10 or 26 dimensions. His understanding of time's flow leads him to conclude that intelligent beings can only exist during the expansion phase of our increasingly chaotic universe. New research on black holes and subatomic particles holds implications for scientists who, like Hawking, are attempting to devise a unified theory linking Einstein to quantum mechanics. The merit of this book is Hawking's ability to make these ideas graspable by the lay reader. (April)
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