The Universe in a Nutshell

published	November 6th 2001 by Bantam
first published	2002
binding	Hardcover
isbn	055380202X (isbn13: 9780553802023)
pages	224
description	Stephen Hawking, science's first real rock star, may be the least-read bestselling author in history--it's no secret that many people who own A Brief History of Time ...more [close] Stephen Hawking, science's first real rock star, may be the least-read bestselling author in history--it's no secret that many people who own A Brief History of Time have never finished it. Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell aims to remedy the situation, with a plethora of friendly illustrations to help readers grok some of the most brain-bending ideas ever conceived. Does it succeed? Yes and no. While Hawking offers genuinely accessible context for such complexities as string theory and the nature of time, it's when he must translate equations to sentences that the limits of language get in the way. But Hawking has simplified the origin of the universe, the nature of space and time, and what holds it all together to an unprecedented degree, inviting nonscientists to share his obvious awe and love of the unseen forces that shape it all. Yes, it's difficult reading, but it's worth it. Hawking is one of the great geniuses of our time, a man whose life has been devoted to thinking in the abstract about the universe. With his help, and pictures--lots of pictures--we can seek to understand a bit more of the cosmos. --Therese Littleton [close]
date added	10-02-06 edit book

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John rated it:

01/06/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Science readers, people curious about the universe

Hawking is just about unparalleled in his ability to share the beauty and wonder of science. His description of how we discovered the universe is expanding is wondrous. We all know the practicality of science; it produces all this nifty technology. Yet most people can't appreciate the rich wonder and satisfaction of it, largely thanks to boring science classes in school and clinical science writers. Hawking is a gift to science in this regard. He's also a bit funnier than most, which helps liven...more Hawking is just about unparalleled in his ability to share the beauty and wonder of science. His description of how we discovered the universe is expanding is wondrous. We all know the practicality of science; it produces all this nifty technology. Yet most people can't appreciate the rich wonder and satisfaction of it, largely thanks to boring science classes in school and clinical science writers. Hawking is a gift to science in this regard. He's also a bit funnier than most, which helps liven up the tedium of long passages of theoretical information.

However, his explanations fall short in several essential areas as he explains concepts. For instance, saying that laymen should think of imaginary numbers as "a new kind of number at right angles to ordinary real numbers" sounds clever, but doesn't express what they are at all and will leave most uninitiated readers puzzled. While the context of imaginary numbers is very complicated, leaving them abstract and not introducing them in the context of their value to science leaves them frustratingly abstract. There are similar oversimplifications or unsatisfactory descriptions throughout the book, including the shape of time, why one cannot move back in time but can in space and how half-integer spins are possible. His discussion of the possibility of intelligent life in other dimensions is needlessly long for something he dismisses and is essentially a just-so story. His discussion of probable alternate histories is too dramatic and sounds like the same implausible science fiction he keeps pausing to promise us it isn't, not just because it is borderline fantastic scientific speculation, but because he cannot pull it together in so few pages. Hawking illuminates much of theoretical physics, but there are still terribly dim passages, the only redeeming quality of which is that they are phrased amusingly.

This book is an entertaining and adequate summary of much of modern physics and quantum physics. Hawking's prose is far more accessible than his contemporaries or Einstein. It's also very accessibly structured; you can skip from the introductory chapter to any of the other topic-oriented chapters, covering whatever you are curious about. Hopefully he will motivate you to read other science, as his books have many generalizations and neglect to mention most of the scientific studies that support (or contradict) the theories, but this is a lovely introduction....less

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The Universe in a Nutshell

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