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The Grand Design
by Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow
by Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow
Science can be truly beautiful, and every once in a while there’s a science book that’s beautiful too. Stephen Hawking’s popular science books usually fall into that category, with gorgeous illustrations, in pictures and words, highlighting the wonders and mysteries of our world.
The Grand Design reminds readers of those four pre-requisites of good scientific theory—it should be elegant, it should rely on as few unproven assumptions as possible, it should agree with and explain all existing observations, and it should make predictions about future observations that can prove or disprove the theory. The theory of gravity, for example, moves forward from Aristotle to Newton to Einstein as different experiments yield new results.
The text is easy to read and complex concepts are nicely balanced with wryly humorous asides. Repetition of the authors’ point of view that God is not “necessary” to explain the world might offend some religious readers, but the authors also point out that none of their explanations is “necessary,” and all the models we use to explain reality depend in the end on our own point of view. The fish in a spherical bowl doesn’t see straight lines as we do and might explain life very differently, but if the model works the fish will be happy.
I enjoyed learning about two very different scientific views—the deterministic science of initial conditions and well-defined results, and the probabilistic approach that’s needed for wave-particle theories and the Grand Design. At last I know where “eleven dimensions” comes from, and at last I have a clearer view of how waves can be particles—there’s a great illustration of soccer balls being kicked at a two-slitted screen.
Free-will, psychology and stellar evolution all take their place in a thoroughly fascinating read. I still believe in God and attribute the final (and grandest) design to Him, but I really enjoyed this journey through the wonders of modern science.
Disclosure: I got this book for Christmas—only took half a year to get around to reading it.
The Grand Design reminds readers of those four pre-requisites of good scientific theory—it should be elegant, it should rely on as few unproven assumptions as possible, it should agree with and explain all existing observations, and it should make predictions about future observations that can prove or disprove the theory. The theory of gravity, for example, moves forward from Aristotle to Newton to Einstein as different experiments yield new results.
The text is easy to read and complex concepts are nicely balanced with wryly humorous asides. Repetition of the authors’ point of view that God is not “necessary” to explain the world might offend some religious readers, but the authors also point out that none of their explanations is “necessary,” and all the models we use to explain reality depend in the end on our own point of view. The fish in a spherical bowl doesn’t see straight lines as we do and might explain life very differently, but if the model works the fish will be happy.
I enjoyed learning about two very different scientific views—the deterministic science of initial conditions and well-defined results, and the probabilistic approach that’s needed for wave-particle theories and the Grand Design. At last I know where “eleven dimensions” comes from, and at last I have a clearer view of how waves can be particles—there’s a great illustration of soccer balls being kicked at a two-slitted screen.
Free-will, psychology and stellar evolution all take their place in a thoroughly fascinating read. I still believe in God and attribute the final (and grandest) design to Him, but I really enjoyed this journey through the wonders of modern science.
Disclosure: I got this book for Christmas—only took half a year to get around to reading it.
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