A Brief History of Time

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: Glamour of Hawking's bestselling presentation of cosmology and astrophysics (superstrings and elements of "older" quantum physics added) rests, in my opinion, on two pillars: mystique of the author's personality (or his mind-over-matter fate and stature) and very readable and accessible exposition of his subject. Nicely illustrated and comprehensive (one gets the entire story, from the dawn of mechanics via general relativity to the superstrings and black holes thermodynamics), Hawking's "History" has one excellent quality: an interested reader can, with a minimum of energy, easily swallow (in a gulp, so to speak) all the "buzz" concepts of contemporary cosmology. In short: if you read this book, you'll know (on a graphical/imaginal level) how the modern cosmological narrative looks like. On the other hand: this story is anything but "deep". Its philosophical pretensions (the nature of Time, the Mind of God (what's that ?), (in)determinism and free will, great "whys") are simply ludicrous. Some of his "innovations" (especially imaginary time, which has been virtually smashed as a concept in, for instance, William Craig's article in Brit. J. Phil. Sci., issue 41. p. 473-491, (1990)) are not happy at all. Even more- Hawking equates time as a physical concept with Augustianian-like philosophical Time about which neither he nor Einstein have nothing to say (Einstein was at least lucid enough not to stray beyond physics self-imposed limits). "Mind of God" is another, completely redundant & meaningless phrase when used in this context. Tampering with metaphysics has long since been a fatal/"tragic" flaw of ill-equipped scientists. Hawking is just another prey in this, as it seems, irresistible intellectual trap. In sum: I would recommend this book as a nice intro in cosmology and some physics history, amply illustrated and accessible to all interested in expanding their sci conceptual framework (although, Greene's "Ellegant Universe" is a better book for laymen). For anything "deeper"- forget it.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Primer On The Nature Of the Universe!
Review: There was a joke going around shortly after Stephen Hawking's wonderful book came out in 1988 that it was the most popular best-seller that no one ever read, dooming all those copies to lay instead as a prop on millions of coffee tables as a conversation piece. Yet for those of us persistent enough to peer through the covers at the remarkable exposition of quite complicated scientific ideas lay open and rendered comprehensible in his clear, crisp style, the book is indeed a veritable treasure trove of layman's explanations for some wondrous scientific phenomena. Hawking, a Lecturer in Physics at Cambridge University, has an unusual ability to avoid all but a bare minimum of that oh-so stupefying technical scientific jargon in explaining such aspects of our universe as black holes, the nature of time, the so-called "big bang", and of course, gravity itself.

He is addressing the very nature of physics as he plows through these quite centrally and enduring mysteries of the universe. Therefore, the rhetorical questions posed are obviously designed to elucidate some interesting, provocative, and fairly straightforward answers to timeless pondering we all have. Yet one's mind often boggles at the sheer scale of our imaginings, with concepts so vast and so dislocated in our ordinary day-to- day time-space continuum as to give even the most intrepid questioner among us a little case of vertigo. This only serves to magnify the breadth of Hawking's accomplishment in writing this very approachable and readable tome describing the both the origins and the very nature of the universe.

Given the more than ten years since the original publication of Professor Hawking's fascinating book, this new and much revised edition shows how many of his perceptions, interpretations, and theoretical observations have been substantiated by further scientific investigation and discovery. With these extraordinary revelations included within the pages of the revised edition, it becomes an even more impressive and quite dazzling invitation to learn more about the incredible capabilities of theoretical science on the one hand, and of the universe itself on the other. This is a marvelous book, and one I can heartily recommend. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Time to read this... and find out much more!!
Review: A wonderfull read! The notion of time is well defined and well explained. ... Bravo!! The content is well written and precise, in fact reading it was a great preparation for scientific book on the history of chronology. To those who like facts rather than speculation , I would really recommend reading "History: Fiction or Science" by Anatoly Fomenko, who follows in the steps of Sir Isaac Newton, and fearlessly tackles the falsification of antiquity with astronomy and mathematics.

Rating:
Summary: Fate of Space and Time: Blackholes to Big Crunch
Review: This is one of the early books written for those who prefer words to equations to understand cosmology of blackholes. The author attempts to answer basic questions such as; was there a beginning of time? Is there an end to the universe? What are similarities of blackholes, singularity, and Big Crunch? Is the universe infinite? Or does it have boundaries? What are the effects of the critical value of the universe's density on its rate of expansion? What is the role of God in the creation of the universe and how it can be evaluated by the anthropic principle? Did God creat laws of quantum mechanics and theory of relativity and let it evolve itself without leaving an option for him to intervene? How did he choose an initial state or configuration of the universe? What were the boundary conditions at the beginning of time? The author reviews the literature that includes Newton's laws of gravitational force, Einstein's theory of relativity, and quantum mechanics. Problems arise when one combines these theories to understand the four natural forces; the electromagnetic force; the strong and weak nuclear forces; and the gravitational force by one unified field theory (Quantum theory of gravity, and Superstring Theory). This theory must unify the forces of the cosmos and forces of microcosm so that it can explain the grand plan of God in the creation of heaven and earth. The author describes quite a few interesting anecdotes in academic research: The first experimental evidence in support of Einstein's theory of relativity contained errors that were as great as the effect they were trying to measure. In 1920s it was supposed that there were only three men who understood theory of relativity and now thousands of graduate students and many millions are familiar with this theory: Many readers should be encouraged at this. When the author presented his theory that black hole radiates like a hot body, many repudiated his assertion and later accepted it. Max Born, a Nobel Laureate in 1928 told a group that physics research will end in six months, when Dirac published equations for an electron, in the anticipation that the whole of physics problems are solved. This should remind all of us how far the science and mankind has progressed despite this prediction. Newton, one of the greatest scientists of this planet also had a streak of meanness in him. Einstein's honesty as a scientist could be found when he admitted that his universal constant to account for a static universe is a mistake, but he was also less willing to accept quantum mechanics; this is known by his well known comment that "God does not play dice." Hawking having a bet with Kip Thorne over the existence of black holes in Cygnus X-1 for Penthouse magazine to Private Eye magazine shows the fun side of academic rivalry. This is one of the very few books I have read that discusses God's role at the level of quantum mechanics. The reader should feel lucky to have such a book for his/her personal library.

Rating:
Summary: It Will Change the Way You Look at the Universe!
Review: Stephen Hawking is an established scientific genius, but this book establishes him as a brilliant writer - an extremely rare, yet valuable combination. A point he brings to attention is that it had been possible for the philosophers of ancient times to master practically all the knowledge of academia. Today, however, only a handful of extremely specialized scientists understand the latest ideas in their fields. While men of ancient times could easily understand the latest scientific ideas, people today are lost. Enter "A Brief History of Time." This book helps fill in that gap between an average person's understanding and the highly specialized scientists' knowledge.

This book covers ideas that are profound and affect everyone. It explains theories that concern the creation of the universe, time travel, light-speed travel, and many more topics. Imagine actually having some grasp of Einstein's general relativity. Ever heard of string theory? How might time travel actually be possible? What are these black holes of which I've heard? This book packs an incredible amount of information into its 248 pages, yet somehow is still easily read - this is the true marvel of this book.

The illustrated version is worth the extra money. It contains many updates and additions throughout the book by Hawking (including the time travel chapter!). Every (and I mean every) concept throughout the book is accompanied by at least one illustration - think about it: 240 color illustrations with only 248 pages!

Towards the middle of the book, some of the concepts get more complex (when he really gets into the details of sub-atomic particles). However, as a recent high school graduate, I can say with some level of certainty that the average person can understand 90% of this book - and those parts are the most interesting! It will change the way you look at the universe.

Rating:
Summary: New Old and Essential
Review: Stephen Hawking masterly presents a lucid exposition of the twentieth century science. The foundations of this science were cast before World War II in the works of Einstein, Heisenberg, Plank and Bohr, i.e. well before the age of computers, spacecraft explorations and chaos theory. Hawking skillfully builds on these old foundations in his books. Nevertheless puzzling observations pile in my e-mail from e-zines that report current space research. The galaxies and heavy elements found out at the outskirts of the accessible universe, the association of quasars with common galaxies and the heaviest stars seen dancing very close to each other, all these are only few examples of the increasing number of perplexing discoveries. The growing pile of poorly understood observations requires reconsideration of the old groundwork of modern science. Otherwise we will sink in swamps of paradoxes, complexities and misunderstandings that will soil every aspect of our life.

If you want to impress and confuse your friends and professors with some really new basic ideas and far reaching implications, then you should read also Eugene Savov's Theory of Interaction the Simplest Explanation of Everything. In this thrilling book a well argued and supported with many baffling observations new picture of the universe is drawn. The revealed astonishing picture will become more actual after each surprising discovery in the macro and micro cosmos.

I highly recommend these two books to everyone who wants to become a highbrow hero in college, university or on coffee table.

Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking Illustration of Our Universe
Review: Stephen Hawking brings black holes, multidimensional realities and what lie beyond our stratosphere to life in this beautiful photographic view of our universe and beyond. For both the lay person and the physicist alike, anyone who is interested in learning about what humankind has been trying to figure out about our cosmos for eons will love this book. Makes a great gift for anyone interested in our universe and beyond. Highly Recommended for its brilliance and images.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book - without the last chapter!
Review: Here is the last chapter by French author Maurice, Dr. Bucaille,

"The Bible, the Qu'ran and Science: The Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern Knowledge." This is available at amazon.

If you are lost by reading Carl Sagan or Hawking, read the answer in the above book. Most of the authors are like very good soccer player, they take the ball, maneuver very nice moves, people cheers.. but when it is time to score a goal, they shoot too wide. This book is no exception.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I have read Hawking's Brief History of Time and Black Holes and Baby Universes, in addition to Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe. I can easily say that, out of those and any conceptual physics book that I have read even a portion of, this is the easiest to read and offers the most knowledge. While I have read reviews, not only on Amazon but in numerous other sources, that say that this book is complicated, foolish, or even proves that a creator exists, it is/does none of these things. I, only from taking a single semester of High School level conceptual physics, was able to easily understand the novel. Also, regarding the foolishness, many who do not realize basic physics principles (such as inabsolute and imaginary time) might feel that this is somewhat silly and abstract. Finally, regarding creationism, Hawking only states that physics does not disprove religion. For instance, he states that while the big bang created time, it is still possible that a "God" created the universe at that time, and therefore does not take any stance on religion whatsoever.

Rating:
Summary: Cosmic Science Made Simple
Review: This is a well written book and follows a series of books by the author. So it is the product of a number of revisions and refinements - all which give us some sense of clarity. The advantage in a book from Hawking is that he can weigh the significance of different theories and observations, distil the concepts to something manageable, and try and present these in proper context in a coherent form - understandable to the rest of us mere mortals in cartoon like descriptions.

Science books by definition are the views of the author - as of the day and time that the manuscript is finally is mailed to the publisher. But the field is moving at a rapid rate due to technological advances in sensors and data processing, so the book will date quickly. These new tools along with better trained scientists have given us better eyes and ears and techniques to see greater distances into the universe, and hence to see farther back in time. There are new discoveries reported almost daily. Good science - as described in the book - just reports the facts as they are observed and then tries to fit the observations to mathematical models and prior observed ideas such as quantum theory. There is no religious or mystical ideas involved - just regular physics and mathematics but at a high level of sophistication. Hawking simplifies the otherwise incoherent jungle of ideas and torrent of scientific publications and conferences so we can understand the essence and main points.

Many basic ideas have yet to be resolved. Some examples are inflation as opposed to an oscillating universe, string theory, and parallel universes all still unsolved puzzles. Also, it is not clear at the present time if we have even yet identified all the basic particles and forces that make up nature.

Having said that this book gives a very up to date picture of where we are as of today. It is an informed summary of what we know about the origin of the universe and some of the stunning cosmic processes - but just as we know it at the present moment. Read this book and stay tuned for new developments. The concept such as how we view time itself is actually a subject that might change, as is our understanding of the basis of quantum theory.

Jack in Toronto