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Summary: The Forefront of Theoretical Physics Told for Laypersons
Review: Stephen Hawking occupies the Lucasian chair at the University of Cambridge, which was once held by Isaac Newton before its motorization as Hawking writes humorously. Hawking is also regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Albert Einstein. His previous book, "A Brief History of Time," was sold an estimated 25 million copies world over, but was notorious for mostly not being read beyond the earliest chapters. "The Universe in a Nutshell" is a sequel to it, including many illustrations and telling in a more readable style about the major breakthroughs that have occurred in the field of theoretical physics after the release of the first book.The author writes in the foreword that the structure of the book is like a tree, the first two chapters forming a central trunk from which the other chapters branch off. Thus, after reading two introductory chapters on the theory of relativity and "the shape of time," the reader can jump to any of later five chapters on the development of the universe, black holes, the possibility or impossibility of time travel, our future, and the future journey of discovery. Many scientists tried to avoid addressing a question about the beginning of the universe. In chapter 3, however, Hawking states the necessity of trying to understand it on the basis of science for the following reason: If the laws of science are suspended at the beginning of the universe, they might fail also at other times. The universe is considered to have begun in a big bang, a point where the whole universe was scrunched up into a single point of infinite density. At this point Einstein's general theory of relativity cannot be used, because when the universe is small the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics is important. Therefore, we need a "quantum theory of gravity," a unified theory of the general theory of relativity and the quantum mechanics, and this is the main subject of the book. Hawking's own approach to the unified theory is to combine the general theory of relativity and Richard Feynman's idea of multiple histories. Many related concepts and theories, for example, holography, duality, p-branes, M-theory and superstring theory, are explained. Only in chapter 6, the story is rather close to our life, and here the author describes also excitingly how biological and electronic life will go on developing in complexity at an ever-increasing rate. I highly recommend this book to laypersons. They will possibly get only a feeling of understanding, not understanding itself; but the book surely opens their eyes more or less about the principles of the universe already found and those on the way to be found. Physical scientists outside Hawking's field might get some frustrations, because advanced concepts at the forefront of research are not conveyed well enough by the everyday language without the aid of the mathematical language suitable for physics.
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Summary: Stephen Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell
Review: To understand Stephen Hawking's books, it helps to know what translating from quantitative to verbal language and back does for Creative Geniuses and what it can do for most people. It awakes and stimulates associations in the brain or mind to vast worlds of knowledge of both quantitative and verbal type, and this results in new ideas and new combinations of ideas. Start with an open mind and tolerance and with the understanding that Creative Geniuses tend to be more concerned with the Spirit of the Law than with the Letter of the Law. Try to look into the Spirit of what Hawking writes. If there are words that confuse you, write them down and look up their definitions - the internet is an excellent place to search for definitions. Make flash cards and alphabetize them by the first letter or first two letters of the definition, thus organizing the words and enabling you to find words about the same topic rapidly. Don't just make index cards on one side - put about one or two lines of ordinary handwriting or typing on front and about one or two lines on the back, so that you have to guess the second half of the definition or theory or theorem or axiom or example from looking at the first half. When you've done that, think about this. People don't become parents only in order to help their children. They also become parents to help themselves out of loneliness, to learn more about the world. You'll find that out if you become a parent. Stephen Hawking writes not just because it inspires you the reader, but because it inspires him to translate from mathematics and physics into English. It's not always a perfect translation. But you'll find that Hawking always chooses the latest topics in physics, because his popular books are a way of continuing his research which constitutes his Way of Life. If you just concentrate on the word *brane* or *p-brane* in the index of his book, and look that up on the internet and try to understand as much as you can about it in Hawking, you'll be close to one of the latest and most important fields of research in all of science. The secret is not in Hawking's pictures, but in Knowledge. If you think Knowledge is difficult, try Ignorance - it just leads to anger and violence.
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Summary: Daren M. Williams must be one of those "Book Burners"
Review: This book was entertaining however not entirely enlightening. There is no question in my mind that Stephen Hawking knows what he is talking about because he has the mathematical and physical intuition to understand the intricacies of cosmology to back up the bizzarre images he writes of in his book, however most people reading his book do not. This poses a problem because there is a vast gulf between the mathematical reality of the universe and human intuition and there is no way the material hawking is presenting can ever be totally understood without math. Sorry to have to say this, but Hawking's book only creates more confusion than there already is about the universe and people like mister williams (an earlier reviewer) are examples of what happens when you write about cosmology for the masses.
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Summary: Important science, insipid writing
Review: 'The Universe in a Nutshell' is an attempt to present the current thinking about the nature and origins of the universe in a more illustrative, easy-to-read format than in 'A Brief History of Time'. It also updates the earlier work with some of the latest research in cosmology and theoretical physics. The strength of the book lies in the bizarre, but eye-catching illustrations, which provide a viable alternate pathway for the reader. However, for a lay reader, the conclusion at the end of the book is inescapable. Modern theoretical physics is embedded so deeply in mathematical models and equations that it is a herculean task to convert these into a narrative that can be related to our commonsense experience. Consider that the chapter on 'the shape of time' expounds glibly on the history of the universe in 'imaginary time' (imaginary numbers are multiples of real numbers with i, the square root of -1, which doesn't exist, and is thus a pure mathematical construct). Or that the universe we live in may be equivalent to an 11-dimensional 'brane', in which electromagnetic forces are confined to the four dimensions of common observation but gravitational waves fly across the higher dimensions. Since the mathematical basis for these ideas is not presented (and indeed they would be impossible for a lay reader to understand), the reader has to take a series of leaps of faith and accept what is stated at face value. This is not a science book where a conclusion can be logically drawn from the previous ones. In this sense, it doesn't stimulate. What compounds this difficulty is that Hawking scores only 4 out of 10 for lucidity. There is the occasional wry humour (which is appreciated), but Hawking does not have the knack of coming down to the level of the lay reader and connecting with him/her. Anecdotes and thought experiments could have been more extensively and effectively used to translate the theory into the realm of physical experience. Very little of the sense of excitement that present-day cosmologists (and Hawking as well) feel at being close to a 'Theory of Everything' is communicated to the reader. Also, Hawking has in the main presented his own ideas with only token mentions of the work of some of his peers. I felt the omission of recent speculations on and conclusions from 'dark energy' to be a major gap in the book. 'The Universe in a Nutshell' is a laudable attempt to briefly communicate the cutting-edge ideas in cosmology without producing a formidable tome. The communication itself, however, is only partially effective.
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Summary: Actually 4 and a half stars
Review: This is a well written book on a very difficult subject. Hawking has a very engaging style and is very funny at times. Unlike a previous reviewer, I thought the pictures added a great deal. Sometimes the captions for them didn't explain much. Its also difficult to express in a picture multidimensional branes. I liked how he explained relativity and quantum mechanics, but honestly if you've read Brian Greene then Hawking's treatment is more of the same. I think his main theme is to keep an open mind to all these potential theories (not including the Big Bang which the scientific community has shown its validity experimentally over and over again) and to give an overview of each of them. He gives a brief bibliography, spliting it up into technical and non-technical books. I would recomend this to anyone interested in the universe and the research about the universe. If you come with a closed mind then don't waste your time.
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Summary: I must agree with certain others!
Review: I must agree with Sage Rafferty and Jason Goodman! Why couldn't Mr. Hawking do something useful with his life? He talks about black holes and dimensional arrays of the universe as well as other rubbish. It's like saying the world is round, when anyone who goes outside can see that it's pretty darned flat! Instead of talking about stupid things like his theories on the universe, he should have been talking about irrefutable, concrete facts such as things from the Bible! We people of the Christian faith know that everything in the Bible is true beyond question, and he should have blindly followed in its footsteps with something called faith!
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Summary: Chinese Version of "The Universe in a Nutshell"
Review: I got a Chinese Version of this, its' less expensive and contained the same things and printed in same quantity.
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Summary: The Universe in a Nutshell
Review: For those who are curious about where the universe came from and where it may be going, here is your chance to dwell for a time with a person whose name likely will be known far beyond the temporary celebrities of today. Stephen Hawking's new book "The Universe in a Nutshell" takes a paraphrased quote from Shakespeare and weaves it into a tale of what we know and what we speculate about our home the universe. In 7 chapters spanning 200 pages, he takes us on an enthralling journey through strange geometries and twisted time paths to probable universes. NO intimdating math in this book, just lots of new ideas: be prepared to have your shortest-distance-between-two-points-is-a-straight-line mind bent by Professor Hawking. Buy the book, share it with your friends and family, discuss it and look at some of the "Suggested Reading" in the back of "The Universe in a Nustshell".
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Summary: Simplified to the point of frustration.
Review: I don't see the advantage of simplifying what are necessarily complicated concepts so that the "layperson" can understand them. Throughout the book, I felt like I was barely scratching the surface, and it was only because of my previous readings (Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe does a much better job, and its depth is completely accessible) that I actually understood what Hawking was referring to. The illustrations are horrible, and utterly worthless. Strictly eye-candy, at best, and counter-intuitive and obfuscating at worst. I've never seen a poorer example of information design. Three stars, because in the end, it IS Stephen Hawking. His humorous remarks are worth the price of the book I think.
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Summary: One Picture Equals One Thousand Words
Review: An aphorism which sums up Professor Hawking's effort on this book. Abstract concepts are hard enough to grasp with an adequate description, even harder when staring at the symbolic representation. The visual medium is the linchpin of those connections. Some of the inserted humor seemed awkward and forced. The real amusement was more subtle. The universe in a nutshell of "ten or eleven" dimensions. I suppose that after making the leap from three to four dimensions, what is another dimension, "all curled up", more or less?
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