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Summary: It's a good way to make money! Write a book like this!!!
Review: ...I like this book! I thing it is just a PRETTY BOOK to add to your library shelves or to place it on your coffee table to show that (yes I got this book!) which is highly publitized, and it is in your face whenever you log to any book selling websites or in every major bookstore. A brief history of time is definitly a better book to read and Mr. Hawking shoud stick to that type of science and writing . I'd describe this book as fancy magazine you'd look at the pictures and you'd read some interesting titles or few paragraghes- waiting in doctor's office and when your name is called you'd just put it down and forget about it...
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Summary: When Hawking Speaks...
Review: This book is ostensibly a continuation of the landmark work "A Brief History Of Time", but I took it to be more of a recap. When the former was written, Hawkings felt that the formulation of the Universal Theory Of Everything was right around the corner, just waiting to be discovered. He seems to have shifted his view on this matter to a more conservative position.With the concepts and implications of Relativity, Quantum and String Theories, among others laying such an important foundation for today's world view, it is helpful to hear these ideas revisited with Hawking's patent clarity. (My theory is that it's his own complete understanding of the subject that allows him to communicate with the layman). New concepts are introduced here, the ball is moved a bit forward, and some interesting conjectures on the metaphysical implications of modern physics are bandied about. The nice thing is that someone with Hawking's credentials can afford to talk like this without getting hounded out of his profession.
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Summary: less than it promises, but damn good looking
Review: The number of books trying to explain science to the "layman" has simply exploded in the last few years. But Professor Stephen Hawking, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, remains the biggest star in this field. His first book "a brief history of time" sold over a million copies and by all accounts, the current effort is not doing too badly either. But professor Hawking is well aware that far too many readers never made it beyond the first few pages of "a brief history of time", so he set out to write "a different kind of book that might be easier to understand." Unfortunately he has failed to follow Einstein's advice that "things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler". "The universe in a nutshell" is beautifully produced and very easy to read, but breaks very little new ground and fails to convey anything more than a "take it on faith" explanation of what physicists think of the cosmos.
The first two chapters introduce relativity and the problems of reconciling general relativity with quantum mechanics. The illustrations are some of the best you will ever see in a science book, but there is almost no attempt to try and explain the reasoning that led Einstein to his revolutionary results. These chapters provide a kind of general introduction to the subject and are followed by a series of freestanding essays on various aspects of modern cosmology. The discerning reader will come away with some vague understanding that modern physics has rejected the common sense views of time and space, that general relativity and quantum effects somehow need to be reconciled, that there is something very important called the "uncertainty principle" (even though its not as uncertain as you thought, God may not know the position and the momentum of a particle to perfection, but he DOES know the wave function!), black holes exist, naked singularities probably do not, and it might all come down to strings that vibrate in ten or eleven dimensions (but we cant really know for sure till we build a particle accelerator larger than the solar system).
The penultimate chapter has some interesting speculation about how life and intelligence may evolve in the future and the final chapter gives a very light introduction to M theory, which seems to be professor Hawking's current favorite candidate for a possible "theory of everything": one grand framework to explain the known universe, from big bang to big crunch and everything in between (though, like Robert Frost, physicists are still unsure if it will end in fire or in ice). Along the way, he tells us several times that he is a positivist, which means he really cant say what all this "means" except that it is a mathematical model that fits observations and makes predictions that work. But this philosophical reticence seems at odds with a persistent hopefulness that the full explanation is around the corner. Why should we expect any such total understanding in the near future? Is it not more likely that in science (as in theology), we have only just begun? That our descendants may well see what we cannot even begin to imagine? And their descendants even further? The physicist Freeman Dyson has said:
"As a scientist, I live in a universe of overwhelming size and mystery. The mysteries of life and language, good and evil, chance and necessity, and of our own existence as conscious beings in an impersonal cosmos are even greater than the mysteries of physics and astronomy. Behind the mysteries that we can name, there are deeper mysteries that we have not even begun to explore". This awareness seems somehow missing in professor Hawking's book (one hesitates to think that it is missing from professor Hawking himself!). Ultimately, this is a coffee table book. Humorous, light, and full of pictures. It will be very nice to have around the house, but it is not detailed enough to actually teach you anything original and yet is too complicated for many scientific illiterates to follow. It will serve as a good introduction (or as a good source of party conversation) but it should lead the reader to other books that do a better job of actually explaining the physics, not to speak of trying to explain mysteries that go much deeper than mere physics.
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Summary: The Universe in a Nutshell
Review: The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking is a ponderence of thought on a subject of theoretical physicis for the layperson. Now that may be conceived as a dichotomy, but in reality is relative. This book unravels some of the mystery of the universe and brings together some rather abstract thought about how to explain the principles that control our universe. P-Brane, 11-Dimensional Supergravity, M-Theory, Quantum Mechanics, General Relativity, 10-Dimensional Membranes, Superstrings, and Black Holes all work toward a grand albeit an elusive Theory of Everything. Hawking explains the major breakthroughs that have occured in the years since his last book "A Brief History of Time." We see Hawking's playful intellect working to reveal this abstract thought through this book. He takes us on a wild ride to the outreaches of the scientific frontier as he imparts his explaination of why things are as they are. Only a teacher with a love for his subject could bring someting as charming and lucid with clarity and wit to Theoretical Physics. There are a bevy of illustrations to further bring us clarity of these abstract ideas... complex propositions most, if not all of us, would never imagine, but are beautifully presented. I found reading this book to most educational bringing out Hawking's infectious intellect and natural teaching ability. The subject can be daunting but in the hands of master a pupil can understand the most complex theories. Sprinkle in a easy going narative with a little humor... you begin to learn and understand. I highly recommed reading this book.
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Summary: Probably the most intellectual coffee table book of all time
Review: Really just an updated illustrated brief history of time. The first wasn't a very thick book. This would be even thinner, except for the very nice illustrations. Nice, but you won't be missing much if you don't buy it
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Summary: Way over my head, but interesting.
Review: Before you read this book, you should at least have a basic understanding of physics. He talks about a lot of technical stuff that is over my head, but what I did understand in the book was fasciniating. The graphics and illustrations are great and he writes in a way that is easy to understand, assuming you know your physics. If you are big into theoritical physics, you won't want to miss this one.
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Summary: Difficult concepts beautifully explained
Review: If you have any interest at all in the nature of the universe, this is a book worth owning. The concepts are very difficult to understand, but Stephen Hawking does a wonderful job of explaining them and even gives us a bit of humor now and then. The illustrations help a lot. Don't try to read this book cover-to-cover--your brain will explode. Take it in small doses and take time to think about what you've read. I keep it in the bathroom where I can read a little bit and then quietly contemplate why time is pear-shaped. This book is a gem and I will have it in my library forever.
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Summary: Physicist vs. Teacher
Review: Stephen Hawking attempts to answer, for the second time, the question "can the world's most brilliant physicist explain the most complex issues of physics to the average layperson?" The answer is, once again, "well...sort of". I must immediately separate my criticism of the book from any perceived criticism of the man. Dr. Hawking's intellect is immense, and his accomplishments are all the more astonishing considering his physical impairment. However, expertise in a given area does not automatically confer the status of "great teacher". In fact, it is not uncommon for world class experts to be less than world class in the art of teaching and explaining their areas of expertise. Alas, this is my summation of Dr. Hawking's latest effort. I thought for some time that any book on such a difficult subject must of necessity consist of significant compromises; mere mortals cannot hope to understand cutting edge physics. I thought this until I read "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene (Random House 1999). Dr. Greene's intellect no doubt cannot compare to Dr. Hawking's, however he has an uncanny ability to teach and explain the most difficult subjects. With an absolute minimum amount of illustration, he anticipates the reader's questions and offers a clear and concise explanation. Dr. Hawking's tome, on the other hand, covers much the same material but is much less accessible. The book reads like a "USA Today", with annoying explanatory vignettes and illustrations on almost every page, making for a very disjointed reading. One can almost hear the publisher saying " Steve - baby - they crucified us when the first book had no illustrations. We need to punch this one up with color charts and graphs!". And punch it up they did - ad nauseum. The resulting book is, in many respects, a triumph of form over substance. Do not misunderstand: Stephen Hawking is a very good teacher, he is simply far from the best. His efforts, I might suggest, would benefit immensely by a change of editors. Do I recommend this book? Absolutely! We live in wonderful times when, for a few dollars, we can gain access to one of the most brilliant intellects of our time. I will gladly buy anything Stephen Hawking writes and consider myself priviledged to do so.
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Summary: Only great things to say!
Review: This book was excellently written, and Dr. Hawking's great sense of humour pervades every chapter. For those reviewers who complain that the book doesn't give all the answers, I say duhh. No one knows them all. The purpose of the book is simply to give the current state of different cosmological theories and their logical extensions. It does that very well. This book was excellent.
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Summary: I would have given it more stars if I was smarter
Review: Stephen Hawking may be the smartest person alive on the planet. Even better, he can explain the tremendous concepts of "life, the universe, and everything" in a way that everyday people (well, at least intelligent, literate, educated everyday people) can understand. This book is profusely illustrated, beautifully produced, very well written, and highly informative with respect to the state of the art in how the universe works. On the other hand, it's dense, by which I mean there's so much information that this is not a casual read. If you have the time and the attention span, this book is worth your while.
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