The Illustrated Brief History of Time, Updated and Expanded Edition
 | Bantam, 1996, Hardcover Customer Rating: 355 reviews Recommend |
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In the years since its publication in 1988, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time has established itself as a landmark volume in scientific
writing. It has also become an international publishing phenomenon, translated into forty languages and selling over nine million copies.
The book was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the nature of the universe, but since then there have been extraordinary advances in the
technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmic world. These observations have confirmed many of Professor Hawking's theoretical predictions
in the first edition of his book, including the recent discoveries of the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE), which probed back in time to within 300,000 years of the universe's beginning and revealed the wrinkles in the fabric of space-time that he had projected.
Eager to bring to his original text the new knowledge revealed by these many observations, as well as his most recent research, for this revised and expanded edition Hawking has prepared a new introduction to the book, revised and updated the original chapters throughout, and written an entirely new chapter on the fascinating subject of wormholes and time travel.
In addition, to heighten understanding of complex concepts that readers may have found difficult to grasp despite the clarity and wit of Hawking's writing, this edition is magnificently enhanced throughout with more than 240 full-color illustrations, including satellite images, photographs made possible by spectacular new technological advances such as the Hubble telescope, and computer- generated images of three- and four-dimensional realities. Detailed captions clarify these illustrations, enabling readers to experience the vastness of intergalactic space, the nature of black holes, and the microcosmic world of
particle physics in which matter and antimatter collide.
A classic work that now brings to the reader the latest understanding of cosmology, The Illustrated A Brief History of Time is the story of the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space.
Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." — Therese Littleton
Title: The Illustrated Brief History of Time, Updated and Expanded Edition
Sales Rank: 31545 in Books
Author: Stephen William Hawking
Publisher: Bantam, Upd Sub edition, 1996, Hardcover, 248 pages, ISBN: 0553103741
Package Dimensions: 10.23 x 7.86 x 0.94 inches, 1.9 pounds
- Great book
- Very informative and fun to read. Gets a little hard to understand at times because what Hawking is trying to explain is not trivial at all, but he does a great job at explaining it. More reviews
- Great Book
- This book provides an excellent description of the history of physics and the current status of physics. Hawking is quite good at making extremely complicated subjects (such as quantum theory) comprehensible for the average person, although some topics could have been explained a bit better. It is also quite interesting to be reading it from Hawking's perspective because he adds a personal touch to the subject… More reviews
- Easily readable and incredibly enjoyable
- This is a popular science classic that cannot be left outside any general astronomy/physics bookshelf.
Dr. Hawking explains, with the mastery of an able writer, the history and structure of the known universe, non-euclidean geometry, the laws of the small and of the large, the laws and fate of stars, black holes and singularities, and the very matter… More reviews
- Transport yourself into possibility.
- This book absolutely recreates the wonder I felt looking at the stars as a child. Stephen Hawking has a knack like no other I have read in the science world of transporting the reader to a realm of humbling amazement and possibility. Pure genius bubbling over with dry humor that will never fail to raise a smile as your senses burn with curiosity for our… More reviews
- Highly recommended to everybody interested in Astronomy and Nuclear Physics
- Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest contemporary physicists explores in a very interesting and informative way the unresolved riddles about the universe and the structure of particles, energy, time, gravity, various forces in the universe, god and their relationship with one another. His approach is both scientific and philosophical raising questions about the meaning of human existence… More reviews
