A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (1988)

A Brief History of Time strives to questions like "where did the universe come from?" and "how will it end?". Hawking uses two theories to communicate how scientists answer these questions; general relativity and quantum mechanics. The book starts with a history of physics, Newton, Einstein, and all that jazz. Then it goes into how the universe is expanding. After that, Hawking tells about the idea that we could understand the universe's future as long as we knew everything about it at any time during the past or present. He also talks about how that theory was debunked, by quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle. Next, it delves into the quark, the smallest known bits in the universe that are thought to make up everything. Then, we learn what happens when a star's fuel supply dries up. Moreover, the book covers the origin and fate of our universe. Lastly, Hawking talks about his three types of time theory and time travel. I absolutely loved this book. It made me think about how little I actually understood about, well, everything! Even though it made me a little confused sometimes, it taught me so much. I especially liked learning about quarks and time travel. It was very well written, also. In addition, I liked learning about the origin of the universe. This book just helps prove that Stephen Hawking was a genius. ( )

Blew my mind. ( )

As a fairly frequent reader of popular science, I've heard some of the stuff in A Brief History of Time described better elsewhere (particularly string theory), but how could you not want to spend some time in the company of one of the finest intellects of our time? Hawking was (and still is) a pioneer of some of the discoveries unpacked here, and he brings us into his thought process and how he came to make these deductions. This makes it different from many other popular science books, but it is also thrilling in itself.

Some of the deductions made in astronomy are awe-inspiring – just think how impressive an intellect an ancient Greek or Renaissance man must be to overcome the myths of his time and understand the complexities of planetary orbits, just from looking through a telescope and doing some maths, let alone a modern astrophysicist conceptualizing black holes, spacetime and string theory. It makes you proud of mankind (even if your brain throbs trying to understand it) that 'we' are discovering this stuff (to this very day, with things like the Higgs boson and gravitational waves). It is exploration not physical, but with pure thought. If you want to map a coastline, you sail along it. If you discover an island, you have to stumble across it. But space doesn't allow that physical contact. This is something else – something even more impressive. It is a fine testament to the logical capabilities of the human mind. ( )

If this was for the layman, then I'm the idiot.
Wow this book made me feel stupid. ( )

Hawking is brilliant. He makes complex topics seem easy and fun. ( )